Make your food healthy with Italian Herbs

Have you ever wondered what makes Italian food so aromatic and flavorful? There are a number of fresh herbs and spices that are essential to any Italian recipe and are cherished for their flavor, aroma and color. Herbs and spices play such a vital role in Italian cuisine that they have often been referred to in mythology, literature and history.

One reason that some herbs and spices have become so crucial to Italian cuisine is that they are widely availability throughout the Italian countryside. Some herbs are so ingrained in the cuisine that they are not only important in adding flavor, but their very presence in the kitchen is believed to enhance the aroma of all dishes and delicacies.

If you have been to southern Italy in the summer, you must have marveled at the deep red chili peppers hung out to dry. Pepperoncino, as the Italians say, is the most common hot pepper grown around Italy. Its spice range measures at a mid-level on the Scoville scale. Calabria in South Italy is the main producer as well as consumer of chili peppers. Northern Italians have also slowly incorporated hot peppers into their cuisine.

Pepperoncino, in addition to adding great spice and flavor, is almost addictive. People who love spicy food add these spices to everything they cook –from meats to sauces, soups and stews.

Traditionally, pepperoncino is not widely used with delicate and creamy dishes, but is perfect for other sauces, especially tomato based. At Pizza Di Rocco, we preserve a variety of these hot peppers in oil, for weeks at a time, in order to create a strongly flavoured, spicy oils.

A very common herb, Oregano is a household name for Italian food lovers around the world. Oregano typically has a pungent flavor, and belongs to the mint family. It is widely available across the Mediterranean and can be used as a dried herb or fresh.

Oregano differs in its variety based on the climate it grew in. Different environmental factors affect the content of its essential oils – phenols carvacrol and thymol. These oils determine the flavor and intensity of Oregano.

Oregano has been known to sometimes be so intense that it can cause your tongue to numb! But the intensity lessens based on the climate it grows it. Oregano obtained from cooler areas has a lighter aroma and flavor. “Sicilian oregano” is the most common variety of this herb and it gives out a spicy, sweet and fragrant mix of flavor.

Arguably, one of the most common of herbs, it has become the hero of a famous Italian saying which means, “You’re like parsley, you’re everywhere”

Known as Prezzemolo, this Mediterranean herb makes an aromatic and flavorful addition to a variety of dishes from pasta sauces to seafood and salads. Parsley, however, is not often used in cream-based dishes.

These fragrant flat leaves are often also used as a garnish, thanks to its powerful flavor and complement to other spices. A part of the bouquet garni, which is a selection of fresh herbs tied together into a bundle, it adds great amounts of texture and intense flavor to soups, sauces and stews.

Cultivated almost in all of Italy, parsley is perfectly paired with garlic. Its high chlorophyll content gives it the properties of a natural breath freshener. Parsley is also rich in iron, iodine and magnesium, as well as other minerals, and is a good source of vitamins A, B, and most of all, C.

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