GALANI: Venetian dialect word for chiacchiere.

GALANTINA: Cooked salame made with veal, pancetta, pistachio nuts and spices.

GALLETTA: Sea biscuit. Made without yeast and shaped like a bagel, gallette are generally used in cappon magro.

GALLINACCI: (also known as cantarelli). Pale yellow-ochre mush­rooms with upturned, flared caps and slender, short stems.

GAMBERO: Shrimp. A crustacean without claws. It can reach a length of 10 in. The shell can range from pink to bright red; the meat is a delicate pink.

GARGANELLI: Small quills made of fresh pasta with some Parmigiano mixed into the dough. They are shaped by curling fresh pasta dough around a special utensil called pettine.

GARUM: Very popular fish innards sauce in ancient Rome. Its origins are in Greek but in Turkey there is a fish sauce called gharos still today. Samples have been found in the ruins of Pompeii, near Naples, and in the south of Spain or wherever there were salt beds. The sauce was made with fatty fish such as mackerel and sardines. The fish was cleaned and left to marinate in terracotta containers in alternating layers of mint, oregano, celery, fennel dill, coriander and salt. Then it was left for 7 days in the sun, and then mixed every day for 21 days. This mush was saved to use as a sauce for dressing suckling pig on the spit. For home consumption, it was diluted with water, wine or vinegar to prepare various condiments.

GATTÒ: dish made of layers of mashed potatoes with the addition of mozzarella, hard-boiled eggs and salame.

GELATO AL MELONE:. Watermelon ice-cream made with waterme­lon pulp, chocolate and orange-flower water. In Sicilian dialect it is called gelu u muluni

GELU U MULUNI: Sicilian dialect for watermelon ice made with watermelon pulp and orange-flower water.

GIARDINETTO: Plate of vegetables or sottaceti laid out on a plate in such a way as to resemble a garden in bloom.

GIARDINIERA: Various vegetables marinated in water and vinegar and preserved.

GNOCCHI ALLA ROMANA: Semolina gnocchi, usually baked in round disks with butter and cheese.

GNOCCHI: Small dumplings made of boiled potatoes, egg and flour.

GNOCCHI ALLA ROMANA: semolina gnocchi, usually cut in round disks and baked with butter and grated cheese.

GOLA: The tapered, less choice part of sweetbreads.

GRAMOLATURA: The process used to stir olives before pressing to extract olive oil.

GRANA PADANO: Similar to Parmigiano Reggiano, this cheese is made outside the specified Parmigiano production areas. Unlike Parmigiano, it can be made all year round. It can be eaten on its own, used as an ingredient or grated.

GRANA: See GRANA PADANO.

GRANITA: Light slush-ice made with sugar syrup and either fruit juice or coffee.

GRANSEOLA: Venetian dialect word for spider crab.

GREMOLATA: Battuto made of garlic, rosemary, parsley and lemon peel, used on ossobuco.

GRISSINI: Breadsticks made of dough with oil or some other fat. The most traditional ones are those from Turin (grissini stirati torinesi), pulled by hand and very long and irregular in shape.

GROLLA: Wooden bowl that can also have the shape of a goblet. A typical product of the Valle d’Aosta craftsmen. A similar bowl is also known as coppa dell’amicizia (“the friendship cup”). It is short and wide, with a series of spouts circling its radius, and a cover. This bowl is filled with hot coffee, grappa and sugar, and then flamed. When the flame has consumed most of the alcohol, the bowl is passed around with everyone drinking from a different spout.

GUANCIALE: The fattest part of the hog jowl, lightly salted and smoked. Used like pancetta, guanciale is said to have a better, sweeter flavor.

GUARDAPORTA: (literally, “doorman”). Nickname given for ragli napoletano because a doorman, supposedly having nothing else to do but watch the main entrance, could look after the slow cooking of the ragù as well.

GUBANA: Dessert from Friuli made of sweet, leavened dough filled with mixed dried fruit, nuts and liqueur, rolled and baked. It is served sliced and soaked in grappa.

IMPEPATA DI COZZE: Mussels opened by steaming them in a covered pan, with olive oil, garlic, parsley and black pepper.

INSACCATO: Meat, fat and spices more or les finely ground in either natural or synthetic casings, and preserved. There are three kinds of insaccati: pre-cooked(e.g. mortadella); those which must be cooked before eating (e.g. cotechino, zampone); and raw, which may be eaten dry-aged (e.g. salame di Milano).

INSALATA DI RINFORZO: (“reinvigorating salad”). A Christmas salad from Southern Italy made with cauliflower, olives, preserved vegetables, anchovies, and capers, and dressed with oil.

INTINGOLO: Sauce or a condiment in which bread, polenta or vege­tables may be dipped.

INVOLTINO: Lean meat, pounded flat and trolled with filling and/or spices, these are most often made from fish, veal or pork. It can also be called rollatina. In the South, when this is made with pork, it is called braciola.

IOTA or JOTA: Bean soup from Friuli made with fermented turnips and polenta or with potatoes, sauerkraut, pork stew and ribs.

KNÖDELN: Classic bread dumplings from Alto Adige