I’m going to admit it. I miss home. Usually I step out my front door, hop the train for a simple day trip to Italy and do my weekly shop for food gifts.
Not this year. 2020 is upside down. While I’m usually soaking up the sun in the south of France, this year I’m literally soaking in wet and grey Dublin.
I miss the unique specialities from Italy we are used to buying – hand-made pasta, tangy pesto, fresh olive oil, and tomatoes on-the-vine.
This got me thinking. Could I get some of my local favorites shipped to Dublin from Italy? Yes, there is an importer of Italian food items here, but the prices for Italian food gifts online are actually much more reasonable.
Italian Food Online
Now, with online shopping, it’s easy to find food gifts from Italy to buy online that you wouldn’t otherwise see in your local supermarket.
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Christmas is around the corner, and many of my staples would make great Italian gift basket items or simple, authentic food gifts from Italy ideas. Here are many of my favorites sure to please the Italian food lover in your life.
My favorite dried pasta from Italy
We eat a lot of pasta. In fact, my partner imported lots of Italian specialties into France before the shutdown, so we are really missing many of these brands. Shipping dried pasta is easy and they make great food gifts from Italy that you can tuck into any thoughtful Christmas food hamper.
I have to admit RUMMO PASTA is one of my favorites. It’s not like the mass produced stock that comes shiny, if you know what I mean. Rummo comes looking like it has a dusting of flour on it, because it does. It’s dusty and fresh. The Rummo family have been producing pasta since 1846 in Benevento, which is just outside Naples.
Buy Rummo in bulk and drop a few into each Italian food basket you are creating.
GAROFALO PASTA is my next favorite pasta. They’ve been around even longer – since 1789. Garofalo is one of the oldest producers of pasta and it’s made in Gragnano, near Naples as well. It was made primarily for export and finally in 2001, this superior quality pasta arrived on shelves in Italy.
When we dine in the Italian restaurants at home, we mainly find Rummo and Garofalo.
If you want to use something other than a basket for packaging up your Italian food gifts on top of this lovely hand-painted serving platter. Perfect for serving up pasta or your favorite cake, like the Panetonnes mentioned below.
Hand-painted Tuscan Serving Platters
Tasty Italian Pesto
Pesto is one of those deliciously simple Italian sauces that typically comes from Liguria, near where we live. There are so many varieties of pesto, but you’ll mainly find it has basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and perhaps garlic and cheese. Very simple and simply delicious. You can even make it yourself with those few ingredients.
Pesto is so easy to use. Basically you boil up your gnocchi or trofie, warm up the pesto sauce and pour over and mix well. It’s very simple but pesto holds a strong punch of flavor. You’ll also find versions of tomato pesto as well.
Pesto is a great summer time pasta sauce, and this mark is made with ROI Olive oil from Liguria. Pesto can also be spread on toasted crackers or bread like bruschetta. It’s great if you are having an aperitif or preparing pasta.
Another popular brand is SEGGIANO. The basil leaves are immersed in olive oil shortly after picking to preserve the freshness of the basil. And the basil is handpicked. 5-star ratings say this is the best people have tasted.
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Italian Cookies and Cakes
Italians are known for their pastries, cannoli, breads, cookies, panettones and pasta. Give an Italian some flour and they’ll whip up a masterpiece, like these below.
This gift tin is full of tasty Italian cookies made of the finest ingredients. Rich, buttery and no preservatives. La Dolce Vita in a decorative tin. You’ll get 2lb of cookies in 8 different flavors. Great to share with friends over tea and coffee.
While cookies might not seem like such a big deal, they are when they are packaged in an authentic hand-painted Tuscan ceramic cookie jar! Ceramiche d’arte Parrini is the name in one-of-a-kind, pieces of art. They are sold one piece at-a-time online because they are unique. No two are alike and what an elegant and useful gift from Florence.
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There is nothing more authentic than the typical Italian Biscotti. These are great for serving alongside an espresso, a cappuccino or another hot beverage. I love biscotti, but they can also be a tooth breaker if you don’t dunk them in coffee. Very addictive as well!
The typical Italian Christmas cake is a Panetonne, which translates as big bread. They are lightly sweet and delicate in the form of a big bunt cake that is baked for days! This beautifully wrapped cake comes from Sicily and weighs more than 2 lbs. It’s a perfect gift for Christmas or New Years and you only find these around the holidays.
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PANETONNE WITH ORANGE AND RAISINS
Often these tasty Panetonne have pieces of orange, raisins or chocolate. They are wonderful with a steamy cup of coffee. They are hung upside down while cooling and often dusted with a bit of powdered sugar. This is another popular Panetonne from Italy.
This tasty panetonne is drenched in chocolate inside and out. It’s gooey, buttery and chocolaty. This is the perfect gift for a chocoholic or to share among friends. This is produced by a family business out of Sicily.
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Italian Olive Oils
Olive oil has so many benefits; you be forgiven for thinking it’s only for salads or cooking. Did you know it takes 1375 olives to make a litre of oil. In other words 10 lbs make a full-sized bottle of oil!
