When we think about Italian kitchen we think about tradition and tasty ingredients, but there are details about some dishes or ingredients that will cheer you up even more. Let’s discover the weird names of some of them!
Ingredients
The names of some ingredients are really strange and funny, as they usually refer to something sexual or hilarious; Here are some of them:
Palle del nonno: it literally means ‘the balls of the grandfather’, really funny right? Well, this strange name was given to a pork salami, originally from Norcia, that recalls the genitals of old men.
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Zizzona: it’s the name of a type of mozzarella from Campania and the name comes from Neapolitan dialect: “big tit'”. It refers to the shape and the weight of this special mozzarella, that can go from 1 to 15kg. Another reason for this funny name is the fact that when cut, it releases lots of milk; it even has the nipple at the centre of it!
Grattaculi: it’s the name of the green part above the zucchini, the strange name means ‘butts scratcher’. The name comes from a fun fact: people who collected zucchini and also the grattaculi, claim that this part of the veggie touches their butts, scratching them, so that’s why it’s called like that!
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Dishes
As for ingredients, there are lots of Italian dishes with hilarious names:
Spaghetti alla puttanesca: It’s a Neapolitan pasta dish, linked to the word ‘puttanesca‘ that actually refers to the word ‘puttana’ (whore), because of its origins. In fact it is related to a pleasure house in Naples where the mistresses prepared this pasta dish to reinvigorate their customers!
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Cazzilli di patate: they come from Palermo. They are called with this strange name because ‘cazzilli’ (small dicks) refers to the phallic shape of them.
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Tette di vergine: they are a Sicilian dessert, the strange name comes from the shape and the decoration (lit. Virgin’s boobs). Their shape recalls indeed the shape of boobs and the decoration has little cherries in the middle of them recalling a small nipple.
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As these dishes, there are many others with funny names! Let us know if you know more of them!
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