Authentic cuisine
Students learn the difference between America and Italy
Many students may enjoy going out to eat Italian food or even making it at home, but the food made by American students may not be authentic Italian cuisine.
BYU‑Idaho students may begin their day by eating different breakfast foods than many Italians might eat. Italians also eat different varieties of Italian food for lunch and dinner than Americans.
Breakfast is a light meal for many Italians, often consisting of coffee and perhaps a slice of toast. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, followed by a light dinner.
[Italians eat] every kind of pasta you can imagine — spaghetti, spaghetti with eggs, lasagna, spaghetti with pesto and meat sauce,
said Kaleb Scholes, a junior from Rigby, Idaho, and a returned missionary from the Italy Milan Mission.
Other authentic Italian dishes include salami, cheeses and pizza, as well as several other specialty dishes not necessarily served in America’s Italian restaurants.
Scholes really enjoyed eating gnocchi, which might be compared to a type of dumpling made primarily with eggs and potatoes, mixed together and boiled.
Italian ice cream, called gelato in Italy, seems to be another favorite.
Comparing [American] ice cream to gelato is like comparing skim milk to two percent milk. Gelato is richer and creamier than our ice cream,
said Parley Wilson, a sophomore from Alta, Wyo., and a returned missionary from the Italy Milan Mission.
However, if students are hoping to make their own authentic Italian meals or desserts, they are likely to experience trouble locating the ingredients.
Josh Barnes, a freshman from Rexburg, and a returned missionary from the Italy Rome Mission, said he was able to find pesto sauce at WinCo in Idaho Falls at a fairly inexpensive price, but he’s had a hard time finding authentic Italian ingredients.
Pasta is easy to find in American stores, but Italian meats are harder to find. Authentic Italian cheeses are also more difficult to locate, Wilson said. For example, mozzarella cheese is easy to find at many grocery stores, but American mozzarella isn’t the same thing as Italian mozzarella.
Though students eat things that they may consider to be authentic Italian food in America, there are some differences between pasta dishes made in Italy and those made in the United States.
Scholes said that even if the pasta in America tastes somewhat like Italian pasta, the sauces often taste different. Italians don’t make Alfredo sauce at all.
These differences in American and authentic Italian cuisine extend not only to the types of sauces available, but also the methods of preparation used.
People may buy packaged spaghetti noodles and a bottle of spaghetti sauce to make Italian dishes, but Italians often make and cut the noodles themselves and simmer their own sauce, Wilson said.
Often the sauce is made from tomatoes, oil, meat, onions and spices to make a red sauce while sometimes a green sauce, called pesto, is made by adding basil to the mix. But regardless of the sauce’s ingredients, an authentic Italian sauce may simmer for a very long time.
[Italians] cook their sauces longer,
Barnes said. If I don’t have a red sauce simmering for at least 30 minutes before I eat, I know it’s going to be no good.
For a good Italian sauce, Barnes suggests simmering the ingredients in a crock pot, since some Italians simmer sauces for up to several days before they eat the meal. 
