Indian vs Italian food & cuisine

Long before anyone coined macronutrients, Indian cooks were already serving complete meals: protein-rich lentils, fermented batters full of probiotics, fiber-packed vegetables, cooling yogurts, and energy-giving grains. It grew from Ayurvedic principles where food balances the body through qualities like hot, cold, dry, and oily, and every bite served a purpose beyond taste.

The thali perfectly demonstrates this logic. A round plate carrying many small portions in deliberate order represents all six tastes. There’s always a balance: dry curry against runny dal, fried items with pickles, and cooling raita (a refreshing condiment) to offset the heat.

Regional identity is another hallmark. Like Chinese or Indian food, Italian cuisine is deeply regional, but here diversity is central to national pride, with locals fiercely guarding distinctions.

Meals also follow structure, though rules vary. At home, dinner may be just pasta, salad, and fruit. Traditionally and in formal settings, courses are small, distinct, and served in sequence.

India has perhaps the world’s most sophisticated grain fermentation. Dosa, a savory crepe made from ground black gram and rice, and idli, savory rice cake batters, dhokla, a savory sponge dish, fermented rice – these are complex biotechnological processes that transform grain nutrition and digestibility. Few other cuisines utilize fermentation as extensively for grains as this one.

Indian breads are eaten extremely fresh. A roti or paratha (unleavened flatbread of flaky texture) must be cooked moments before serving. This ‘hot off the griddle’ approach is so important that day-old bread is already inferior. Most Indian breads are unleavened or use alternative fermentation methods. When Indians ferment, it’s often through natural fermentation using rice-lentil batters, rather than commercial yeast, to create different textures and flavors entirely. Indian breads actively use millet, corn, rice, sorghum, and combinations thereof. A single Indian household might use five different grains for different breads in one week.

Italians eat pasta often – three times a week or more – but in modest portions (80–100 grams). Every village has at least one traditional pasta, adding up to over 350 shapes. Wheat also underpins breads, usually rustic with few ingredients, though styles vary: Ligurian focaccia, Puglian Altamura, unsalted pane toscano.

Pizza belongs to this wheat spectrum too, related to focaccia and schiacciata, but stands apart as a full meal and Italy’s most iconic export. Italians love it, yet most eat it weekly rather than daily, countering common misconceptions.

When rice is featured on menus, it’s most likely arborio and carnaroli varieties, which absorb liquids and remain pleasantly tender. Rice is used in risottos, arancinis, risi e bisi.

Polenta is uniquely popular as the main corn product – consumed creamy, set and sliced, grilled, or even fried.

Extensive pickling achar is common, usually in mustard oil, spices, and acids. E.g., mango pickle, lime pickle, carrot pickle, green chili in vinegar. Indian pickles are very often oil-preserved, while other cultures more extensively use vinegar or brine. Vegetables are nearly always paired with lentils (dal) or flatbreads.

Some of the most popular produce in the cuisine of India are potatoes, onions, tomatoes, chillies, spinach, eggplants, cauliflowers, okra, green mango, bitter gourds, and bottle gourds.

A dry curry refers to a dish where vegetables, meat, or legumes are cooked with spices until the moisture evaporates, leaving a thick, clinging masala or no sauce at all. It’s the opposite of a ‘gravy’ curry. Dry curries are common in home cooking, especially for everyday potatoes, okra, or cabbage. Dry curry is not a traditional culinary term – it’s more common in English-language cookbooks to distinguish sauceless versions. In Indian kitchens, such dishes are simply called sabzi or sookhi sabzi (dry vegetable).

Indian cuisine uses some of the spiciest chilies in the world, like Bhut Jolokia ghost pepper and Naga King, but not uniformly across the country. Chili heat in India ranges from extreme in the Northeast (ghost, naga chilies) to hot in the South (Andhra curries, pickles), moderate in the West (Rajasthani chutneys), balanced in the North (curries with dairy), and mild in the East (mustard-based dishes).

In many other cuisines, fruits are eaten fresh or in desserts, but India incorporates fruits into main courses, curries, pulaos, and chutneys extensively. For example, pineapple pulao combines sweet pineapple with spices and rice, and mango is used in tangy chutneys and yogurt drinks like lassi.

Vegetables are tied to season and prepared simply with olive oil, herbs, cheese, or bread, keeping them distinct. Italians often highlight one or two vegetables at a time: asparagus, peas, and artichokes in spring; peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes in summer; broccoli, cauliflower, and mushrooms in fall; carrots, squash, and savoy cabbage in winter. Unique favorites include friarielli, cicoria, fennel, cavolo nero, and zucchini blossoms.

