The worst crimes against Italian food, according to Italians

33 comments
  1. Putting pasta in cold water then boiling it? That goes beyond acceptability and moves into the space of not making sense

  2. At least we Germans put salt in the water….

    I once put cheese on a pasta meal with mushrooms and the Italians around me told me that this is also a big no go in Italy.

  3. EU doing everything they can do avoid a war in Ukraine whilst the Danes are antagonising the Italians by murdering their cuisine.

  4. Surprised how many Poles think that you need to put oil in the water… This doesn’t make any sense. Why would someone do that? For what purpose?

    Or how many Poles think that cooling off pasta is okay. Anyone who likes to eat cold pasta is a psychopath and is a danger to the society.

  5. Phew, I am not doing anything listed as “Unacceptable to Italians”. But I’m certain that’s just on a technicality: I don’t use a knife to cut my Spaghetti, I use scissors. Also, why did they ask Italians about their take on pineapple pizza, but not on BBQ sauce, Curry sauce or Hollandaise sauce? I’m not so sure whether they would approve of the BBQ sauce I put below my salami? Also, for salami pizza: salami on cheese or cheese on salami?

  6. People who put ketchup on pasta should switch to concentrated tomato paste; I feel like that would be more acceptable.

  7. So they finally bothered to ask Denmark and just not assume people in the other Nordic countries are just like Sweden. And as a, thank you, Denmark responded almost exactly the same as Sweden.

  8. I am surprised that Denmark is only at -12 for Not adding salt to water.

    We all know salt is a spice in Denmark.

  9. What I would be more interesting to hear other than hearing Italians say how things *should be done*, is how do they *actually do things.*

    How often do you “cheat” the rules?

    /Edit: And I don’t mean the retarded things such as putting pasta in cold water, rinsing it or not adding salt. More like, drinking Cappuccino whenever you feel like it.

  10. To me, as an Italian, the last five are totally unacceptable, the rest is more or less up to the single person

  11. *having ketchup with pasta: +79 in Hong Kong*
    Am I living in parallel Hong Kong? Never heard of people putting actual ketchup with pasta before in my whole life and I am a Cantonese local….

    But I did learnt “don’t drink cappuccino after morning” in a hard way though, by being laughed at by my Italian prof in Italy lol

  12. Most of Asia does not care what the Italians think, because what we get here is not Italian food, but a local interpretation of Italian cuisine.

    At least in India, any cuisine has to undergo massive modification to even make it palatable to the masses. One of the most popular foreign cuisine in India is Chinese. But it has been so bastardised that it is almost entirely unrecognisable to the Chinese. Indian Chinese cuisine has become its own thing and is loved by Indians.

    There is a similar thing happening with Pizza and Pasta. The more wide spread it becomes, the more it will be bastardised. To make matters worse, we were introduced to these dishes by the Americans. So, we are making a copy of a copy.

    All of this pizza talk is making me hungry for a schezwan paneer pizza, which is a bastard of a Indian, Chinese and Italian threesome.

  13. Pasta cooking method is simple: fill a pot with water, heat the water until it boils, add salt, pour pasta, cook for the indicated amount of time. In this order.

    Reason: when water boils, it stays at a constant temperature, because it is changing phase from liquid to gas. Heat transfer from liquid to pasta is “better” in this way.

    Bonus: you can add salt before heating up water, but in that case salt makes the water boil at a higher temperature, so it takes more time to boil.

    Personally, I add salt when it is already boiling not to waste time.

    Most of the time it is just us Italians bitching about food for whatever good or bad reason. These ones actually have scientific background

    Edit: thank you people for the feedback about the salt! maybe I was wrong when I noticed I saved some time.
    (The amount of time was very little, but whatever, i learned this topic in chemistry back in the day and i’ve always exploited it, not caring much about real computations, my bad).

  14. I admit it, I have done the cappuchino-after-the-meal thing just to tease Italian friends… In the evening! 😀

  15. I align with Italians on all things but one: I’m a cappuccino rebel and drink it whenever I want during weekends when I feel like treating myself haha

  16. Reminds me of a friend who lived in Italy and had to explain to visiting Irish relatives the dos and don’ts of Italian food. His sister said she wanted a cappuccino after her dinner. He explained that that wasn’t the done thing. She ordered one anyway:

    “Cappuccino please”

    “No, you can’t have a cappuccino, it’s too late.”

    “Excuse me, I’m the customer and I want a cappuccino!”

    Okay, well I’m the owner of this restaurant and I’m telling you you can’t have one!”

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