On this website in an article on Polenta, the author mentions the "Italian Food Trinity" and that polenta is one-third of it, what are the other two components?

grazie

Hi There,

What I consider the Italian Food Trinity are the three foods that are staples of the Italian diet: Pasta, Pizza and Polenta

Polenta often replaces the pasta portion of Italian meals, especially in the north.

Of course, you would also have to give an honorable mention to Rice, like risotto and Italian bread.

Thanks for reading my article!
Justin

I’m not sure about the trinity part. Pasta is THE staple food of Italy. It is consumed from top to bottom. Polenta, as you say, is basically a northern specialty and is usually prepared during the cold winter months. Pizza, although it is now found throughout Italy, is a southern dish that became popular in the US before it became popular in all of Italy. My first experience with real Italian pizza, going back to the early 70’s, was ordering a pepperoni pizza at a small Ligurian restaurant and getting a pizza with green peppers. On my last trip to Italy, in 2005, I found a wide variety of pizzas, including New York style pizza.

What I was trying to get at with the term "trinity" are the core foods that Italians can identify with. Italian food in many ways is based upon the food of the poor. And items like pasta, pizza and especially polenta seem to evoke alot of nostalgia for the old ways. And these seem to be the foods that Italians miss most when away. I consider it Italian Soul Food

When it comes to pizza, there are many differnet types of food that I would describe as pizza - including foccacia and others that do not have sauce and/or cheese. These sauceless pizzas were eaten for thousands of years across Italy and the wider Mediterranean before the introduction of tomatoes.

Polenta was a staple food of the Roman legions except it was made with faro and other grains before the arrival of corn. In poorer times northern Italian farmers would have to subsist on virtually nothing but polenta, which is why it is so ingrained in their food culture.

So that's why I consider it a "trinity" - since these basic staples have been a part of the Italian diet in one form or another for centuries if not millenia.