Milan Gastronomy

Are rice and cheese your favourite foods? If you have said "yes", Milan is a city specially designed for you. Traditional Milanese cooking is made up of simple, but delicious dishes. On the other hand, Milan's passion for fashion extends to the dinner table: it is full of restaurants with the newest foodie trends. Finding a good restaurant to spend a pleasant night in a beautiful environment, with a perfect service, and a delicious meal, is quite easy in this city.

Italian food tends to be deeply regional, with the different cities having their own signature dishes and ingredients. Milan, however, has been influenced by the massive influx of the industrial boom workers, so it has influences from both Sicily and Tuscany. But this doesn't mean that Milanese cuisine doesn't have its own distinctive flavour.

Unlike most Italian regions, Lombardy prefers a northern European custom: using butter rather than oil as its cooking medium, which gives a special and distinctive taste to their cuisine. Alla Milanese-style cooking means that the food is usually dipped in egg and breadcrumbs mixed with grated Parmesan then sautéed in butter.

Their most popular dish is Rissotto, often made with meat. Pasta is very popular too, but it's usually baked or stuffed with cheese or meat. They love all kinds of cheeses, but Gorgonzola is their favourite. Mascarpone is also a typical Milanese cheese and appears regularly in puddings, desserts or creams. Another popular speciality is osso buco, always accompanied by risotto. Meat is very common on many menus, especially veal and pork. They usually eat fish too, particularly trout and pike, straight from the many lakes in northern Italy. Don't forget to taste the "cassouela", an extremely filling dish made with various parts of pork meat (tail, ribs, rind, feet and ears) cooked with green cabbage and other vegetables.

Finally, Panettone is a sweet type of bread with raisins, citron, and anise which hails from the Milan area, but enjoyed throughout Italy. It is the traditional Italian Christmas cake, although there's nothing to stop visitors ending their meal with a generous wedge of the fruit-studded bread at any time of the year. Another typical dessert is the Torta di tagliatelle, a sweet cake made from egg pasta and almonds.

Pizzerias are very popular in the city. They are usually cooked in wood-fired ovens, giving them a delicious smoked taste. Some of these pizzerias have traditional paper tablecloths and provide you with pencils to amuse yourself while waiting for your pizza.

Do you want to taste the most traditional Milanese food in a traditional trattoria? Take a flight to Italy and rent Milan Apartments for the best accommodation. If you are planning to visit this city, don't miss out on trying some of their typical food.