During the Covid lockdown when we were unable to go exploring around New England, I started a deep dive into Italian regional cuisine. Unsurprisingly, there are some ingredients that are important to Italian cooks but almost unknown in the United States.
Some, like Ligurian olive oil and the Taggiasca olives that it is pressed from, are hard to find, but can be found in some specialty shops or ordered online. Others, like the celebrated onions of Tropea in the south or Ivrea in the north, simply aren't imported to the US. Others, like the cut of beef called the Cappello del Prete, certainly exist in this country (we have cattle, after all) but American butchers do not know it by that name, and they cut their beef differently from how Italian butchers do it.
Here are some rare and mysterious ingredients for Italian cooking and entertaining: