Can I still be a vegan in Italy?

[Hiking Fox]

Oh yeah, that's a good point. You have to check whether it is egg pasta.

[soniczip]

usually these kinds of pasta (especially in restaurants) are made with eggs (i'm only listing the most famous):

tagliatelle
ravioli
cappelletti
fettuccine
tortellini
lasagne

these, instead, are made without eggs:

spaghetti
penne
maccheroni
conchiglie
pipe rigate
fusilli
bigoli
linguine
vermicelli
rigatoni
farfalle
fiori
gnocchi
orecchiette
and many others ... many of these kinds have different names accordingly to the region you happen to visit.

as long as you pay attention to the first list, you shouldn't have any problem. to be on the safe side, say or write: "potrebbe suggerirmi un tipo di pasta senza uovo?" (could you suggest me some pasta without eggs?)

[bob_summers]

that's really useful soniczip, thanks.

[runner]

pretty usefull info!!

how about pizza's?

here in the netherlands some use milk in the base. some others told me that that's not real italian pizza..

[soniczip]

good question.

traditional pizza is made with a dough which doesn't contain milk, and the majority of "pizzaioli" make it without milk. again, to be on the safe side, ask (or write): "fate l'impasto della pizza con il latte o senza?" (do you put milk in the dough you use for the pizza base?).

[veggie_guy80]

soniczip, is it the same for pasta made in the UK at Italian restaurants would you say? I thought *all* pasta in restaurants was made with egg??

[xrodolfox]

I'm not Italian like soniczip, but my favorite food is pasta.

What I've found is that in Italy, the best restaurants used DRY pasta instead of FRESH pasta. 99% of dry pasta (exclusing CHINESE EGG NOODLES) is dairy and egg free and made only of durum wheat semolina = vegan. Most FRESH pasta is made with eggs and/or milk.

However, most of those fancy Italian places knew that the best pasta to store and the pasta that came out 'al dente' the most regularly was the dry pasta, so that's what they used. That's what local people in Italy use, and that's what the restaurants use (except for those few examples like ravioli and fettuchini that soniczip suggested). It was similar for pizza dough; most fancy places used just water and flour, no egg, no milk.

The problem is that in the US (and I imagine the UK), people seem to think that Italian = milk or eggs. For some reason, many restaurants seem to think that the FRESH pasta which often turns to mush once cooked, is a better gimick than the DRY (and vegan) pasta. Thus, fancy places serve FRESH non-vegan pasta, and all the other places try to follow suit, even if it's not authentically Italian. It's just a gimick.

So... in practice in the US, most restaurants use vegan (dry) pasta. Only a few silly specialty places use FRESH home made pasta, and those places usually advertise and price their efforts on their menu. Unfortunately, those fresh pasta endeavors are rarely al dente and instead mushy doughy messes. Yuck.

I imagine it's the same in the UK. I often simply ask, "Is your pasta from a box or is it made here?" when I ask if their pasta has eggs in it. Most often, the wait staff tell me the brand pasta they get and that's a lot clearer than a waitperson who doesn't know how to read "durum wheat semolina" and what that means. So I do imagine that most pasta in the UK is vegan if it's from a regular not too fancy place.

In the US, it's the sauce that's much more worrisome. Those fuckers don't even know what they add half the time; and ALL good sauce is made on the premises so there's no sidesteping the waitstaff's intelligence on that question. I usually end up getting "aglio olio" 'cause I can't trust their Pomodoro sauce.

[soniczip]

soniczip, is it the same for pasta made in the UK at Italian restaurants would you say? I thought *all* pasta in restaurants was made with egg??

i ate pasta abroad and never liked it. i never was offered "egg" pasta and if i was, i would have recognized it by its texture and consistency. you shouldn't have any problem as long as you ask for spaghetti, maccheroni or penne. you see, "egg" pasta is much softer than "durum wheat" pasta. but clearly what xrodolfox experienced is not what you should expext in italy:

So... in practice in the US, most restaurants use vegan (dry) pasta. Only a few silly specialty places use FRESH home made pasta, and those places usually advertise and price their efforts on their menu. Unfortunately, those fresh pasta endeavors are rarely al dente and instead mushy doughy messes. Yuck.

that's probably because they don't know how to prepare it in the first place. my grandmother used to make the best fresh pasta ever (i wasn't vegan back then). every single italian will declaim the absolute superiority of fresh pasta. fresh pasta is something for special occasions, like a family dinner, a wedding, ... whatever; it's something you don't cook everyday. as far as taste is concerned, fresh pasta is the best. i'm not speaking about uk, usa, or other countries. i'm only speaking about italy.

as an italian travelling here and there (canada, usa, south america, france, ireland, uk) i had the ... hem!, pleasure of tasting different versions of "italian" pastas and pizzas. believe me, it's not the real thing.

[Hiking Fox]

I was pretty sure that penne in Italy is always the dried stuff, but after Bob Summers' post, I suddenly began to worry that I'd got that wrong all these years (you know, like the long-running myth that Guinness brewed in Dublin is different from the London stuff, or something.)

Thanks for re-assuring me!