Close your eyes and imagine you’re sitting outside a villa overlooking the gorgeous Amalfi Coast, your skin soaking up the sunshine as you take your first bite of that hand-rolled pasta coated in a hearty walnut pesto.

While there’s not much that we can do about physically getting you to Italy, we can transport your senses by helping you master Italian cuisine. And, although you might initially think otherwise, Mediterranean food can be incredibly vegan-friendly! After all, simplicity and bold flavors are key to Italian cooking.

In this guide, we’ll go over the foundations of Italian cuisine, including popular Italian ingredients and traditional dishes, as well as 3 authentic vegan/veganized Italian recipes you can try at home.

There’s so much more to Italian cuisine than pizza and pasta!

Let’s dive straight in:

What are the main ingredients in Italian food?

Italian cuisine is known for its simplicity and regional diversity, which was enhanced further after the colonization of the Americas and the subsequent introduction of new crops, such as potatoes, maize, and even tomatoes (yes, tomatoes were only introduced in 1522, after the Spanish brought them over from Peru).

Despite the variety across regions, there are a number of traditional staples used across the country that make up the foundations of Italian cuisine, which include:

1. Capers
2. Tomatoes
3. Fresh pasta
4. Garlic
5. Oregano
6. Rosemary
7. Extra virgin olive oil
8. Balsamic vinegar
9. Pasta sauce
10. Porcini mushrooms
11. Basil
12. Wine (white and red)
13. Italian cheese

As you can see, only the last ingredient (and sometimes the wine) is not plant-based. We’d say that’s pretty vegan-friendly!

What are common Italian foods?

Michael Chiarello, the chef and founder of Bottega in Napa Valley, tells us: “Italian food is really a celebration of produce, and protein is a secondary thought.”

It comes as no surprise then that Italian meals start with a large array of antipasti, showcasing vegetables and cured meats. Afterward, protein is served in the form of small pasta dishes, which are based on the seasonality of ingredients in that region.

The best part? Many traditional Italian dishes are either already vegan or easily veganized!

Some common examples of authentic Italian cuisine include:

• Ribollita
• Risotto
• Polenta
• Pizza Marinara
• Arancini
• Gnocchi
• Tiramisu
• Parmigiana
• Salad Caprese
• Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Is fresh Italian pasta vegan?

“Italy is pasta. But for the vegan people, there is one problem because in Italy we use eggs. Where? In the north of Italy,” says Chef Alberto, an Italian chef and instructor from Good Tastes of Tuscany, “In the south of Italy, we don’t use eggs. Why? There’s a legend: because eggs are really really expensive and people prefer to eat the eggs and don’t put the eggs in the flour to make the dough. So, there was invented this kind of pasta.”

So there you have it, pasta made in North Italy is usually made with eggs but pasta from South Italy is often vegan. For example, Pici pasta (a hand-rolled staple from Tuscany) is made using semolina flour, with water and oil used as an alternative to egg. In addition, many of the dry pasta products found at supermarkets are free from eggs.

What traditional Italian foods are vegan?

While you should always watch out for the addition of non-vegan ingredients such as anchovies or cheese, the following Italian dishes are suitable for vegans:

• Caponata (fried eggplant, olives, onions, and capers)
• Orecchiette con cime di rapa (little ear-shaped vegan pasta with broccoli rabe leaves and sometimes sprinkled with peperoni cruschi, which are dried sweet red peppers)
• Bruschetta al pomodoro (juicy tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh herbs)
• Pizza alla marinara (Neopolitan pizza seasoned with only tomato sauce, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, and garlic)
• Fave e cicorie (blended fava beans served with chicory leaves)
• La ribollita (Tuscan vegetable and bread soup)
• Pasta al pomodoro e basilico (pasta with tomato sauce and fresh basil)
• Verdure grigliate (grilled vegetables)
• Pasta aglio e olio (pasta in garlic and chili oil)
• Sorbetto al limone (lemon sorbet)

The list could go on! 

Authentic vegan Italian recipes

Without further ado, because we know how hungry you’re getting reading about delicious Italian cuisine, here are some of our favorite vegan-friendly Italian recipes:

La ribollita (Tuscan soup) - Demuths

We love to dunk sourdough bread into this hearty Tuscan cuisine!

Gently cook chopped onions in olive oil with a bay leaf and thyme. Once soft, add leeks, celery, and carrots and sweat for 10 minutes before throwing in tomatoes, cannellini beans, cavolo nero, and vegetable stock. Cook for 20 minutes with the lid on, blend a third of the soup, season to taste, and serve with fresh parsley and extra virgin olive oil.

Click here for the full recipe

Orecchiette con cime di rapa - Italia Plant-Based

Although soy sauce is not a traditional Italian ingredient, it makes an excellent substitute for the salty anchovies that are usually added to this dish.

Boil broccoli rabe/florets for 5 minutes and add orecchiette, cooking until al dente. To make the sauce, heat the garlic in oil and soy sauce and turn off the heat once it starts to sizzle. Mix a ladle of pasta water along with the broccoli and orecchiette and turn the heat back on to cook until the sauce coats the pasta. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve.

For the full recipe (and a recipe to make your own homemade orecchiette pasta) click here

Vegan arancini - The Hungry Herbivores

These little orange-sized balls are the epitome of Italian street food and a great way to use up leftover risotto. Although these rice balls are traditionally stuffed with mozzarella, you can stuff them with whatever you’d like, from vegan cheese to roasted vegetables and vegan ragu. This recipe by The Hungry Herbivores calls for a creamy mushroom filling.

Fry garlic until fragrant and then add mushrooms and soy cream/milk. After softening, stir in cornflour so that the liquid gets absorbed. Remove from heat and add fresh thyme. Once cooled, use leftover risotto to create small hollow balls and fill them with creamy mushrooms. Close the ball with extra risotto. Roll each ball in cornflour, then dip into plant milk, coat with breadcrumbs, and shallow fry until golden brown.

Get the full recipe here

Mastering Italian cuisine

We hope you’ve found our overview of this wonderful Mediterranean cuisine valuable and have learned a few delicious recipes in the process! Of course, there is so much more to learn about Italian food that we simply can’t cover it all in a single blog post.

Therefore, if you’re interested in learning the basics of making classic Italian dishes, from pizza to pasta, pesto, soups, salads, desserts, and more, then we can’t recommend Chef Alberto’s Classic Vegan Italian course enough!

With more than 30 years of experience in cooking, Alberto has a vast knowledge of the rich Italian cuisine and understands perfectly how to use flavors and ingredients to create traditional local dishes.

Take Alberto’s Classic Vegan Italian course