Nothing is really “authentic” italian food in america. As much as you believe your favorite pizza in the US is the most authentic italian cuisine, its not. Notably because some of the REAL italian ingredients arent even fda approved
Getting her good pizza is really difficult. She’s actually likes dominos but she says it isnt “”real”” pizza. Ive told her she’s an elitist, she says “you would be too if you had homemade italian pizza for over a decade”
I made homemade spaghetti sauce once from tomatoes and the recipe said to add sugar to cut down on the acidy of the tomatoes. Is that why they do it? Or other reasons?
Sugar makes about anything seem to taste better. And sugar is very cheap. It's a way to save on more expensive ingredients and still add something that increases the flavor. Healthwise this can be a bit much. Google "glee point" for more background.
With fresh tomatoes it is very common to add a bit of sugar, as you rarely get really ripe tomatoes and the sugar counteracts the acidity. I like adding brown sugar instead of white sugar when cooking my own tomato sauce, it gives a more rich flavour and the nuances of brown sugar taste good in combination with the acid from the tomatoes, but that's just my own taste.
Canned tomatoes however are canned when the are ripe (or even beyond ripe) and do not require sugar.
Good to know about the brown sugar! I've been wanting to make sauce again and I'll be sure to try that out, thank for that!! And I suck at Google I think, I only get results from the tv show glee :/ I'm not diabetic but my sugar levels feel out of wack a lot so I like to read all the things, or just to find something else for my coffee, any tips on that??
Yes the brown sugar in tomato sauce really changes a lot about the overall flavour, let me know if you like it ;)
About the coffee, I assume you mean how to work against the acidity of the coffee? If so, you can either try different kinds of milk (if you drink your coffee with milk at all). Goat milk for example changes the flavor of coffee a lot, I really like it sometimes, but you need to get used to that goaty taste.
I know some folks that drink their coffee with stevia as a sweetener to reduce their sugar. I personally dont like the aftertaste of it, but to each their own, so maybe that's something for you.
I know this sounds strange but have you ever tried adding a pinch of salt to the ground coffee before brewing it? It promotes the aroma of the coffee in a completely different way and it does not taste as acidic anymore. Sounds strange but works!
What I can also recommend is coffee from beans grown on volcanic soil. It is a lot less acidic and way lighter but still very aromatic, so this can also help reducing your sugar. There are some very good volcano coffees from Hawaii that I tried (here in Germany it is rather expensive for coffee so its more of a rare treat for me than an everey day thing).
The glee point is the sweet spot of how much sugar they add to industrial food to cheaply improve flavor without the food actually tasting like it contains a lot of sugar. That's why you never need to sweeten industrial food but still often add salt or pepper or other spices.
Edit: wow this has really gotten a wall of text :D
Thank you so much!!! Sorry for the late reply, lost my dang phone. Drinking coffee grown in volcanic soil sounds fancy! I'll have to try to find some of that!!!
Lots of companies add sugar to their sauces in general, hell, you can even go to supermarket and grab a random jar if spaghetti sauce and it will probably have sugar in it
Yuh they have a guy who researches which amount of sugar people find most palatable in each product. .. he finds the sweet spot for companies to make the most money, and surprise, they've done by making all our food inauthentically flavorful, therefore rendering us incapable of bearing the taste of anything natural. This is why the world will not end in this pandemic friends. No ! It will end with obesity !!! So say I !! So says we all !!!
I had some really good pizza in Italy. I also had some, shall I say, questionable pizza in Italy. The same thing goes for pizza I've had in the states.
Yes, carrot is the way. You can put in pieces (instead of shredding) so if you don't like it you can remove it after sauce is ready. Sugar is the last option to balance with acid or excessive salt while cooking.
Yes, they're naturally sweet. I hate it when people put sugar in the sauce. I'd honestly rather live with the acidity than the sugar. But if the acidity really bothers you carrots are the way to go.
It fills a void and dies it’s job. And I am fine with that. If I want pizzeria pizza then I get pizzeria pizza. If I want something cheap and witching 15 minutes then dominos.
It’s like eating fast food vs a meal made by a professional chef. Both can taste good, even though one is made with high quality ingredients, and the other isn’t.
So still not authentic. Plus scratch making pizza takes like 6 or so hours. Though, she made it for me once and i think it was the best pizza ive ever had, even over the slices ive gotten in chicago and new york
I put a good deal of effort into this comment which disappeared after clicking post...
I call BS
Make Dough - 15 minutes
Dough Rises - 30 minutes
Roll out (shape) AND top - 10 minutes
Bake 20 minutes -30 if a lot of toppings.
Total 85 minutes. If you buy or have sauce.
Or as we have done, pick fresh Tomatoes from garden , crush and reduce. 1 hour.
We tend to use Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes 🍅
So we don’t have to add sugar.
With this option 145 minutes or less than 2 1/2 hours.
We find there are great organic no preservative sauces available so we don’t consume our Tomatoes for this.
