Before becoming one of the most familiar ingredients in European cuisine, the potato travelled from the Andes to the Old Continent.

Originally from South America, it reached Europe in the second half of the 16th century through the Spanish. At first it was regarded mainly as a botanical curiosity, only later becoming a central part of the European diet.

In Italy, between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the potato was also known as “tartuffolo”, probably because its tubers resembled truffles.

Mussels do not simply live in the water: they attach themselves firmly to their surroundings through extremely fine natural threads.

The Mediterranean mussel is a bivalve mollusc that lives in large communities and feeds by filtering seawater. To remain attached to rocks and other surfaces, it produces the byssus, a group of strong fibres that allows it to withstand currents.

At the end of the 18th century, the Gulf of Taranto saw the development of the suspended mussel-farming technique, a system that would later become one of the methods used in modern mussel cultivation.

With confit, heat does not overwhelm the tomato: it transforms it slowly, concentrating its aromas, sweetness and texture.

The tomatoes are cooked for a long time at low temperature, generally with oil, herbs and a small amount of sugar. During cooking they gradually lose some of their water, developing a softer texture and a more concentrated flavour.

The word confit comes from the French confire, meaning “to preserve”. The term originates from ancient preservation techniques and was later extended to the slow cooking of fruit and vegetables.

A firm stretched-curd cheese can completely change its texture when transformed into a smooth, flowing sauce.

Provolone belongs to the stretched-curd family of cheeses. During production, the curd is made elastic and mouldable, developing the characteristic structure associated with this longstanding cheesemaking tradition. Its flavour can range from sweeter notes to more pronounced ones depending on processing and ageing.

The name “provolone” developed as an augmentative of provola, a term associated with the large family of stretched-curd cheeses historically widespread especially in Southern Italy.

There is a small tomato that grows on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, where volcanic soil and strong temperature variations shape a fruit with intense and distinctive character.

The Piennolo del Vesuvio tomato is recognizable by its elongated oval shape with a pointed tip. Its skin is thick and firm, the flesh compact and highly aromatic. The flavor balances pronounced sweetness with a distinctive acidic finish, due to its high concentration of sugars and organic acids. The lava-rich soil, abundant in potassium and sulfur, gives the fruit its natural mineral savoriness and vibrant deep red color.

Its introduction to Campania dates back to 1759, when the Viceroy of Peru presented it to King Ferdinand IV of Naples at his coronation. Planted on the slopes of Vesuvius, it adapted perfectly to the environment and developed the qualities that today make it one of Italy’s gastronomic excellences. In 2009 it received DOP status, guaranteeing its authenticity.

The name “piennolo” comes from the traditional practice of tying the tomato clusters into hanging bunches. According to legend, the custom began with fishermen’s wives who, accustomed to weaving fishing nets, started intertwining tomato branches as well.

Guanciale comes from the pig’s cheek, a cut in which fat and lean meat create a structure quite different from pancetta.

The curing process involves salting and ageing, during which the guanciale develops texture, aroma and intensity. In Amatriciana, the fat released during cooking becomes an integral part of the sauce.

The specification for traditional Amatriciana requires guanciale made from the pig’s cheek, trimmed into its characteristic triangular shape and aged for at least 30 days after salting.

Its name carries a history stretching back thousands of years, but today the production area of Pecorino Romano DOP extends well beyond Lazio.

Made from whole sheep’s milk, Pecorino Romano DOP is a hard cheese with an aromatic, savoury flavour that becomes progressively more intense with ageing. Its production follows strict specifications governing the origin of the milk, processing and maturation.

Despite its name, Pecorino Romano DOP can be produced in Lazio, Sardinia and the province of Grosseto in Tuscany, the areas established by its production specification.

Porcini grow in woodland in symbiosis with trees, linking their life cycle to the trees’ roots.

Among the most prized mushrooms in Italian cuisine, Boletus edulis grows mainly in woodland and is recognisable by its fleshy cap, robust stem and firm white flesh. Its aroma and texture make it suitable for intense cooking methods such as roasting, as well as for drying.

There are no gills underneath a porcino cap: its underside is formed by a dense network of tiny tubes ending in small pores.

Behind just a few strands of saffron lies painstaking work: the spice is obtained exclusively from the flower’s stigmas.

