perfectstorms's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
Banana Passionfruit
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Fruits & Vegetables

Banana Passionfruit

This tangy fruit flavors everything from ice cream to cocktails.
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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
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Prepared Foods

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Historians debate whether this dish actually originated with Italian sex workers.
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Alkermes
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Ingredients & Condiments

Alkermes

Once an insect-dyed health tonic, this liqueur now adds a scarlet tint to Italian pastries.
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Licorice Root
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Fruits & Vegetables

Licorice Root

The washed and dried root of the licorice plant was once a popular natural “candy.”
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Liquore all'Alloro
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Drinks

Liquore all'Alloro

If there is anything that should rest on its laurels, it’s probably this laurel-infused digestif.
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Mortadella
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Meats & Animal Products

Mortadella

Baloney's predecessor is sweet, delicately spiced, and bigger than your head.
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Struffoli
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Sweets

Struffoli

These Neapolitan Christmas sweets double as decorations.
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Luxardo Maraschino Cherries
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Ingredients & Condiments

Luxardo Maraschino Cherries

Real maraschinos were born more than a century ago in an Italian distillery.
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’Nduja
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Ingredients & Condiments

’Nduja

The fiery Calabrian meat spread also goes by "red Nutella" and "poor man's Viagra."
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Frutta Martorana
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Sweets

Frutta Martorana

Sicilian nuns once hung these sugary "fruits" from tree branches.
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Salema Porgy
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Meats & Animal Products

Salema Porgy

After dining on this fish, your next course might be 36 hours of hallucinations.
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Pizza Montanara
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Prepared Foods

Pizza Montanara

Its deep-fried crust is part of a longstanding Neapolitan tradition.
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Cassata Siciliana
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Sweets

Cassata Siciliana

The seductively delicious Easter cake once made an entire convent neglect its prayers.
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Traditional Balsamic Vinegar
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Ingredients & Condiments

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar

Most people have never tasted the real thing.
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Sfogliatella
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Sweets

Sfogliatella

This layered pastry from Italy's Amalfi Coast may have origins in a 17th-century convent.
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Saint Agatha's Breasts
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Sweets

Saint Agatha's Breasts

This ricotta and marzipan pastry honors the Sicilian saint's most noteworthy body part.
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Strawberry Tree Fruit
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Fruits & Vegetables

Strawberry Tree Fruit

The lychee-looking fruit appears in everything from jam and liqueur to the Aeneid and Madrid's flag.
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