Everything sounds better in Italian, including the names for foods! Words like arancini, burrata, mortadella and prosciutto, and sound wonderful, do you know what they actually mean?
It’s essential you understand what food you are ordering for an Italian meal or at the Italian deli.
Our Italian food glossary contains the essential words and phrases related to Italian cuisine. From dishes to ingredients and cooking techniques, it covers everything you need to know about Italian food.
We very much hope these Italian food names help you enjoy your Italian cuisine.
Buon appetito!
Glossary of Italian Meats
Meat is an essential part of Italian cuisine. Here is a guide to the most common types of Italian meats you need to know about.
Salami
Salami is meat (usually beef or pork) that is chopped up, minced and enhanced with added fats. It is then salted, spiced and enhanced with herbs and then this delicious mixture is stuff into an animal casing which is typically an animal intestine. Then it is left to cure and dry out. Once this process is completed, the salami is ready to be sliced and enjoyed!
Learn More about Italian Salami
Mortadella
Mortadella is known as the Italian version of bologna. It is made with pork, spices and added fat to create that unique creamy texture. Most people describe it as a smokier version of ham. Originally it was invented to improve the flavor of tough and stringy portions of the hame but today it is made with higher quality pieces of the hogs.
Prosciutto
Prosciutto is similar to American ham, but it is made using an entire pork leg. The meat is smoked, boiled, or roasted and then sliced very thin to create deli-style meat. It has a very strong flavor profile and typically served with very thin slices.
Pancetta
Cured pork belly is used to create pancetta which is basically Italian bacon. Typically it is mixed with salt and other spices, tied up and left to dry (cure) which creates a bold flavor. The fat to meat ratio is high so it is typically sliced thin to use as deli meat or you may find larger pieces in pasta sauces, where the flavor is balanced by the tomato sauce.
Soppresata
Soppressata is a dry cured salami that originates from the southern regions of Italy. Depending on how it is spiced, sometimes it is sweet and sometimes it is spicy. It is excellent as part of a charcuterie board or in an Italian deli sandwich.
Lardo
Lardo is the Italian word for lard. It is very high fat and has a buttery smooth texture that most people love. It is often cured and spiced.
Italian Food Glossary
Acerbo: Immature (not grown/developed/ripe). For example acerb fruit that is picked before it is ripe.
Acido: Acid, sour or tart flavors.
Acqua: water. Acqua minerale is mineral water
Acciuga: Anchovy
Aceto Balsamico: Balsamic vinegar is a sweet-and-sour, dark-brown vinegar traditionally made in Modena. It is made from the cooked juice of Trebbiano grapes, and then aged for several years in a succession of different wood barrels.
Note: Real balsamic vinegar reads “aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena” on the label and is quite expensive. Often at the grocery store you will see “aceto balsamico de Modena” – this is NOT the same thing – it is a sweetened wine vinegar. So if you are used to consuming the cheap stuff at the grocery store and you try an authentic Aceto Balsamico, you will be amazed!
Acqua pazza: poached white fish
Acquacotta: vegetable soup that is usually spiced with peppers and served with thick bread slices.
Affettati: cold cuts, sliced meats
Affumicato: Smoked; used to refer to smoked meats and fish.
Agghiotta di pesce spada: fried Swordfish served with toasted bread crostini and flavored with garlic.
Aglio: A simple and quick sauce for spaghetti made of of olive oil and sautèed garlic. Sometimes peperoncino and/or parsley are also added.
Agnello: lamb
Agrodolce: Sweet and sour
Agrumi: citrus fruits
Ai frutti di mare: a seafood pizza that may be served with scampi, mussels, or squid
Alici: anchovies often served fresh
Alla Bolognese: In the style of Bologna – a slow-cooked meat sauce with vegetables and tomato.
Alla Caprese: In the style of Capri – made with tomato, basil, olive oil and mozzarella cheese.
Alla Genovese: In the style of Genoa – with basil, garlic and oil.
Aragosta: clawless lobster, or langouste/rock lobster
Al Dente: Italians cook pasta “al dente,” which translates as “to the tooth.” This pasta has a little bit and remains a bit chewier.
Al Forno: Translates to “In the oven.”
All’aglio e Olio: A dish with this name is made with garlic and oil – usually refers to as a pasta dish made with a garlic and oil sauce.
