For a country so obsessed with culinary tradition, it’s actually quite hard to pinpoint the origins of many Italian dishes. Most are steeped in myth and legend, with colourful tales favoured over what is probably the truth. It’s no surprise – Italians are natural storytellers, and you can forgive the odd embellishment for the sake of bringing a dish to life through its history.
Many of Italy’s most historic dishes involve its greatest culinary gift to the world – pasta. International chefs and cooks are lambasted by Italians for changing their beloved traditional recipes into something completely different, but many of these dishes have evolved over the years within the country too. Just think – tomatoes were only introduced to Italy in the 1800s; before this, pasta sauces contained no tomato at all.
It would take a whole series of thick encyclopaedias to properly chart the history of every Italian pasta dish out there, so instead we’ve looked into the backstory behind five of the country’s most famous recipes. Read on for an introduction to family favourites such as lasagne and carbonara and how they got their names.