Italian Kitchen

The Italian kitchen has been greatly influenced throughout the centuries by social and political changes. Significant change occurred with the discovery of the New World (Americas and Australia) which helped shape much of what is known as Italian cuisine today with the introduction of items such as potatoes, tomatoes, bell pepper and maize, which are all central parts of the cuisine but not introduced in scale until the 18th century. http://www.travelforlife.ru/p152/l154/index.html