Several other characteristics of Ligurian cooking stem from Genova's vocation for the sea. No pains were too great to be taken to please the returning wayfarer, so that Genovese cooking is distinguished by patience. Minestrone is made velvety through long slow cooking to develop its symphony of tastes and smells. The juices are slowly sweated out of the meat, so that they become rich and concentrated and are used as the base for the sauce with which ravioli and lasagne are flavored. Genovese cooking is elaborate.
Every dish has to be festive.
Another item in the Italian diet, white bread was consumed with meals. Pasta was served occasionally but did not become a daily staple in Italy until late in the 19th century. Wheat had to be imported because most the of local countryside was too steep to plow. Columbus's parents, unlike most city people who depended on butcher shops for their supplies of fresh veal and pork, owned a small farm where they raised and butchered hogs for their supply of dried and salted sausages and hams. Preserving of food required enormous amount of salt, which was one of Genoa's biggest imports and an important part of the import-export trade.