🧠 Italian Food Quiz

The word 'lasagne' is actually the plural of 'lasagna' — in Italian, it refers to the pasta sheets themselves, not the finished dish.

Naples is so proud of its pizza heritage that Neapolitan pizza-making was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017.

Gelato contains less fat than traditional ice cream because it uses more milk than cream, and is churned more slowly to incorporate less air, giving it that famously dense, intense flavour.

Guanciale, made from cured pork cheek or jowl, has a richer, fattier flavour than pancetta and is considered essential to an authentic Roman carbonara — substituting bacon is considered a cardinal sin in Rome!

Carpaccio was invented in 1950 at Harry's Bar in Venice by Giuseppe Cipriani, who named it after the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, whose vivid use of red and white colours reminded him of the dish.

Parmigiano-Reggiano takes its name from the cities of Parma and Reggio Emilia, both in Emilia-Romagna — and its production is so strictly regulated that it can only be made in that specific area of Italy.

'Al dente' literally means 'to the tooth' in Italian — the idea being that perfectly cooked pasta should offer just a little resistance when you bite into it.

Pasta con le sarde is traditionally made with bucatini or perciatelli, and its sweet-savoury combination of raisins and sardines reflects the Arab influence on Sicilian cuisine from the 9th and 10th centuries.

Colonnata sits in the heart of the famous Carrara marble-quarrying area, and the same white marble used for Michelangelo's sculptures is carved into the basins — called conche — used to cure the lardo.

Pastiera Napoletana is so beloved in Naples that King Ferdinand II of Bourbon reportedly said it made his famously stern wife Queen Maria Teresa smile for the first time — earning it the nickname 'the cake that made the queen smile'.