G

GALLINA – Hen. Normally an older bird used for Soup.

GAMBERETTI – Shrimp. There are many varieties of shrimp in the waters around Italy, including gambaretti, small pink shrimp, gamberelli, larger shrimp most often used in fritto misto or mixed fry, and larger still are gamberi. Shrimp are used in a vast number of Italian recipes.

GARGANELLI – This fresh pasta is a square that is rolled around a dowel over a ridged comb like tool. It’s final appearance is a grooved, diamond shaped tube.

GELATINA – Gelatin. Often used to make aspic dishes.

GELATO – Frozen dessert, such as ice cream or sherbet, of wide-ranging flavors, chiefly fruit, nuts and chocolate.

GEMELLI – Translated as “twins”, this dried pasta looks like two strands of short pasta twisted together.

GNOCCHI – These are small dumplings, and can be made from just about any starchy vegetable (commonly the potato), ricotta cheese, or semolina flour. They are served like pasta or risotto, as a first course, and should be light in texture, and almost melt in the mouth.

GORGONZOLA – This is an Italian blue cheese that is creamy in color with greenish blue veining throughout. Young, it has an almost sweet, mellow flavor, although once aged it can become quite powerful.

GRANA – Two of Italy’s most widely acclaimed cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, belong to the Grana (granular) group of cheeses, those finely-grained hard cheeses which originated in the Po Valley to the north of the country. They are basically very similar cheeses although of the two, Grana Padano matures marginally faster.

GRANCHIO – Crab of various types, which may be boiled, roasted, baked, or grilled.

GRANITA – Made by freezing liquid (often coffee or lemon juice) into crystals of grainy texture. Granita are usually made with a simple flavored sugar syrup rather than an egg custard or cream base as gelato is.

GRAPPA – A colorless alcohol with an alcohol content of 40 percent distilled from the pressed skins and seeds of the grapes left after wine making.