What is the national dish of Italy?
Italy has no official national dish. Pizza and pasta are the most famous choices, and ragù alla bolognese is often named as a national dish.
Italian cooking is very regional, and each area is proud of its own specialties. Naples is famous for pizza, Bologna for its slow-cooked meat ragù, Milan for saffron risotto and Rome for pasta dishes such as carbonara and cacio e pepe. Because of this, Italians rarely agree on one single national dish.
Pizza is the dish most people outside Italy associate with the country. Pizza Margherita, with tomato, mozzarella and basil, is said to have been named for Queen Margherita in 1889, its colors matching the Italian flag. In 2017, UNESCO recognized the art of Neapolitan pizza making as an important cultural tradition.
A pasta nation
Pasta is eaten across the whole country and comes in hundreds of shapes, from spaghetti and penne to orecchiette and farfalle. Italians eat more pasta per person than any other nation, around 23 kilograms a year. Traditional Italian meals often serve pasta as a first course, followed by meat or fish.
Did You Know?
In December 2025, UNESCO added Italian cuisine as a whole to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing its everyday traditions of cooking and sharing meals.