Amaro: bitter
Anice: anise
Anisette: anise-flavored liqueur
Antipasti: Antipasti is traditionally a first course at an Italian meal. Antipasti dishes might include olives, pickled vegetables, cured meats, cheeses, or other light and simple appetizers. In Italy, they often have free antipasti with a cocktail at many bars for happy hour! Note that antipasti is plural, the singular term is antipasto.
Arancia: orange (the actual fruit)
Aranciata: orange beverage/orange soda
Arancini: These are stuffed rice balls that are coated with bread crumbs and then deep fried. The rice may be seasoned and the balls will come in various sizes from small to large. Sicilian dish.
Arista: Loin of pork
Arrabbiata: Arrabbiata sauce, or sugo all’arrabbiata in Italian, is a spicy pasta sauce. It’s made made from garlic, tomatoes, and dried red chili peppers cooked in olive oil. This sauce originates from the Lazio region, and specifically from the city of Rome.
Arrosticini: skewers of roast sheep meat
Asiago: cow milk cheese produced in alpine area of the Asiago
Assaggio: a small sample, or a taste
Biscotti: Means “twice-cooked.” Refers to a type of cookie for which the dough is cooked twice. Typically one things of delicious biscotti often enjoyed with a cappuccino. The biscotto is usually formed into a log shape and baked. Then after a cooling period, it is sliced and baked again until it is dry and crisp.
Bistecca: Italian for Steak. Typically beef but can also refer to pork or veal.
Bocconcini: Means a bite-sized piece of food. You’re likely to see it referring to small balls of fresh mozzarella cheese.
Botarga: Intensely flavored dried mullet or tuna roe, cut into thin shavings for use in salads and pastas.
Braesaola: Air-dried beef fillet, served thinly sliced and uncooked in salads and antipasti.
Branzino: Sea bass. It often has a lot of bones, so be careful because they are easy to choke on.
Brodo: Soup
Bruschetta: Toasts that are typically served with a topping of some sort as an antipasto. Note: Bruschetta are larger pieces of toasts and crostini are smaller sizes.
Burrata: One of the richest Italian cheeses that everyone seems to love! It is a version of fresh buffalo milk cheese that is made of mozzarella and cream. The outer portion is mozzarella and the inside is a cream mixture. The soft exterior gives way to a think and creamy interior when you cut it open and it is rich and delicious!
Burridda: A seafood soup or stew in Italian cuisine from Liguria in northern Italy.
Burro: Butter
Calzone: A calzone is a circular piece of pizza or yeasted bread dough that’s folded in half over a filling that includes ricotta, and often mozzarella and Parmesan. Also other meats or vegetables may be added. Similar ingredients to a pizza but the filling is on the inside and the exterior has a different chew to it.
Cannoli: Crisp, deep-fried pastry tubes filled with cream.
Caponata: Traditional Sicilian vegetable dish made with eggplant and tomato.
Carpaccio: A dish of raw beef sliced very thin. It is often seasoned with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon.
Ceci: Chickpeas
Crema Pasticcera: Pastry cream – a thickened cream of milk and egg used in desserts.
Crespelle: Crêpes, both sweet and savory.
Crostata: A flat, open-face tart that may be prepared as a savory side dish or as a sweet dessert.
Crostini: Small slices of grilled or toasted bread are often served as an accompaniment to other ingredients, such as burrata or prosciutto.
Crudo: Uncooked. Usually it is in reference to a raw fish appetizer.
Fagioli: Beans
Farfalle: bow-tie pasta
Farro: Spelt, a grain used in soups, breads and risotto-like preparations. Barley may be substituted.
Fegato alla veneziana: calf’s liver sautéed with onions
Focaccia: crusty flat bread
Fontina: A cow’s milk cheese made in the Valle d’Aosta region in Northern Italy.
Formaggio: Cheese
Frittata: An egg based dish that is best described as a quiche without a crust. Can be prepared stove top in a skillet or in the oven. Vegetables, herbs, and meat and cheeses may be added as well.
Frutti di mare:Translations to “fruit of the sea,” but doesn’t refer to fruit, it refers to seafood. This one often confuses people at first, but think of it like this – all of that tasty seafood is the fruit of the sea.
Fra’ Diavolo: Literally translates as “Devil Monk” and it it is a term used to refer to a spicy tomato sauce, typically used with seafood based or pasta dishes.
Fusilli: spiral-shaped pasta
Gamberi: Shrimp
Gelato: Italian ice cream
Insalate: The Italian word for salad.