The tastiest and most healthy oil is extra virgin Olive oil, which is the first press of oil once they are harvested. This high quality, unrefined oil is a staple on Italian tables and forms the base of most Mediterranean diets.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a perfect gift for any Italian foodie, and a great addition to any Italian Christmas basket you can assemble at home.
These handmade ceramic bottles of fresh cold-pressed olive oil from Antico Frantoio Muraglia are as beautiful as they are delicious. They are two gifts in one and a wonderful keepsake that you can reuse. Olive Oil from Puglia, Italy.
Can’t make a decision? Now you don’t need to with this very cool assortment of flavored authentic Italian Olive oil. There is basil, Italian herbs, Garlic, and Truffle-infused oil. This is perfect if you are creating an Italian-themed food basket. Put 1 in each basket.
Certified Tuscan olive oil and 100% pesticide free! This Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Fattoria Bini is family produced since 1802. The olives grow between Lucca and Firenze in the heart of Toscana. Perfect for someone in love with Tuscany.
I love Italian design and they can make even Olive Oil look like a pretty gift. This Sicilian olive oil is great for cooking, but it’s also an award winner. This has flavors of artichokes, pepper and almonds. How delicious! Enjoying fresh olive oil makes you want to find land and grow some trees!
Certified organic, this Black Truffle olive oil is a perfect gift for the olive oil lover with a twist. Its non-GMO and 100% pesticide free! Use just a few drops in pasta, meat, fish, salads and it goes a long way. Truffle can be a quite strong flavor if you are not used to it, but it’s a thoughtful food gift idea for the chef in your life. Plus it comes in a cute gift confection.
Hand-painted Oil Cruet
Parmigiano and Pecorino cheese
If there’s one thing you don’t need to worry about is whether your cheese will spoil by the time it reaches you. Considering cheese tastes better the longer it ages, you may not care if it takes a week or two to arrive.
These selections of Parmigiano and Pecorino.
This 40/48-month, high-grade Parmigiano is imported from northern Italy. There’s a bit over 2lbs of fresh, authentic Parmigiano from the traditional Reggiana red cows. It pairs nicely with robust red wines and arrives in 2-5 days. Just in time for Christmas!
This Pecorino Romano is aged 18 months and is perfect to enjoy as a snack or grated to make a tasty Spaghetti Carbonara. This 3 lb slab is perfect to gift to your favorite sophisticated foodie or to keep to yourself.
You will be the hit of the party when you bring this out at your next party. Impress your friends with this 40 lb half-wheel aged to 24 months. It comes directly from the home of Parmigian – Parma, Italy. It will arrive in 2-5 days and may incur import fees cuz it’s huge!
Hand-painted Grated Cheese Bowl
Balsamic Vinegar
This beautiful gift of Balsamic Vinegar from Modena, Italy is produced by a house that has been making vinegar since the early 1600’s. This vinegar is made with Lambrusco and Trebbiano grapes and matures for 12 years! It’s a fine, sophisticated vinegar in a bottle that is beautiful and tasteful, literally.
This beautiful vinegar is perfect for salads, sauces, marinades and just about anything. The vinegar rests in 18-year-old barrels and comes in a design bottle. It looks like lovely perfume! The nice thing about vinegar is that you can leave it in your pantry and not worry about it going bad. This is a beautiful gift to put in your Italian food basket.
This beautiful balsamic vinegar giftbox is the perfect, elegant gift to give someone for the holidays. It’s smooth, thick, and full of flavor. It’s sweet and takes on the flavor of the oak barrels where it rests.
Oil and Vinegar Hand-painted Set
Great gifts for those with Sicilian relatives or those who just love Sicily. It’s full of healthy ingredients with no additives. It comes with a tasty sauce, olive oil, Balsamic glaze and fun curly pasta.
Italian Prosciutto
Who wouldn’t want a leg of Prosciutto hanging around? These cured meats are a perfect gift for someone who loves a good aperitif, but they need a place to hang this beauty. The nice thing with Prosciutto is that it can stay in a cool location and you can keep trimming off it for quite some time. Great gift for someone who likes to entertain with quality ingredients.
This salty, melt-in-you-mouth Prosciutto weighs 16lbs and is cured for 16 months. It’s boneless and registered D.O.P. meaning quality control.
San Daniele del Friuli is a high quality prosciutto produced in the northeast of Italy. This is 17lbs of a hunk of love! So delicious and perfect for those family get-togethers.
This gift tin is full of tasty Italian cookies made of the finest ingredients. Rich, buttery and no preservatives. La Dolce Vita in a decorative tin. You’ll get 2lb of cookies in 8 different flavors. Great to share with friends over tea and coffee.
Italian Wines
While you can’t get Italian wine shipped directly from Italy online. You can certainly shop locally to find authentic wines imported from Italy. But you can pick up one of these wine jugs and gift it with a lovely Italian wine that you find close to home. These can be used for wine, water and juice. They are beautiful piece of hand-painted ceramics that will complement any table for any reason.
Happy Shopping and get your orders in now so you get them in time for the holidays!
