Recreating That Authentic Taste At Home

Lolabelle

Lolabelle

Community Member
May 20, 2013
10
0
1
So I'm sure most of us are in love with Italian food, and for those of us who don't live in Italy we look forward to filling ourselves with it when we visit (I know I do anyway!) ;) . During those long spells in between trips though, I like to try and recreate our favorite meals - I'm a fairly average home cook but the results never have that...certain special something...that you experience when you dine in Italy. I use the best and most authentic ingredients I can find here but there's just something missing taste-wise. Could it be that there are special techniques that I don't know? It's always just a little bit disappointing. Have you had any success recreating Italian dishes at home?
 
Oh, I always try to cook a nice lasagna when I visit my family back home. I say try because I don't always get it right. It's good, but there's something missing.

Whenever I travel I usually go back home where I don't find any of the exact ingredients. The best example is the mozzarella cheese. Italian mozzarella cheese is so great, and even if you buy the cheapest you still can taste the authentic flavor. Back home, iuck! Not only it costs a lot but it's awful. I didn't believe it until I bought some myself. My sister warned me.... I didn't listen... what can you do?

This is why the recipes are not always 'perfect'. I buy the ingredients for lasagna, I don't carry them in my luggage with me.

Lolabelle, I get what you mean by that something missing taste-wise. It's not the techniques you use while cooking, it's the ingredients that are not actually Italian.
 
Ah, Rosie - I fear you may be right...I had never considered that a home-bought ingredient could be great quality yet not an authentic taste. This could lead to a) some rather expensive online ingredients shopping sprees or b) another trip to Italy to stock up! :rolleyes:
 
I'm Italian, and sometimes I go to the US or in central America for holidays, and sometimes it happen that people ask me to do a pasta or a pizza.

Well every time I've tried I've not been able to reproduce the same flavour I got in Italy, but in general people has been happy of the result :)
 
I think some dishes you can reproduce depending on the ingredients.

As others have said, other ingredients just loose that authentic taste and I'm not sure why.

Mozzarella is a really good example, when I purchased it back home it had very little taste. Here though, you can really enjoy the flavour even in the cheaper brands.
 
I always follow the recipes when cooking pasta. Otherwise, if all else fails, I would order spaghetti or fettuccine from restaurants that do home delivery. I do feel that there is limitation to what I can do at home, and if the recipe asks for things that I will not be able to find at the local market, I'd look for them anyways. Or I'd find replacements.
 
It's a bit hard to authentic "genuine" Italian food, especially if you've been to Italy before. It's mostly because they use different brands over in Italy (and Europe in general) but also because they don't allow use the use of GMO's or pesticides in the food over there. When I used strictly organic products when trying to make genuine Italian food, I got extremely close.
 
Top Bottom