The Authors' Kitchen, Italy Style Quiz

Ossobuco is a dish from the Lombardy region, made with veal shanks. It literally means 'bone hole'; as you can see, the meat in the picture has a shank bone and the marrow in the bone is part of the dish. The meat has to be braised to make it tender. It is served with a sauce made of white wine, vegetables and broth, and sometimes garnished with gremolata, a green sauce made from garlic, parsley and lemon juice.

This version is served with risotto rice.

Tiramisu ('pick me up') is one of Italy's most famous desserts and is served in Italian restaurants around the world. It is thought to be from either the Veneto region or the neighbouring Friuli-Venezia region, and consists of layers of either sponge cake or Savoiardi (ladyfinger biscuits) and a mixture of sugar, egg yolks and mascarpone.

The biscuits are soaked in coffee, and the top is dusted with icing sugar. Some variants also use coffee liqueur such as Tia Maria, Marsala wine or amaretto as a flavouring, or breads such as panettone instead of Savoiardi.

Minestrone is a vegetable soup, and unlike other soups, it's chunky rather than blended. It is thought to date back to Roman times. While it can contain meat, it is traditionally vegetarian and contains onions, celery, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes and beans, and often pasta as well (like the one in the photo).

There is no fixed recipe for minestrone and many regions have their own variants; for example, the Ligurian variant contains herbs and pesto, while minestra, a Sicilian variant, contains fava beans.

Biscotto is a generic word for 'cracker', but the biscotti in this quiz are crunchy little biscuits, often served with coffee or dessert wine, such as Vin Santo (pictured here). They are also known as cantuccini. They contain whole almonds and are baked twice, so that they can keep for long periods.

Some variants use pine nuts or pistachios, and are flavoured with anise or cinnamon; others are dipped in chocolate. The traditional recipe does not contain fat, just sugar, eggs, flour and almonds and/or pine nuts.

Panna cotta literally means 'cooked cream' and is a moulded dessert made with cream and gelatine. It is thought to be of Piedmontese origin; the one in the photo is served with raspberries and garnished with sprigs of rosemary. Variants containing flavourings such as vanilla, chocolate or coffee also exist; I made a coffee one myself and it wasn't easy at all! I'm vegetarian and keep kosher, so I had to use vegetarian gelatine, and it took a fair bit of trial and error to get the amount right. One Piedmontese recipe contains rum, marsala and a caramel sauce.

Carpaccio is a dish consisting of raw meat slices that are pounded until they're thin. Beef is often associated with carpaccio, but fish or other meats such as veal, venison or horse can be used as well. The dish was invented in Venice in 1963, by Giuseppe Cipriani at the legendary Harry's Bar, which was frequented by celebrities from Ernest Hemingway and Guglielmo Marconi to Maria Callas and Woody Allen.

It was named after the painter Vittorio Carpaccio, whose work often featured the meaty colours of red and white.

In the original dish, the beef slices were served with olive oil, lemon juice and truffle oil; seasoning would later be included to include fruit, such as mangoes, and vinegar.

Cacio e pepe is the epitome of 'simple, yet effective'. It's originally from the Lazio region and one of Rome's signature dishes - I had an amazing one on holiday there - and is made with pasta (usually spaghetti), grated cheese such as pecorino romano, and ground black pepper, although some recipes add butter, olive oil and/or garlic.

The name literally means 'cheese and pepper'. It is thought to have been created by shepherds between the 18th and 19th century, using ingredients that kept well. After the pasta has been boiled, it is poured into the grated cheese, which is mixed with the pepper, along with a little of the pasta water; this helps the cheese melt into the pasta.

Struffoli are little balls of dough that are deep fried, sweetened with honey, and sometimes sprinkled with diavulilli (sprinkles), cinnamon and orange rind. They can be arranged in piles, like the photo here, or made into wreaths for Christmas. They are originally from Naples, and family recipes vary greatly; one recipe I found online uses limoncello as a flavouring.

A similar dish is the Sicilian pignolata, pastry balls that are covered in either melted chocolate or lemon syrup and eaten at Carnival.

Panettone is a fruity bread traditionally eaten at Christmas and originally comes from Milan. It is usually cylindrical with a domed top, and the process of making it is a long one; the dough has to be cured and proofed, meaning it is left to rest over several days before baking. Because of this, it has a fluffy texture.

It contains candied peel and dried fruits, and is flavoured with lemon zest; some variants contain chocolate. It is traditionally served with dessert wine, and in some areas, with a cream made with sweet liqueur, eggs and mascarpone.

There are two notable Italian dishes that contain the three colours of the tricolore, the Italian flag: one is pizza Margherita, and the other one is Caprese salad, or insalata caprese. The red is represented by tomatoes, the white by mozzarella, and the green by basil.

The mozzarella can be sliced, like it is here, or - in the case of the Caprese salad I had in Rome - served in a big ball in the middle of the plate and surrounded by basil and sliced tomatoes. The salad is drizzled with olive oil, though balsamic vinegar or pesto may be used.

It is also served as a sandwich filling and in Argentina, where there is a large Italian community, as an empanada filling.