The alternative Italian kitchen

By Oliver Goggi

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ITALY, a country known for its beautiful cars, fabulous art and sexy women also boasts a terrific kitchen. With some 200 recipes for pasta alone you could easily enjoy a different dish ever day of the year.

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We're all familiar with the staple offerings available at the local trattorria, your spaghetti bolognese, lasagne or pizza; however, the true Italian kitchen boasts a whole lot more. Following are some of the more unusual dishes you're unlikely to find down your local Italian:

• The Italian delicacy OssoBuco alla Milanese is a delicious dish starting to creep onto menus over here. The dish's main ingredient is veal shins, which are stewed for hours until the marrow is sufficiently cooked to be sucked out of the bone, super.
• Sticking with the flagrant disregard for CJD is a regional dish�called Cervello della Pecora or sheep's brains. Though generally limited to the more rustic regions of Italy this dish can be quite a treat if not over cooked. The sheep's head is cut in half and the brains roasted in the skull with seasoning and little else. All this makes for quite an imposing sight on your plate - no doubt a guaranteed bird puller.
• Next up, but still one for the more adventurous diner is Linguini alla Seepie, or pasta cooked in squid ink. This coastal dish is an acquired taste for many, the ink, while providing a dark rich colour to the pasta and calamari, also adds a distinctly bitter tang to the dish.
• Italy, also famed for its formaggio, brings us the southern speciality Sardinian Pecorino al Vermie, a cheese that has to be kept in a glass to stop the worms wandering. Break a piece of this cheese in two and you can see it wriggle, and though this might not appeal to some, its still very popular in Italy despite the best efforts of various EU regulations.

Moving away from�some or the more disturbing dishes on the menu, should you find yourself in Italy late summer, early autumn one delicacy�to hunt down is:

• Flori di Zucchini Friti or fried courgette flowers. These bright yellow flowers are dipped in a light batter and shallow fried for a couple of minutes giving them a wonderfully crisp light coat. They make an ideal aperitif or accompaniment to any meal.
• Lastly, something a little more accessible, Risotto al Fegato di Pollo, or chicken liver risotto. Cooked like any other risotto dish the addition of chicken livers adds a surprisingly rich taste to the otherwise familiar dish.