Whenever I go abroad, I often laugh of what foreigners' call Italian food or Italian cooking. I think there's a big confusion about it (and also many fake legends).
First of all, I have to say that there's no ONE Italian cooking, there are 'many' (more than 20, at least) and all very different each other. Basically, every region has its own cooking... but sometimes even small towns have their traditional products or dishes. I'm not here to mention all dishes or differences amongst regions, I just want to remind the common uses throughout Italy.

PIZZA = Pizza is very simple. It can be extremely flat (romana) or thick and soft (napoletana). The most popular is called MARGHERITA (to honour Queen Margaret) and is made with tomato mozzarella and basil... and nothing else. It's round and a little wider than the dish. Borders must be burned. Italians eat pizza very often. Pizzerie are not fancy, the more a 'pizzeria' is old and bleak more it's popular and loved by us.

CHRISTMAS = On Christmas' eves Italians only eat fish.
Sea food is fried. PANETTONE or PANDORO don't miss Italian tables on Christmas as well as TORRONE. TORRONE is a sort of chocolate club with nuts or almonds. PANETTONE comes from Milan, PANDORO comes from Verona, TORRONE comes from Tuscany. Christmas lunch lasts hours. My relatives in Naples make it last even six hours. After tortellini in brodo, cannelloni and lasagne and fettuccine... "abbacchio al forno con patate" (stoved lamb with potatos) is the king of Christmas.

NEW YEAR'S EVE = The main dish for new year's eve is made by lentils with "zampone" (pork's calf) or "cotechino" a sort of salami. The legend says that every single lentil is a coin from Saint Silvester: more lentils you eat, more coins you'll earn in the new falling year. In parties and restaurants lentils are often served few seconds before midnight.

EASTER = The Easter traditional lunch requires hard-boiled eggs and 'corallina' (very long salami) with slices of 'casatiello'.
Casatiello is a pudding filled with salami, prosciutto, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, spices, etc.

CARNEVALE (CARNIVAL) = We eat FRAPPE (also named 'Chiacchiere', 'Bugie', 'Cenci', 'Sfrappole' etc.) which are a kind of fried biscuits.... delicious !!!!

Max, thanks for that. I remember going to an Italian friends house for the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It was fantastic! I had never had fried eel before but it was very good. The father of the family was the main chef, he did all the frying and I remember after we were all done, the women went and wiped down the whole kitchen , walls and all to get the grease off!
As you state , Italian food in the U.S. (and other countries) is definetly not like it is in Italy. I imagine that when the Italian Immigrants first came here they couldn't find the same ingredients they could get back home so they had to improvise and over the decades it became what we know as Italian food.
When I hold my Italian cooking classes in my home , I will show them the proper way to cook Italian and I know they will never look at American Italian Food the same.
Do you have a good recipe for Panetone?

Yes Dunno... but it's so f....ng complicated !!! We usually buy industrial ones because homemade panettone takes a very hard long work !! Are you so patient and willing ? Have you giant pots ? :-):-):-) I translate it and I send it to you in the private mail box.

Max, I love to make home made bread, very therapeutic. I'll give it a try. I was wondering what they put in the commercial versions to make them last so long. I don't think they ever spoiled.
Grazie.

I'm pretty sure we had a discussion about this before. Many people do have a false outlook on what italian food is. In my opinion, the biggest misconception is the confusion of italian-american food with italian food.

Does anyone have a recipe for rabe? I make mine with olive oil, garlic, and hot pepper.

What's a rabe ?

Please, do not forget that Italian emigrants were extremely poor and not educated. The only cooking they knew was their village's one. Ingredients were cheap and linked to seasons. Their nutrition was mainly based on agricolture.
Useless to say that they even couldn't afford restaurants.
The great Italian food tradition is owed to aristocracy and bourgeoisie. They all could afford expensive ingredients and long time of preparation. As they were extremely rich, they had stocks of everything. They had no other amusement that horse races, fox chases, theatres and dinners.
Many Italian wines were produced (and are still produced !) by noble families.
That's the main reason of the difference between the actual Italian cooking and the one of the emigrants.

Rabe are kind of like turnip greens. They are eaten mostly in southern Italy. I'm pretty sure that they are indeed authentic. Soke people call them rapini.

About Broccoli Rabe
Broccoli Rabe is also referred to as rabe or rapini. This is another leafy green vegetable that is frequently eaten in Southern Italy and has become popular in the United States. The vegetable has a slightly bitter taste and is frequently steamed or lightly sauteed in olive oil.

The Broccoli Rabe flower looks similar to the broccoli florets. Despite the name this plant is not a type of broccoli but it is in the same brassica family. One of the many health benefits of this vegetable is that it is rich in certain phytochemicals, including sulforaphane and indoles. These are chemicals which are proving to protect us against cancer.

Nutrition

Gia, it's also similar to friarielli which is grown in the Campania. As far as making the Rapa or whatever is similar. I use the same ingedients that you mentioned and so do the Napolitans. First you have to trim off the think stems and parboil for about 5 minutes . Drain well and then add to the hot oil, garlic and peperoncini. It's the same if you use spinach. Simmer until tender. When you put the garlic in the hot oil, let it cook for a few minutes and then remove, you will still get a garlic taste but not overpowering. If you are going to have pasta with it, use the same water as you did for parboiling, just add salt.
We have this at least once a week. I just started growing my own for the fall season.
buon appetito