Why Italian cuisine is so popular

Italian cuisine – what makes it so good and popular around the world?
Italian cuisine took the world by a storm. It is popular on every continent and well regarded by cooks and culinary aficionados. Kings Mill invites you to explore a few aspects on strengths of our favourite cuisine. Learn with us why this meditaranean cuisine is so well regarded.

As one of the Mediterranean cuisines it is considered to be very healthy. It uses healthy oils, garlic, green herbs, lots of vegetables as well as seafood and lean meats.
Home cooks around the world certainly value it for its simplicity – most dishes require only a few main ingredients and aren’t difficult to prepare.
Staple Italian dishes rely not on complex cooking techniques, but on the quality of ingredients. Italians seem to have been always great in finding ways on how to best combine and use ingredients available to them.
It is amazing for how long people of the Italian peninsula are following that rule – already in the fourth century Greek Sicilian food writer Archestratus was praising the importance of top quality and seasonal ingredients!
What`s also intriguing is that despite the fact that Italian cuisine has ancient roots, most dishes are made from ingredients introduced relatively recently.
Tomatoes, chillies, maize and potatoes were introduced there just after colonisation of the Americas. Before that Arabs brought spinach, almonds and rice to the Peninsula in the 9th century. Thanks to the silk road – saffron became popular in the northern kingdoms. Also Normans introduced Italians to salted cod (famous baccala).
Such many roots are one of the factors which make Italian cuisine that rich.
Modern Italian cuisine was observed by many researchers, who saw that following the Mediterranean Diet results in many health benefits. Use of olive oil, nuts and fish creates a healthy profile of fat intake. Despite use of the pasta, the diet is full of carbohydrates at low glycaemic index and has high content of dietary fibre. Herbs, coffee, wine and vegetables supply antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory compounds. This helps Italians to better avoid cardiovascular disease and other coronary diseases. What also seems to be important is that cuisine of Italy, especially of southern regions like Puglia is mainly vegetarian, with small amounts of meat being consumed.
You can read details in many scientific papers, like this one here regarding Puglia.
Quality ingredients, importance of fragrant fresh herbs makes Italian cuisine not only healthy but tasty and enjoyed by millions.

We invite You to visit Kings Mill restaurant to try the best Italian Dishes in the heart of Ireland.