The central region of Italy includes Emilia Romagna, Le Marche, Tuscany & Umbria.

This is an area of fresh pasta, great cheeses and robust wines.

Emilia Romagna known as the Italy's greatest region for food. Emilia Romagna is the mother land of homemade pasta. In Bologna, tagliatelle, lasagne, and tortellini are favorites. In Emilia, preparing pasta is a work of art.

Pork is a tradition of Emilia-Romagna's cuisine. Prosciutto, the most famous of Italy's pork products, is made in Parma. Coppa and pancetta are specialties of Piacenza in the north. The delicate meat that is often passed off in other countries as bologna is in fact the famed Mortadella of Bologna.

Romagna has a tradition of fish dishes, brodetto, the most flavorful of fish soups. Parmigiano Reggiano, the unrivaled king of cheese.

Another of Emilia-Romagna's great culinary contributions is balsamic vinegar, which has been made in Modena for centuries.

Prosciutto di Parma is produced south of Parma and often served very thin with bread. Parmiggiano Reggiano is eaten in chunks or grated over a wonderful fresh egg pasta.

Le Marche is a self sufficient area. It is known for its Adriatic seafood, used to produce local versions of the rich fish stew, brodetto. The local cuisine also makes use of its white and black truffles, wild mushrooms and fennel. Ramed dishes include porchetta (roast pig) & vincigrassi which is lasagna made with chicken livers and prosciutto. Pasta, notably maccheroncini and tagliatelle, has an important tradition in Marche. Pastificio Latini produces some of the best artisanal pasta in the Marche tradition. Mushrooms grow in abundance in this area. Three kinds of truffles are also found in Marche; the white ones rival those from Alba. Cauliflowers from the Marches are famous throughout Italy. And the fruit--apples, peaches, figs and cherries-- are rich and luscious, a testament to the fertility of the soil.

Tuscan cooking is renowned as some of the simplest in Italy. The finest extra virgin oils are made there. Meals are centered around meat, especially beef. Tuscany's wines are exceptional with Chianti being Italy's most famous red. Tuscans keep fat at a distance and the spit or the grill close by. Meats--beef, chicken, and rabbit--are usually roasted with rosemary or fennel or grilled. Most are accompanied by a lemon wedge, the Tuscan idea of a sauce. Along the coast, dishes are based on fish, with baby eel, caught at the mouth of the Arno, a specialty found only in Tuscany. Olive oil is so pervasive in Tuscan cooking that it's even used in sweets, such as the local favorite, castagnaccio, a cake made with chestnut flour, fennel, raisins, and pine nuts. Generally, desserts are as simple as Tuscans' other foods. A common after-dinner treat is biscotti dipped into a glass of amber-colored Vin Santo. Siena is home to panforte ("strong bread"), a rich, flat cake invented during the Crusades to sustain the troops.

Tuscan wines are dominated by the local sangiovese grape, the backbone of the classic Chianti and full, deep Brunello.

Umbria's food is hearty and simple. It is most famous for its use of pork. It is home also of the great pecorino cheeses. Umbrian dishes rarely contain more than four or five ingredients, and meats and vegetables are often served plain or sauceless. Meat is important to this region, and it is here that salami is at its best. Pork products, salami, sausages, cured and smoked meat appear on every restaurant's antipasto cart. Beef is also good, especially when it comes from cattle bred near the Tuscan border. As Umbria is landlocked, fresh-water fish--carp, pike and eel--are an important part of the region's cuisine.

Olive oil is the region's condiment of choice. Pasta tends to be long and thick and is often flavored with a grating of its world-famous black truffles, which are used liberally on everything from polenta to potatoes. Perugia, the region's capital, is renowned around the world for its chocolate. Perugina, makers of Baci, is based here. Desserts are often flavored with honey, chestnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts and almonds.

Although not a large wine-growing region, Umbria produces the light, dry Orvieto, a favorite among princes and popes, and the wine for which the region is famous. This plentiful region also produces a fine red, Montefalco Rosso.

Links to fascinating sites