Mushrooms, especially porcini, are beloved, as are truffles from Piedmont. Truffle hunting, once done with pigs, now relies on trained dogs.

Fruit is ever-present, fresh, dried, in jams, or baked. Italian desserts often use fruit in tarts, pastries, and gelato. Grapes serve both wine and balsamic vinegar, the latter aged in wooden barrels for 12–25 years. True balsamic from Modena is dark, sweet, and versatile, its long maturation sometimes becoming a family heirloom.

Consumption is higher in Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, Nagaland, and the Northeast, where Christian and Muslim communities are larger and Brahminical norms weaker. Urbanization, income growth, and safer supply chains are also driving demand.

Chicken leads the domestic market, while buffalo meat is exported as ‘beef.’ In India, ‘mutton’ usually means goat, not sheep, and is tied to special occasions.

At home, meat is stewed, fried, or simmered in gravies – like rogan josh in Kashmir, pan-Indian chicken curry, or Bengal’s slow-cooked mutton kosha. Biryani is another classic: marinated meat layered with rice, sealed, and steamed. Ground meat (keema) fills breads, kebabs, or curries  keema matar.

Abroad, Indian food is often represented by butter chicken or tandoori, with smoky grills that fit Western ideas of meat. But everyday Indian meals are saucier, designed to soak into rice or bread.

And that famous chicken tikka masala? It’s not Indian at all—likely invented in the UK by Bangladeshi chefs for British tastes, inspired by but distinct from Delhi’s butter chicken.

Italian cuisine is known for curing and preserving pork. Prosciuttos Parma and San Daniele, or salamis like Genoa and Sopressata, showthe transform meat into lasting specialties. Meat often serves as flavoring rather than a dominant center.

Other meats are rather regional: beef in bistecca alla fiorentina and ossobuco; veal in Milanese and Roman dishes; lamb in Central and Southern classics like abbacchio alla romana. Poultry, though less central, features in rustic recipes like pollo alla cacciatora.

Seasonal game adds variety, with wild boar, venison, hare, pheasant, quail, and rabbit enjoyed locally.

Indian seafood is almost always served with rice – not naan or roti. Fish is often shallow-fried, steamed in banana leaves, or simmered in thick gravies – not grilled or raw. Even in seafood dishes, Indian cuisine incorporates vegetables and legumes, creating more complex, balanced meals rather than focusing solely on protein.

Distinct regional specialties highlight natural flavors. Sardinia and Sicily grate cured mullet roe (bottarga) over pasta; Liguria layers or marinates anchovies; Venice serves baccalà mantecato, a whipped salted cod spread; southern regions savor raw sea urchins, especially in Puglia. Crudo di mare – raw scallops, shrimp, or octopus with lemon and olive oil – also reflects Italy’s love of pure seafood, as does the popular fritto misto di mare of lightly fried fish and shellfish.

Indian desserts stand out globally for being milky and dense, sweet-forward, spiced, perfumed, and technically demanding, despite humble ingredients. Built around milk, sugar, ghee, and time, they are intensely sweet, especially traditional ones like jalebi, a crispy, chewy, and sticky confection; gulab jamun, deep-fried balls from milk solids; or boondi laddoo, deep-fried droplets of gram flour batter soaked in sugar syrup.

There’s rarely a contrast of tart or bitter to balance the sugar, unlike in Western or East Asian sweets. Cardamom, saffron, rosewater, nutmeg and kewra (fragrant extract from pandanus flower), are common.

Indian desserts avoid eggs almost entirely, fruits are rarely a star, with the exception of mango and banana halwa, and chocolate is rare.

Northern Italian oils from Liguria and Lombardy tend to be mild, delicate, and buttery, while oils from Southern Puglia, Sicily, and Calabria are bolder, robust, peppery, and often have sweet or herbal notes. Though Italian cuisine also uses butter, olive oil is a must-have kitchen staple.

Nuts are very diverse: they feature pesto sauce; are served with pasta; chopped nuts are used in salad dressings, cookies, tarts, and nougats. Italian gelato often includes nut-based flavors of pistachio or hazelnut.

Italian sweets are usually less sweet, with a focus on nuts, ricotta, chestnuts, and fresh or dried fruits. Many classics – such as tiramisù, panna cotta, or gelato – use few, high-quality ingredients.