I love to cook and I do it all the time, but I’ve never made or even tasted Italian food like we had several places around Italy.

I realize that their ingredients are usually higher quality than what we can get at our grocery stores but I’d still like to find the best I can and try to get a heck of a lot closer than I have been.

Does anyone have recipe books they’d recommend or brands and/or places to buy the good stuff? Any hints from pasta to oils and vinegars to anything else that’s authentically Italian would be very appreciated.

I’ve looked at a bunch of pasta and other things on Amazon that look promising.

Anybody here from Italian descent or a former Italian missionary who has done a good job replicating the authentic tastes?

A couple of the dishes that we had that made me think they weren’t even real they were so good -
Pasta Ragú (literally made me stop mid bite it was so delicious. It was like nothing is ever tasted)
Pasta carbonara (they used pork jowl meat for the bacon. It was insanely delicious)
Scaloppine lemon chicken
Focaccia sandwiches
Multiple amazing caprese salads with real buffalo mozzarella (I’d love to find a source for this!)
Mind blowing balsamic vinegars. We tasted some that were 40 years old and cost $200-300 for a small bottle!
Cannoli made by hand in front of us. Mind blowing.
Greek salads in Greece. The feta or whatever cheese it was was next level delicious.

And more I’m sure….

I’ll remember it hose meals as long as I live.