Kasher: kosher
Lenticchie: lentils
Maccheroni: macaroni pasta
Manzo: beef
Mela: apple
Melanzana: eggplant
Minestra: A “light” or “little” Soup.
Minestrone: vegetable soup
Mortadella: large, mild Bolognese pork sausage
Mozzarella di bufala: fresh cheese made from water-buffalo milk
Noce: walnut
Orecchiette: ear-shaped pasta
Osso Buco: A classic Italian dish made with veal shank that is slow cooked in wine with vegetables and seasonings. It is intense, rich and decadent.
Ostriche: oysters
Panna cotta: This popular desert means “cooked cream” in Italian. This delicious dessert is made by cooking cream with sugar and gelatin (and other flavorings) to make a thick and velvety dessert.
Piatti: The literal translation is “plate” as in a plate of food.
Pane: bread
Panettone: briochelike sweet bread
Panna: heavy cream
Pancetta: Italian bacon
Pappardelle: wide, flat pasta noodles
Peperoncini: tiny, hot peppers
Pesca: peach
Pesce: fish
Pesce spada: swordfish
Pesto: A pasta sauce of crushed basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese
and olive oil. Served cold.
Piccata: thinly sliced meat with a lemon or Marsala sauce
Pignoli: pine nuts
Pizza: oven-baked, flat dough base, typically covered with tomato sauce, cheese and some meat or vegetable topping(s)
Polenta: This is ground cornmeal which has been cooked and it is typically prepared and each as a rice/porridge. It is cooked low and slow with liquids and aromatics added to provide depth of flavor. It may be served as a creamy side dish to complement a protein like lobster or other fish, or even the veal osso buck.
Pollo: chicken
Polipo: octopus
Pomodoro: tomato
Porcini: prized wild mushrooms, known also as boletus
Prosciutto: air-dried ham
Ragú: meat sauce
Ricotta: fresh sheep’s-milk cheese
Rigatoni: large, hollow ribbed pasta
Riso: rice
Risotto: braised rice with various savory items
Rucola: arugula
Salsa (verde): sauce (of parsley, capers, anchovies and lemon juice or vinegar)
Salsicce: fresh sausage
Saltimbocca: veal scallop with prosciutto and sage
Sarde: sardines
Semifreddo: frozen dessert, usually ice cream, with or without cake
Sgombro: mackerel
Sogliola: sole
Spiedino: brochette – grilled on a skewer
Spumone: light and foamy ice cream
Suppli – Rice croquette made and sold in pizzerias. It is found all over Italy, but most popular in Rome. The Roman word is derived from the French word for surprise, and owes its name to the glob of mozzarella hidden inside! The snack’s full name is supplí al telefono, which is derived from the strings of mozzarella that form as the cheese melts – these resemble telephone cords.
Salumi: Sliced, cured meat is often part of an appetizer. Read more about salami below.
Spaghetti alle vongole: Famous spaghetti dish with clams. Typically served with the clams in their shells mixed into the spaghetti.
Taconelle: Pasta squares.
Taccozze: Puff pastry for noodles.
Tagliata: A very fine slice of beefsteak; in general, the steak is very rare and multiple slices are served.
Tagliatelle: Flat noodles made with egg.
Taglierini:A thinner version of tagliatelle, taglierini are a thin, ribbon pasta with a flat, rectangular cut. Made with semolina flour and water, taglierini aregood with any vegetable or fish-based sauces.
Tajarin: Thinner version of tagliatelle from Piedmont.
Taralli: Crisp, black pepper-laced, pretzel-shaped snacks made in southern Italy. There are sweet versions where sugar and cinnamon are added to the batter.
Tarantello: A Pugliese cured-tuna salami.
Tartufo: A delicious chocolate ice cream dessert molded into the shape of a truffle, and then covered in chocolate.
Tartufo d’Alba: White truffle from the small town of Alba, in the province of Cuneo.
Tartufo di Norcia: Black truffle from the town of Norcia, in the province of Perugia.
Testoni: Young eels.
Tigelle: A popular street food in Roman (also known as crescentic) are flatbreads that look like English Muffins. Typically they are taken straight out of a pan, split open and stuffed with meat and cheese and served as a sandwich.
Tiramisu: A dessert of ladyfingers soaked in espresso and layered with a cream usually made with mascarpone cheese.
Tonnarelli: Long, slightly square handmade spaghetti most commonly served with amatriciana sauce.
Tonno: Tuna.
