Italians pride themselves on having some of the best food – if not the best – in the world. It’s easy to see why. So much of it boils down to using good-quality ingredients and keeping things simple. And there’s a lot to be said for taking things slowly and getting as much pleasure out of eating and drinking as possible. Start with these tips for cooking and eating the Italian way.

A walk through a food market in Italy is enough to make anyone envious of the delicious produce on display. Tomatoes burst with flavour, and seasonal fruit and vegetables actually taste as they’re supposed to, rather than the pale imitations found in many supermarkets. Look out for farmers' markets in your area to find the best produce that you can at home, and remember that the most flavourful fruit and vegetables aren't always the most beautiful or uniform in size and shape.

The civilised habit of having a pre-dinner aperitivo with a few nibbles is embedded in Italian culture. Even a glass of wine and a bowl of olives will do, although in many Italian bars you’ll find an impressive buffet on display. Some people get carried away with all those free snacks and forget to have dinner.

Considering how much Italian food differs from region to region – sometimes you’d think you were in another country – it’s not surprising that olive oils have just as many regional variations. If you like your olive oil peppery, go for Tuscan oil. Ligurian olive oil has a much-prized subtlety and is paler in colour. Go south to Puglia and Sicily and the flavours become sharper and fruitier. Check out our complete guide to olive oil for more buying and storing tips.

While some British and American cooks tend to think of sage as something that goes with stuffing, the Italians have discovered many uses for this wonderfully aromatic herb. One of the most popular is to chop the leaves and let them infuse in melted butter to pour over a filled pasta dish such as pumpkin tortelloni. You could also try this recipe for polenta gnocchi with sage butter.

You don’t have to go through the trouble of making a tomato pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes. Good-quality, tinned plum tomatoes will do the trick. Just sweat onions and garlic before adding the tomatoes and letting everything cook for 10–15 minutes before seasoning and adding herbs. Don’t be tempted to buy pre-made pasta sauces, which will have unwanted extra ingredients including sugar, citric acid and cornflour.

Italians would be horrified by the thought of using ordinary long-grain rice for risotto dishes. Even the standard arborio rice found in most supermarkets isn’t quite up to standard. It’s not quite as easy to find, but look out for vialone nero rice (or, at a pinch, carnaroli). The starchiness of vialone nero is what makes the dish so lovely. And no, don’t wash the rice before cooking.

There’s a very good – and simple – reason why an above-average risotto will have a glistening gloss to the finished dish. That will be the generous addition of butter and parmesan at the end of the cooking. Allow for a bit of time to allow the butter and cheese to melt, leaving the dish with the most luxurious creaminess. Try this in famed French chef Marco Pierre White’s spring vegetable risotto recipe.

Pasta needs a lot more water – and space – than many people realise when they’re cooking it. A litre for every 100g of pasta is a good rule of thumb. And use a decent-sized pot to give the pasta room to cook so it doesn’t stick together. Once the water is boiling, that’s the time to add a generous pinch of salt.

Pasta cooking times can vary wildly from what is suggested on the packet – which will often be shorter than the reality. Don’t be afraid to taste the pasta well before you think the cooking time is up. And bear in mind that the pasta continues to cook slightly even after you’ve drained it. You really do want that “al dente” bite to the pasta, not soft mush.

Most pasta dishes benefit from a judicious addition of the water it was cooked in. Don’t drain it in a colander and let all that flavour disappear. Keep some of the pasta water aside and add it to the sauce. Sometimes all you need is a ladleful to loosen the sauce and give it a glossy texture.

We’re so used to seeing photos of a plate of pasta with a mound of sauce sitting prettily on top that we don’t realise what a disservice that does to a lot of pasta dishes. Rather than ladle the sauce on top, add the pasta to the pan in which you’ve been cooking the sauce to let the flavours mingle.

Many Italian ragùs, other pasta sauces and soups start the same way, with a soffritto. Chefs call it the holy trinity of ingredients – finely chopped carrot, celery and onion, cooked very slowly in butter or oil (or sometimes both) until softened but not browned. The secret is chopping it very finely. It also freezes very well and can be cooked from frozen.

As a general rule of thumb, the further south you go in Italy, the more chilli you’ll find in regional dishes. You won’t have to go too far: by the time you’ve reached Lazio and Abruzzo, you will have tasted the wonderful simplicity of spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino – spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and the thin red chillies known as peperoncini – as shown in this delicious recipe. By the time you’ve reached Calabria in the deep south, you can try their famously spicy sausage ’nduja. 

These little green buds from the caper plant preserved in brine or salt add a lovely zing to many Italian dishes. Ligurians add them to slowly cooked rabbit with olives, while Sicilians use capers in caponata. Sprinkle in salads for extra zest, and there are few pizzas that can’t be improved with some chopped capers on top.

Italy’s cucina povera – kitchen of the poor – was born out of necessity when many regions, particularly in the south, could barely feed themselves. One of the cheapest yet most delicious dishes is pasta with breadcrumbs, in which anchovies are cooked in olive oil and added to toasted breadcrumbs and chilli before being mixed with spaghetti.

At first glance, some people would immediately peel potatoes before cooking them to be used in gnocchi. Wrong. You need the flavour that the skin imparts to the flesh, which is why Italians traditionally cook the potatoes whole. The potatoes still need to be quite warm when you’re peeling them – they don’t call them hot potatoes for nothing.

While spaghetti bolognese is a staple in many kitchens, Italians wouldn’t dream of serving a ragù sauce with spaghetti. Tagliatelle is the correct pasta, as its wider length is able to hold on to the sauce better than slippery spaghetti.

Classic spaghetti carbonara is a thing of simple beauty – nothing but pancetta, eggs (a mixture of whole eggs and just the yolks), pecorino, parsley and black pepper. The eggs and pancetta add enough richness to the sauce, so you don’t need to add the cream that’s crept into many recipes. If pasta water is added judiciously to the sauce, that should make up for any lack of creaminess.

Years ago, the perceived wisdom among non-Italian cooks was to add olive oil to pasta water. It’s taken some time for this particular crime against cooking to lose popularity. The idea was that oil would prevent the pasta from sticking together. (Plenty of water and a big pot would take care of that.) Oil also prevents sauces from sticking to the pasta.

Many people associate Italian cooking with lots of garlic. It’s quite the opposite. Classic Italian dishes have very little garlic – none whatsoever in a traditional ragù, in fact. Italians prefer the quality of the ingredients to take centre stage rather than be overwhelmed by the admittedly lovely flavour of garlic.

Don’t let those pretty orange flowers growing at the end of courgettes (or zucchini) go to waste. Stuffed with ricotta or goat’s cheese and gently fried in a light batter, they make a delicious dish that brings the taste of the Mediterranean to your plate.

All Italians know not to order a cappuccino in Italy later in the day. It’s a breakfast drink, and Italians will make jokes about you just getting out of bed if you order a cappuccino after lunch. Espresso can be drunk throughout the day, and particularly goes down well after a meal. Italians also serve caffè corretto – espresso with a shot of grappa or brandy to “correct” the coffee.

The Italian digestive system is used to a pattern, which classically ends with a shot of a digestive spirit of a certain sort. Some liqueurs have become hugely popular, namely limoncello and grappa. But travel through Italy and you'll find regional specialities, including myrtle-infused mirto in Sardinia and walnutty nocino in Emilia-Romagna.

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