In Italy, the kitchen is where friends and family gather to share stories, laugh, and cook food that reflects their rich heritage. It’s the focal point of the home, and the items on display lend it character — handcrafted olive oil bottles; a stovetop espresso maker; a serving bowl fashioned with Murano glass.
Adding authentic Italian charm to your kitchen is as simple as a good pasta carbonara. Here’s how.
Murano Glass Serving Bowl
Created on its namesake island off the Venetian coast, Murano glass embodies generations of Italian craftsmanship, dating back to 8th-century Rome. Artisans have long used glass blowing to breathe life into vibrant colors and intricate shapes to form light fixtures, vases, and jewelry, among other goods that buyers would display in their homes.
Perhaps the most appropriate place to display an exquisite Murano glass piece is the kitchen, where your family and friends gather and break bread. An eye-catching Murano serving bowl adds charm whether filled with apples or used as a centerpiece.
Try this: Multicolored Murano Glass Bowl from Artemest, which showcases luxury Italian-made artistry. Murano-based glass company Vetreria Artistica DiPi designed this prismatic bowl in the authentic Venetian millefiori style.
Espresso Machine
Italians are the original master connoisseurs of espresso. They set the worldwide standard for the traditional water-coffee-temperature-time formula that would create the perfect balance between sour, bitter, and sweet notes using several types of coffee beans. The finest espresso, according to Italian coffee patriarchs, should also have good body and be distinctly aromatic.
You could spend hundreds on a complicated espresso contraption, but simple is the Italian way. A traditional stovetop espresso maker brews authentic Italian espresso and will look the part from its perch on your stove.
Try this: Bialetti Moka Express, found in almost 90 percent of Italian homes. Alfonso Bialetti’s iconic machine revolutionized personal coffee brewing in Italy in 1933 and has held up across the globe for decades since.
Italian Tomato Press
Homemade tomato sauce is the lifeblood that runs through any Italian kitchen. Whether it’s made marinara-style from Naples, with capers and anchovies, or with the Sicilian approach of added sweetness, a good sauce begins with a good tomato.
And an Italian tomato press provides the proper way of preparing the red fruit —separating the pulp from the skin and seeds and preserving the bright flavors that will permeate your homemade sauce. Even between uses, a sleek press can be used to display fresh, whole tomatoes or other colorful fruits on your kitchen counter.
Try this: Tomato presses come in different colors, but we recommend this red one from Williams Sonoma. It’ll accent the tomatoes and add a pop to your kitchen.
Handcrafted Olive Oil Dispenser
Olive oil is essential to an Italian diet. Italians collectively consume about 20 percent of olive oil in the world, which explains why the most extravagant extra virgin oil is made there. Olive oil farmers view the golden liquid as a lifestyle, the variations in taste and body as vast as a Sangiovese’s.
Whether you use the oil for cooking or adorning, the dispenser you store it in need not go unnoticed. A handcrafted Italian olive oil bottle will add counter appeal to your kitchen and keep the culinary ornament within close reach.
Try this: The Lastra Olive Oil Can from Vietri, an Italian dinnerware company named after the southern coastal town Vietri sul Mare. It blends chic and rustic seamlessly.
Pasta Maker
If the kitchen is the heart of the home in Italy, pasta is the heart of the kitchen. From spaghetti bolognese to lasagna to pasta puttanesca to gnocchi, Italian cooks have mastered the perfect pasta recipes and passed them down from generation to generation.
A single noodle can make or break a dish and is the building block for the most authentically Italian meals. So it follows that the pasta maker used in the creation of the noodles is equally important. A true Italian steel pasta maker is ideal and is instantly recognizable as a trusted tool of the trade. If you prepare pasta regularly for guests or just once a year, the elegant device makes for a kitchen conversation starter.
Try this: The grandfather of all pasta makers is the original Italian-made Atlas Marcato Pasta Machine. It’s versatile with a hand-crank, double-cutter, and adjustable dial.
Olive Wood Cheese Board
Italian olive trees aren’t just known for producing velvety oil. Olive wood is often used in Italian woodwork for its durability, beauty, and intriguing grain patterns.
Likewise, a flat board for fresh cheeses and cured meats is often found in Italian kitchens to serve a variety of antipasti to friends and family. Olive wood is the perfect material for a serving board: It’s both visually arresting and durable enough to withstand knife marks. Stack your most cherished Italian cookbooks on the board when it’s not embellished with pecorino and taleggio.
Try this: Marcelli Formaggi Olive Wood Cheese Board, made with 100 percent olive wood from Assisi, Italy. The extra-large size will hold plenty of bites for entertaining.
Of course, the most Italian touch of all is a kitchen full of friends and family. Salute!
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Christiana Nielson is the managing editor of D Magazine and formerly an associate editor for American Airlines’ in-flight magazine, American Way. She enjoys traveling every chance she gets, especially when it entails eating the best pizza on earth in Florence or Rome.