Italian Cooking Equipment

I've listed here some essential Italian cooking equipment that you might need to make some of the Italian recipes on this web site.

I konw that you probably have in your home all the cooking appliances you need, but believe me as you become more sophisticated about Italian cooking you may want to get some special Italian cooking tools.

For example a pasta machine for making fresh egg pasta is very useful and a food mill too when you have to make fresh tomato sauce.

Another cooking item that Italians consider essential as a knife and a cutting board is a simple cheese grater, it's one of the most extensively used tool and it couldn't be otherwise, Italians eat a lot of pasta topped with grated Parmigiano cheese so there's one in every home.

**Italian Cheese Graters by Alessi**

Cooking Pots

PIRAL Clay Cooking Pots
PIRAL is the most popular clay cooking pot and best for cooking Italian sauces, soups, stews, beans or stockpot.

Cheese Graters

Yes, probably the most used Italian tool and the three common types of cheese graters are: rotary, box and flat styles.

Rotary Cheese Grater
Classic Italian style stainless steel cheese grater. Fresh grated cheese will give to your pasta much more stronger taste.

The best tool to grate Parmiggiano-Reggiano on your pasta, and some of them are excellent even for other hard cheeses.

Food Mill

Food Mill
Stainless steel food mill to make fresh tomato pasta sauce an indispensable tool.

Mortar and Pestle

If you want to make your own pesto at home with more aroma this is an essential tool. Ideal to crush nuts, herbs or spices, and Italian cooks crush the basil leaves and pine nuts for the best purist pesto.

Mezzaluna

Before the advent of modern food processor, an old Italian chopping tool called mezzaluna (meaning half moon due to it's shape) was always hanging in the Italian's kitchen, I still remember my mother's one which now is hidden at the bottom of a don't know which drawer...

I bought a new one now and often using it because this Italian tool is much safer than a kitchen knife when it comes to chop some Italian parsley or other herbs.

**my new *mezzaluna* chopper**

Don't worry chopping herbs with this strange knife is simple as a pie you simply hold the tool in your hands and then start swinging from left to right and back right to left, sure that your hands will never touch the blade, yes simple as that!

This cooking tool is economical and want cost you a fortune, it's easily available in different forms and with double blade at Amazon store.