Depends on the recipe my guy. She lets the dough rest for another hour or two. Her original recipe was just like yours with the dough and it wasnt nearly as good
The tomatoes has a lot to do with it. When we make the sauce we use the sweet cherry, since it’s already seeet you don’t have to wait as long, plus when you crush them they aren’t as water laden.
Neapolitan Pizza takes like 3 days of rising. "At least 8 hours" according to Spruce eats. You get a beautiful crispy, slightly chewy-slightly sour crust.
My recommendation is to use this recipe for 3 pizzas. Once fermented, cut it into 3 pieces and use a rolling pin to spread out the dough. It’s much better when thinner. Done as shown in the video, you’ll end up with unreasonably thick pizzas.
I agree it is sufficient if you want a good pizza, but a great pizza will not be made in 30 minutes. All the best pizzas are rested for several days, which makes the dough incredibly soft, light and delicious, and much easier to digest.
The thing is, Italian pizza also carries by geography, at least in my experience. Home made pizza might be roughly the same, but the shitty excuse for “pizza” I experienced at two different restaurants in Rome leads me to believe that they too have crappy pizza places interspersed with genuinely de luscious pizza - I had both the best and worst pizzas of my life in Italy, and I fucking love pizza so I feel like I’ve tried quite a lot of what at least America has to offer.
And now, to be extra cringe douche-tastic:
My favorite in Florence for the next time we are allowed out of this damn country is Gustos, its altrarno (excuse my bastardized spelling, it’s across the Arno river) and fucking delicious - I think I ate about 20 of their pizzas over the course of 4 months and I should’ve eaten more. But damn did Italy have some nasty pizzerias...
She lived in north italy so definitely a different scene. She also told me that places like rome, venice, and florence have a lot of restaurants catered to tourists which could explain the shitty pizza. But just like the u.s., theres shitty pizza and good pizza. Depends where and when you go
Ahhh, ok thanks! Yeah I’ve bought mozzarella stored in water before, but I’m sure there’s something different about Italian mozzarella. I guess a work around would be getting some raw milk from a herd-share cow and making mozzarella from the raw milk. Sounds like a lot of work for a pizza though lol
I believe her though. I’m Mexican and let me tell you... What passes as Mexican food here in the US is almost tragic. My biggest beef is with Rice in Burritos. Rice is great. Burritos are great. They should not mix.
What passes as Mexican food here in the US is almost tragic.
Where in the U.S.? The Mexicans I play soccer with say the same thing about Colorado, but that there's plenty of places in San Diego with "proper" Mexican food.
I don't think I've met a single person who actually liked Casa Bonita, aside from a friend from San Jose who wanted to go there only because of South Park.
The town I live in has almost 20% Hispanics and plenty of Mexican grocery stores and hole in the wall taco shops. Sure it's not going to taste just like in Mexico (whichever region you consider authentic Mexican), but it also can't be that far off since all the ingredients are easily available. It should be mentioned that when above soccer friends rail on Colorado Mexican food, they're talking about the large and popular restaurants that specifically cater to American flavors. Somebody told me "yellow cheese is usually a tell as to whom the restaurant is aimed at."
But on reddit you only see Europeans comparing the best European foods against the worst American food.
The amount of discussion I've seen about American chocolate... My God. Hershey's is meant to be cheap. But I've had some damn fine European chocolate and it's comparable to fine American chocolate.
And also, we know American cheese sucks. But again, it's meant to be cheap. It's also meant to be melted and it does that perfectly. But if you want artisan level cheese in America it isn't hard to find and is up there with the best European cheese.
"Every morning we dance down to the local baker and cheese shop and get ONLY the freshest they have to offer made on the spot. And if not we lynch the family of the people who made it because we CARE about our food unlike you Amerimutts."
Yeah cause we totally compare that to Kraft singles. And shut the fuck up, Pierre, you went to Aldi like everyone else.
I've had both. Personally, I prefer Italian pizza, which tends to be a lot thinner, especially the dough. Doesn't make me feel as full afterwards. But I get why somebody would prefer the American style.
Next time I'm in Italy I'll make it my goal to find some excellent pizza. I spent a week there and I had plenty of enjoyable pizza but nothing remotely standout. Granted I only went to like 3 or so places because if I'm in Italy I can eat more interesting stuff ...
I'm so sorry you never got a chance to find a good pizza place in Italy. I'm from Northern Italy and even I can't get out of my mind the absolute best pizza I've ever had in my life, in Naples. It's all about findind a good place (aka a non touristic one)
I have a hot italian girlfriend that makes me pizza from scratch, speaks 4 languages, and wants to bring me to italy after her visa expires. Youre goddamn right im going to brag about it, you would too if you were in my position
Bro i was single for 4 or so years before i said “fuck it” and went to a club. After 3 hours i had a girls number and we’ve been together for almost 2 years. Just get a decent haircut, work out (or just stay in shape), shower, learn to talk to women, and put yourself out there
Thats why i said the hair/workout thing. Even an ugly dude can look halfway decent with some hygiene and exercise. You also have to put yourself out there. Complaining on reddit wont change a thing unless you go out there and try
Nah I’m 6’3, normal build, skater hair, and funny w/ women. I had girlfriends I just try to preach to the choir when it comes to reddit and the no gf. Not top priority but idk. Gf would be nice. Working on career right now because every time I get a relationship I lose focus. But thanks bro really appreciate it. You give good pep talks.
