Basic Italian Sauces Arugula Blood Oranges Broccoli Rabe Fava Beans Fennel Olive Oil Pancetta Rice Semolina Wheat is the staple Italian grain, used for pasta and bread.
Bread is eaten as, well, bread, and is used as a primary ingredient in sauces and soups .
Italian breads, like focaccia and grissini , are made from basic yeasted dough. Long, slow proofing insures lightness. Baking is normally done in brick ovens. However, home cooks who don't have brick ovens can easily simulate brick oven results in a conventional oven, without the wood smoke, of course. Polenta, cornmeal gruel descended from the Etruscan, was the cheap, filling staple of the poor.