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Italian-Uruguayan Foodways

Diaspora

Between the 1870s and the 1930s Uruguay took immigration on a scale that remade it, and Italians — Genoese, Piedmontese, then southern — were the largest single group; a very large share of Uruguayans have Italian ancestry. The everyday kitchen shows it more than the restaurant one does: MILANESA, ubiquitous, and milanesa al pan; PIZZA in a Montevideo style cooked a la piedra or al tacho; pasta, ravioles, ÑOQUIS eaten on the 29th of the month with money left under the plate; PASCUALINA at Easter; and FAINÁ — Ligurian farinata of chickpea flour — sold from the same ovens and eaten ON TOP of a slice of pizza as a "caballo".

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Italian Uruguayans community documented

Languages: Italian, Spanish

What is recorded

  • Fainá derives from Ligurian farinata and pascualina from the Genoese torta pasqualina; both arrived with Italian immigration and developed into Río de la Plata foods shared with Argentina. The custom of eating ñoquis on the 29th of the month with money placed under the plate came with the same migration. They are recorded as Uruguayan foods of Italian origin rather than as Italian food abroad. documented
  • Mass European immigration remakes the country; Italians are the largest single group, bringing the pasta, pizza, milanesa and fainá that became Uruguayan everyday food. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • originates from Italian documented

    Fainá is Ligurian farinata; pascualina is Genoese; the ñoquis-on-the-29th custom came with them. All developed into Río de la Plata foods.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.