Saffron comes from Crocus sativus, a small purple flower containing three red-orange stigmas. These are collected and dried to produce the spice, giving dishes its characteristic aroma and intense yellow colour.

Each flower produces only three stigmas, and harvesting them requires extremely careful work: this concentration of raw material and craftsmanship helps make saffron one of the world’s most precious spices.

The blue-green pattern of Gorgonzola is more than a visual feature: it develops as the cheese matures.

Gorgonzola DOP is a blue cheese made with whole pasteurised cow’s milk, lactic cultures and selected moulds. During ageing, its characteristic veins develop through the creamy paste and help define its distinctive flavour.

After around three weeks, the wheels are pierced with large metal needles. Air enters the cheese and allows the cultures already present inside to develop, creating Gorgonzola’s characteristic blue-green veins.

The hazelnut is the seed of Corylus avellana, a plant that grows naturally across much of Europe and has been cultivated in Italy for centuries.

Protected first by a leafy husk and then by its characteristic shell, hazelnuts can be eaten fresh or dried. Roasting significantly transforms their aromatic profile, intensifying both fragrance and crunch. In Italy, hazelnut cultivation is particularly associated with areas such as Viterbo, Avellino and Mount Etna.

The botanical name Corylus avellana preserves a direct reference to Avella, an area in Campania historically associated with hazelnut cultivation and from which the Latin term avellana derives.

Mussels do not simply live in the water: they attach themselves firmly to their surroundings through extremely fine natural threads.

The Mediterranean mussel is a bivalve mollusc that lives in large communities and feeds by filtering seawater. To remain attached to rocks and other surfaces, it produces the byssus, a group of strong fibres that allows it to withstand currents.

At the end of the 18th century, the Gulf of Taranto saw the development of the suspended mussel-farming technique, a system that would later become one of the methods used in modern mussel cultivation.

With confit, heat does not overwhelm the tomato: it transforms it slowly, concentrating its aromas, sweetness and texture.

The tomatoes are cooked for a long time at low temperature, generally with oil, herbs and a small amount of sugar. During cooking they gradually lose some of their water, developing a softer texture and a more concentrated flavour.

The word confit comes from the French confire, meaning “to preserve”. The term originates from ancient preservation techniques and was later extended to the slow cooking of fruit and vegetables.

C’è un formaggio che da oltre otto secoli viene prodotto con gli stessi gesti, negli stessi luoghi, trasformando il latte in una delle espressioni più alte della cultura casearia italiana.

Il Parmigiano Reggiano DOP nasce nei monasteri benedettini e cistercensi della Pianura Padana nel Medioevo. È un formaggio completamente naturale, ottenuto da latte vaccino senza l’uso di additivi o conservanti. La lavorazione segue ancora oggi metodi tradizionali, con una lunga stagionatura che ne sviluppa struttura e complessità aromatica.

Nella versione da Vacche Rosse di Razza Reggiana, il latte presenta caratteristiche particolari che favoriscono una migliore resa e una maggiore predisposizione alla lunga stagionatura. Il risultato è un formaggio dalla grana elastica e fine, con un sapore dolce, persistente e armonico, anche oltre i 24 mesi.

La Razza Reggiana, dal tipico mantello rosso, era già presente nelle campagne emiliane nel Medioevo e il suo latte fu tra i primi utilizzati per produrre il Parmigiano Reggiano. In alcune rappresentazioni rinascimentali compare persino accanto alla Sacra Famiglia.

“Crusco” does not describe a pepper variety, but the texture it develops after drying and a very quick passage through hot oil.

A symbol of Lucanian cuisine, peperone crusco starts with thin-fleshed peppers that are dried and then immersed in oil for just a few seconds. This is what gives them their brittle, crunchy texture: in the local dialect, crusco means precisely “crisp”.

Before drying, the peppers are traditionally threaded together with needle and string to form long garlands known as serte, which are then hung in ventilated spaces.

The langoustine lives on the seabed and belongs to the same zoological family as the lobster.

Nephrops norvegicus is a decapod crustacean with an elongated body and characteristic large claws. It is found in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean and generally lives on muddy seabeds, sometimes at considerable depths.

The scientific name Nephrops comes from the Greek words for “kidney” and “eye”, referring to the distinctive kidney-like shape of the langoustine’s eyes.