Good Italian Cooking

Words are capable of mysterious chemistry. Taken singly, the three common words in the title above appear plain enough in their meaning. We can use any one of them in ordinary conversation, confident we’ll be understood. But put just two of them together and you can set off a debate. Ask what is good cooking and you may get as many conflicting replies as you have people willing to offer a definition. Italian cooking? Ask a Neapolitan, a Roman, a Florentine, a Bolognese, a Genoese, a Venetian. Each will describe something different. Good Italian cooking? Who is to say? Let us pull the words apart again, turn them around, and see what is behind them.