Guides
The questions one product page cannot answer
A single food gets a page of its own. But «which Italian cheeses contain no lactose» cuts across twenty of them, and no single specification answers it. Those questions live here, with the numbers and the sources at the bottom.
ExplainerPanettone has had a law since 2005, and the percentages everyone quotes cannot be read off the label16% butter, 20% raisins and candied peel, sourdough compulsory.
InvestigationNine Italian wine names left the EU register in 2026, and the people who held them asked for itBetween March and May the Commission cancelled nine Italian geographical indications, seven of them from Abruzzo.
GuideItaly's novello wine goes on sale at 00:01 on 30 October, and the hour is written into lawNovello has a legal release hour, a bottling deadline and three words it keeps other labels from using.
InvestigationBronze-cut pasta really is rougher. That it holds more sauce is a claim, not a measurementStudies confirm that bronze dies make pasta rougher. None of those we found measured whether it holds more sauce.
ExplainerMortadella and American bologna are not the same thing: the two rulebooks, line by lineMortadella Bologna IGP allows pork only and a closed list of ingredients.
GuideTwelve years against sixty days: what separates traditional balsamic from balsamic vinegar of ModenaTraditional balsamic vinegar (DOP) ages for at least 12 years; balsamic vinegar of Modena (IGP) for at least 60 days.
ExplainerGrana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano look alike, but their rulebooks do notSame family, same rennet, raw milk in both. The real differences are written in the rules: the zone, silage, lysozyme and the months of ageing.
InvestigationWhite truffles are found, not farmed, and that is where the price comes fromIn early November 2025 the Alba truffle bourse quoted white truffles at €5,000 a kilo, about €2,270 a pound.
InvestigationWhat is italian sounding actually worth? Nobody knows, and the numbers prove itSixty billion, then a hundred, then a hundred and twenty, then forty-two.
GuideCheese rind: when it is cheese and when it is packagingOn some wheels the rind is the same paste, dried out. On others it is paraffin.
ExplainerWhy saffron costs what it costs: the arithmetic, not the adjectiveFour hundred hours of human labour per kilo, and no machine that can replace them.
InvestigationReal San Marzano DOP grows on 350 hectares. Everything else is a different thing«San Marzano» is at once the name of a cultivar anyone may plant anywhere, and a protected designation that covered 350 hectares in 2024.
InvestigationWhich Italian cheeses are made with raw milk, and why almost all of them are PDOWe counted: 19 of 43 declare raw milk, and 16 of those 19 carry a protected designation.
InvestigationAlmost no Italian cheese is vegetarian. There is exactly one exceptionWe counted what rennet the 43 cheeses in our atlas declare: 35 out of 43 say animal, none say otherwise.
GuideHow long it keeps once opened, and what actually decides thatThe date on the label describes the sealed package. After that, four things govern everything: water, salt, fat and acidity.
InvestigationBresaola is not PGI. «Bresaola della Valtellina» isEuropean protection attaches to a name in full, and that name is almost always longer than the one used at the counter.
ExplainerWhat extra virgin olive oil actually means, and what it does not guaranteeExtra virgin is not a compliment, it is a legal category with two exams to pass: one chemical, one carried out by trained tasters.
ExplainerParmesan and Parmigiano Reggiano are not the same thing, but it depends where you areIn Europe «parmesan» evokes a protected designation and cannot be used for anything else.
ExplainerWhich Italian cheeses contain no lactoseItaly sets a legal threshold, and long-aged cheeses clear it on their own, with no treatment involved.