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What do Italians love the most? Garlic! Garlic anywhere! Garlic on pasta, on meat, on rice, on stews, even on cakes!!! This is the idea that people abroad have of us!  

When I watch TV and see foreign people cooking Italian food, always according to the very traditional recipe of their mythic friend or relative or neighbour, they are really loaded with garlic, because Italians love it. Goodness…..NO! We use just a few garlic! Garlic must be used in a larger quantity (which means 1-2 cloves, not 10 cloves) just in a small lot of recipes.   

We don’t have any problem with vampires or similar creatures. We don’t need a wide usage of garlic to prevent them from sucking our blood.   

Garlic, in Italian recipes, is supposed to give an aroma useful to enhance the flavor of the other ingredients, it mustn’t cover it! And it’s not part of every single dish!  

Also Nigella and Buddy the cake boss fill any Italian dish with garlic galore! I love Nigella and I have a lot of her books, but I think the quantity of garlic she uses in Italian recipes is really supersized!!  

It’s a diffused commonplace but it doesn’t correspond to reality.  I don’t know where it comes from. If you have any idea, please tell me! 

I must tell you that we really laugh a lot when we see tv shows where you notice the checkered tablecloth (other commonplace) where the cook spreads garlic anywhere!   

I tell you another secret, but don’t tell anyone! Most of us don’t even have a checkered tablecloth! Even in restaurants! 🙂 🙂

Note: Obviously my posts haven’t any intention of offending anybody or of criticizing the goodness, quality and tastes of any dish or recipe. What I write is just a personal consideration concerning the adherence of recipes to the Italian ones, considering local habits, usages and traditions. The mood of the blog can be ironic and sometimes sarcastic, but with no aim of disappointing anybody. If somebody feels offended or struck by my words, please don’t. Moreover feel free to write me and explain your point of view (public channels like this blog are best welcome). It would be a pleasure for me. My intention is a constructive and sincere exchange of opinions.