Glossary

M

macche (pl.) baked polenta slices prepared with sausage or other toppings

maccherone tubular pasta known in English as "macaroni"

maccheroni alla chitarra This is the quintessential pasta dish of Abruzzo. Fresh pasta is made using semolina flour and eggs, rolled thin and pushed through steel wires arranged in a wooden frame. The pasta is typically served with a chili pepper-laced tomato sauce or a ragù of lamb or beef.

macedonia fruit cocktail or salad, a dessert

machetto paste of salt-preserved anchovies and sardines

malfade long fluted noodle

mallegato Tuscan blood pudding

malloreddus Tiny dumplings made of semolina flour, flavored with saffron, shaped into inch-long pieces, and rolled over a sieve to form their characteristic grooves and indentation. Usually Malloreddus are served with simple tomato sauce or a rich lamb ragù.

maltagliati Sometimes made from the trimmings of lasagna and other homemade pastas, maltagliati are an irregularly cut egg-and-flour pasta native to Emilia-Romagna. This type of pasta is most often eaten in vegetable-based soups.

mandorlato almond cake, almond paste, nougat

manfrigul chopped pasta for soup

mantecato ice cream; literally "whipped" (alludes to bulk ice cream scooped from a tub)

maraschino This clear, dry liqueur is made from the marasca cherry. It can be sipped as an after-dinner drink or used in Italian pastries and frozen desserts. Candied maraschino cherries are named after this liqueur, which used to be an ingredient in their manufacture.

marzotica A ricotta aged for a few weeks until it obtains its characteristic aroma and pungency. It tastes delicious grated over pasta, as it is done in Apulia.

mariconda, minestra soup of egg, bread, milk, cheese, and stock

mariconde (pl.) little pasta dumplings for broth

marille twin-tubed rigatoni

marinara, alla "Sailor-style"; the name given to various methods of preparation, though typically tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, olives, parsley, oregano, basil, and capers are used.

merca A type of salami made of grey mullet. The fish is first cooked in salted water then is pressed and wrapped in an aromatic herb called salicornia that grows in the Cabras swamps in Sardinia.

messicani No one knows why these thin, lightly stuffed meat rolls are named "Mexicans." We do know that they are related to Milanese polpette, or meat rolls, and consist of thin slices of pork slathered with chicken livers, salami or prosciutto, garlic, egg, Grana Padano, parsley and nutmeg. They are rolled, tied, dredged in flour, browned in butter, and simmered in wine.

messinese very large macaroni slit partway lengthwise for filling

mezzani long, tubular pasta

mezze maniche literally, "short sleeves"; a short, tubular pasta similar to rigatoni

migliaccini crepes

migliaccio black pudding, blood pudding

milanese, alla Of meats, breaded and sautéed in butter; or of risotto, made with butter, onion, beef marrow, and saffron; or of ravioli, stuffed with roast or stewed beef, prosciutto, amaretti, and cheese.

minestrina light or clear soup

minestrone hearty, mixed vegetable soup (exists in many varieties)

mocetta Mocetta is a flavorful cured meat from Val d'Aosta which resembles Bresaola closely. It used to be made from the deboned leg of wild goat, now a protected species, but nowadays it is made with domesticated goat or beef. Mocetta is prepared like Prosciutto and aged for only a couple of months.

mohnnudeln sweet lasagna with butter, sugar, and poppy seeds

mollane a salted cheese

mollica crustless bread or soft bread crumbs

monzese, risotto alla risotto with sausage

morellini (pl.) purple artichokes (potentially referring to anything small and dark)

mortadella Made from 60% lean pork and 40% pork fat, Mortadella is a delicious cured meat that has origins in the Emilian city of Bologna. The pork meat is stuffed into a casing, shaped into a long, fat cylinder, and studded with peppercorns or pistachios. Savor Mortadella thinly sliced in sandwiches or cubed in meatballs or pasta sauces.

mostarda When pears, apples, cherries, apricots, plums are candied in a syrup spiked with mustard powder, they make up mostarda, a perfect sweet and pungent accompaniment to boiled and roasted meats and sausages.

mosto (must) Must is pure, unrefined fruit juice used in wine and liquors. Grape must is used for winemaking as well as for flavoring many Italian sweets and meat dishes. There are other types of must too: malt must can be used to make beer, apple must for cider, and cherry and prune musts for brandies and liqueurs.

mozzarella soft, fresh white cheese, properly made from water buffalo milk, but often from cow milk

murseddu An old specialty from Calabria, this dish combines tripe cut into thin strips, with slices of calf's and pork's liver, red wine, bread dough, tomatoes, chili peppers, aromatic herbs, and olive oil. Cooked until the lard is tender, Murseddu is served inside a warm loaf of bread.

murstica A favored antipasto in Calabria, mustica is otherwise know as rosamarina.

musetto A gelatinous Friuli-Venezia Giulia sausage, consisting of lean cuts of pork as well as the pigs head and seasoned with various spices. Mustica - Also known as "Calabrese Caviar", Mustica is prepared with salted newborn anchovies, strewn with black pepper or chili, and packed in olive oil for a couple of months before serving.

mustica tiny salted anchovies in peppery oil

** Glossary created with the help of "Dictionary of Italian Cuisine", written by Maureen B. Fant and Howard M. Isaacs. (The Ecco Press: New Jersey, 1998).