Mangiare e bere (ep. 3) Top 5 weirdest Italian foods

Everyone loves Italian food, pasta, pizza, and good vino. But there's a more obscure side in Italian cuisine not known by tourists and made of guts, blood, and crawling insects! Keep reading if you are brave enough..

In the previous articles of this series, we talked about the history of caffè and bolognese, but it's time to move onto less mouth-watering options, and discover delicatessen that would make raise lots of foodies' eyebrows. Each Italian region has its own unique set of traditions and dishes, here's an unbelievable list of recipes :

Pani câ meusa (Dialect from Palermo) The first course in our horrific selection is of type a street food that can be found in Sicily, specifically in Palermo. It consists of soft sesame bread sliced and filled with chopped veal lung and spleen, first boiled and then fried in lard. Possible variants may include cheese such as ricotta or Caciocavallo.

Puppetti ri canni i cavaddu (Dialect from Catania)

This dish, in Italian Polpette di carne di cavallo (Horse meatballs), is a variant of the classic Italian meatballs but containing horse meat. They are generally prepared with a mixture of ground horse meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley, lemon zest, salt, and pepper, and then shaped into meatballs. They can be grilled, fried, baked, or simmered in sauces and they are generally consumed as a snack or as a second course.

Moving to the mainland, our journey now stops to Tuscany for a couple of quick snacks.

Migliaccio pistoiese It's time for a cake! This specialty from Pistoia is a thin cake with pig's blood as the key ingredient. It generally contains pig blood (of course), pig's feet broth, flour, salt & pepper, extra virgin oil, spices, and sugar. They are generally similar to crepes and there are various options, they can be served salty with parmesan or sweet with raisins. Irresistible!

Cibreo Reckoned to be Caterina De Medici's favourite, the Cibreo is a soup made with chicken liver, combs, and any other possible chicken entrails. Its name literally refers to the visceral celebration of the chicken and can be served with toasted bread. Yummy.

Casu martzu For the last course of this incredible feast, we will fly to Sardegna to taste a cheese named Casu martzu (literally 'rotten cheese' in Sardinian dialect). This product is derived from pecorino and it is brought much beyond the regular fermentation process, reaching the stage of decomposition. Its texture is very soft, moist, and the cheese form is generally filled with cheese flies that conduct the fermentation process. the white worms are about 8mm long and white! Enjoy it! If you survived this article and want to find out more subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on social media, and consider joining one of our Summer courses!