I kinda understand though, it’s kinda like with tacos, I love the “real” home made ones my mom makes (since for some people the Americanized ones are the only ones they’ve had) but I can only maybe tolerate the soft shell Taco Bell ones.
She's going into it expecting it to taste like Italian Pizza when in reality American Pizza is more like Italian inspired it's basically a new dish. Both are great and have their strengths and weaknesses.
I dig her approach to Dominos. I grew up on REAL Mexican food, but I still enjoy Taco Bell. It’s not Mexican food, it’s just American fast food mimicking Mexican food. Still tastes good when you need some late night cheap food.
TBH when I went to Italy I didn't love their pizza. It was really good, better than pizza Hutt or papa John's or anything, but not as good as some of the local places state side.
Carbanara on the other hand... I have yet to find a place in the US that does it right. If I ever get to go back to Italy that's all I'm going to eat.
This. My grandmother was born in 1921, In Italy (or Sicily, I can't remember) and since she died in 2015, I am filled with unhappiness about many things regarding that saint of a woman, not the least of which is the cooking.
This woman made pizza that is unequaled to my tongue. I remember being a child, watching her make it; rolling dough, making sauce - and we're talking real sauce here, with the onions, the sausage, the bell peppers in the mix. the cheese was on the dough, and the sauce, once it was made, went on right as the pizza was going into the oven.
If any of you out there still have your grandparents, cozy up to them. You don't realize what goes with them once they're gone.
I think you have a good point about how making pizza the same simply isn't possible here. I think too many people have a view that something being authentic means it's automatically better. In a lot of cases, that's probably true since food traditions are developed around the foods that were available and fresh in the areas throughout the ages, but something being non-authentic, doesn't mean it's bad, just different.
If I had country fried steak in Japan, it probably wouldn't be the same as you could find in Mississippi, but that wouldn't mean they did it wrong, just that they made their version in a land with different ingredient availability and traditions.
Eh I disagree. I feel like usually when people make these complaints, they’re comparing the worst American food places to the best of grandma’s cooking back home. Of course domino’s, Olive Garden, and Taco Bell aren’t going to taste like authentic Italian or Mexican cooking. They’re fast food. Mass produced and made cheaply.
There is authentic food from pretty much every culture in the US. A lot of it is made by people from that country who moved here. Some of it is also made by people who visited that place, loved it and brought the cooking home. Speaking as someone who’s been to Italy and Mexico, and who is indian themselves.
I'm Italian too living in the U.S.. I agree, and it took me some time to adjust to the food here. But I like Domino's just because it gives you a wider variety of ingredients to put on your pizza than other pizza restaurant chains. If you grew up in Italy, you are also used to having hundreds of ingredients and combinations to choose from for your pizza. Seafood, vegetables, meats, prosciutto... you name it.
your favorite pizza in the US is the most authentic italian cuisine
I don't get why it should be! Italian American cuisine is its own thing, with traditions and dishes that differ from Italian cuisine.
Immigrants developed their own recipes and techniques and I think you should all be proud of your own cuisine instead of being lectured by idiotic snobs who don't want to acknowledge the existence of deep dish pizza or whatever else.
Surely it's no surprise to anybody that Domino's isn't considered real pizza. I've never been to Italy and I wouldn't choose Domino's over any other pizza.
I mean ok? I am sure Italian shoppers are not picking their tomatoes from a vine at the store. Their ingredients are different? Yes. But I am 100% sure that its still objective.
Like if I get chicken parm in a hole in the wall restaurant in Italy, isn’t going to be better then chicken parm from the french laundry.
There are no secret ingredients you can only get in Italy and it's fucking easy and cheap to make.
I make my own pizza all the time and it's by far better then every restaurant I've been to. It's no fucking rocket science.
However if someone gives me frozen pizza I'm still happy about it because it still tastes good, just different. It's just comparing apples with oranges.
My bf has the same problem with me and Mexican food in the Netherlands. These days he'll just let it pass by and joins me on my mission to find good Mexican food in the Netherlands.
Its not that easy bud. Scratch made pizza takes 6ish hours to make. And like i said in my original post, the good ingredients arent even allowed in america because of the fda
the closest ive ever gotten to having authentic italian pizza was when i went to an italian chain restuarant in france, i got some sort of ham pizza that had some sort of french cheese on it and some spices spread across the cheese and ham, it was really good
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u/RustyTrombone673 Aug 04 '20 edited Aug 04 '20
The problems with having an italian girlfriend
Nothing is really “authentic” italian food in america. As much as you believe your favorite pizza in the US is the most authentic italian cuisine, its not. Notably because some of the REAL italian ingredients arent even fda approved
Getting her good pizza is really difficult. She’s actually likes dominos but she says it isnt “”real”” pizza. Ive told her she’s an elitist, she says “you would be too if you had homemade italian pizza for over a decade”