Torcinelli: Lamb liver rolled in caul fat, tied, then roasted; usually flavored with parsley or garlic.
Tortelli: Small pie or omelet, which is sometimes sweetened; filled pasta rectangles, often twisted at the ends and resembling pieces of wrapped candy.
Tortellini: ring-shaped dumplings stuffed with meat or cheese and served in broth or in a cream sauce
Tortelloni: Large, triangle-shaped pasta filled with ricotta, grana padano, eggs, parsley, and a hint of nutmeg. Usually served before Christmas because they do not contain meat. Tortelloni can also be stuffed with pumpkin purée.
Tosella: Slices of fresh cheese sautéed in butter.
Totano: Squid.
TozzettiL Cookies from the region of Latium, made with beaten eggs, sugar, aniseed, white wine, hazelnuts, and almonds.
Tramezzino: The tramezzino is a usually triangular Italian sandwich constructed from two slices of soft white bread, with the crusts removed.
Trenette: Long pasta, similar to linguine.
Tripolini: Small egg-pasta bow-ties used in soup.
Troccoli: Rustic tagliatelle made of durum flour and eggs, then cut with a special tool, called troccolo, which looks like a grooved rolling pin. Usually served with meat sauces.
Trofie: Small rolled pasta from the region of Liguria made with water, salt, and flour. The dough is kneaded by hand for ten minutes, then cut into tiny pea-size bits and rolled under the palm to create an elongated shape with curling ends. Oftern served with Pesto sauce.
Trota: – Trout
Tuffolone: Large tubes of pasta, typically stuffed and ultimately placed in the oven for baking.
Valigini: Translates to “little cases” or “purses.” These are meat rolls filled with parsley, garlic, egg, cheese, and bread crumbs.
Uardi e fasui: Bean and barley soup.
Ubriaco: Literally means “drunken.” If you see this on the menu it will refer to dishes that contain a significant amount of alcohol.
Umbrici: fat, handmade spaghetti from Umbria.
Unto: Oily, greasy.
Uva spina: Gooseberry
Uvetta: Raisins
Vaniglia: vanilla
Vongole: clams
Valigini: Literally, “little cases” or “purses”; meat rolls filled with parsley, garlic, egg, cheese, and bread crumbs.
Vermicelli: Thin spaghetti.
Vitella/vitello: Veal.
Vongole: Clams; vongole veraci, small clams with a pair of tiny “horns” on the meat.
Zabaglione: An egg custard made by beating egg yolks with sugar and wine (Marsala) over a water bath until fluffy. Some recipes will incorporate ice cream. Also spelled as Zabaione.
Zafferano – Saffron
Zaleti –These are Venetian cornmeal cookies. Zaleti means yellow in the Venetian dialect and refers to the color of the cornmeal in these distinctive diamond-shaped cookies. They are associated with more rustic style cuisine an typically made with little to no sugar and relying on dried currants for natural sweetness.
Zenzero – Ginger; red pepper
Zeppole – Southern Italian sweet fritters sprinkled with powdered sugar that are prepared during Carnevale.
Ziti: A long and hollow pasta tube.
Zucca: Pumpkin; squash, winter squash; see also fiore.
Zucchero: Sugar
Zucchine: Summer squash, zucchini.
Zuccotto: A type of semifreddo dessert molded into a hemispheric (dome) shape. It is a well loved, creamy Italian dessert cake.
Zuppa Angelica: A sponge cake dessert topped with a chocolate cream sauce, and similar to Zuppa Inglese.
Zuppe: In Italian, zuppe means “soup. Often you will see an Italian Wedding Soup which is a heartier Italian soup that includes pork meatballs and white beans.
Zuppa Inglese – A desert of English origin that consists of wedges of sponge cake or ladyfingers dipped in sweet wine or liquor. It is similar to an English trifle as whipped cream, candied fruit and chopped bittersweet chocolate are layered in between layers of the spongecake/ladyfingers.
Zurrette – A recipe from the Sardinian region. Lamb’s blood, lardo, cheese, and bread are stuffed into a lamb’s stomach and boiled. The recipe is very similar to the Scottish haggis.
Italian Food Certifications – All You Need to Know!
My name is Jay and I started this website to share my love of Deli Food. I am Jewish with Italian ancestry and grandparents who emigrated to the US from Poland, Russia and Turkey. This website is my celebration of the delicious flavors of international deli culture. Please feel free to send me your suggestions and feedback through the contact form.
