10x the Worst-Rated Dishes from Italy
Who isn’t crazy about Italian cuisine? Pizza, pasta, lasagne, risotto… Italian cuisine has been one of the most popular cuisines worldwide for years (spoiler: not the most popular at the moment!). You’d think it would be impossible for people not to find Italian dishes delicious. Shocking: it isn’t. Taste Atlas compiled a top 10 of the worst-rated dishes from Italy, and here they are.
The list is based on ratings from foodies from all over the world. They tasted the dishes themselves and had something to say about them. Check out the list below.
10. Pasta e alici
Pasta e alici is a pasta dish from Calabria, a region in southern Italy. It’s a super-easy dish made with just a few ingredients: pasta, chopped anchovies, tomatoes, toasted breadcrumbs and pepperoncini. Fans sometimes also add raisins, grated lemon zest or pine nuts. Sounds delicious, especially if you’re crazy about anchovies. But that’s also where the danger lies: anchovies generally aren’t very popular. They’re even on the list of the world’s most hated foods. That’s probably also why pasta e alici appears in the top 10 worst-rated dishes from Italy.
9. Pizza inglesina
We’ve only just started the list, and there’s already a dish whose poor rating I don’t understand. Pizza inglesina is pizza with Parma ham, mozzarella and basil. A pizza that, in my opinion, is ordered all the time in Italian restaurants worldwide. Maybe the vegetarian trend is also taking over the pizza world, and fewer and fewer people want meat on their pizza? I have no idea, because as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with dried, salted Parma ham on your pizza.
8. Pizza viennese
Another pizza with meat on it, this time Viennese sausages. Better known as Frankfurters. These sausages are made from pork, pressed into a sheep casing. Unlike with pizza inglesina, I can better understand why people aren’t crazy about pizza viennese. You have to be into it: pork sausage on your pizza. True pizza purists will get especially itchy at this combination. A deserved place in the top 10 worst-rated dishes from Italy, if you ask me.
7. Pizza melanzane
We know melanzane, especially melanzane alla Parmigiana (you’ll want to try this version with beer!). So pizza melanzane exists too. It’s made with dough, tomato sauce, slices of aubergine and cheese. Not a popular Italian dish, if we are to believe the Taste Atlas list. Maybe people would rather stick to traditional melanzane alla Parmigiana—and honestly, I can understand that.
6. Pampapato di Ferrara
Come on, the photo looks mouth-watering. Until you read the ingredients list for this Italian fruitcake. It starts well: almonds, hazelnuts, candied fruit, cocoa, honey, cinnamon and cloves. But then comes the final ingredient. Black pepper. I expect many people to drop out at that point. I also think this cake is incredibly rich. Quite tasty with the first bite, but you soon have had enough.
5. Risi e bisi
Risi e bisi looks as if the Italian spring is sparkling on your plate. But according to many people, this dish is still impossible to stomach. I suspect it has to do with the texture: a substance that’s not quite soup and not quite risotto. A sort of mush, in other words. As for the remaining ingredients—peas, butter and Parmesan cheese—I don’t see much wrong with them.
4. Crauti
A bit of a language geek will recognize the word ‘sauerkraut’ in crauti. And if they’re a real language geek, they’ll also know that it means fermented cabbage. So crauti is sauerkraut. But isn’t that not Italian at all? It is, a little. It’s also expertly prepared in the Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige. It has been officially recognized there as a traditional regional product since 1999. Sauerkraut generally isn’t known as a crowd-pleaser. There are plenty of people who belong to the I-hate-sauerkraut club. Are you crazy about fermented cabbage? Then you really have to try this Johnny cake with sauerkraut and smoked sausage.
3. Lampredotto
A tripe sandwich. That’s essentially what lampredotto is. If you order it in Italy (it’s especially widely sold as street food in Florence), you’ll get a sandwich with boiled cow’s stomach. There will undoubtedly be people who consider this a true delicacy, but there are also plenty of people who will bow out. Lots of them. Can you blame them?
2. Trippa alla Romana
Even more tripe! But this time in a stew. Trippa alla Romana is tripe stewed in a tangy tomato sauce with herbs. A very strong flavor that you have to be into. And most people aren’t. Hence its second place on the list of worst-rated dishes from Italy.
1. Mostarda
And then number one, the Italian dish people rate the very, very worst: mostarda. What is it? Fruit candied in sweet syrup with mustard extract. It looks like sweet candy, but the spicy mustard flavor completely throws you off. A real mind fuck. Apparently it’s delicious with certain Italian cheeses and even with meat. Can you picture it, these sweets next to your steak?
Read also:
- The most delicious dishes from Italy (and where to eat them!)
- Recipe: how to make authentic spaghetti carbonara like they do in Italy
- Italian dishes you’ll never, ever get in Italy
Source and image: Taste Atlas and Shutterstock
