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Get ready for a dining adventure. Italian food is being sought. You won't want to miss out. Before you set sail to seek out culinary perfection, explore an Italian dish.

You may prefer the traditional foods that everyone associates with this lovely country. But which tradition?

Tomato sauce and pasta - the quintessential Southern Italian ingredients - no doubt have their fans, and those people are found all over the world. Where could you go and not find pizza? But, the Northern Italian dishes - heavy on the butter, skip the olive oil, and make it creamy - are served from New York to New Dehli. Yes, you can go to India and get Fettucine Alfredo any time you want.

Let's not forget about Napoleon's birthplace either. Sicilian sauces are one of the best kept culinary secrets of this sun-drenched land. But once the world finds out, there will be no holding back the hordes eager to invade to get them. You can have, if you wish, a plain old marinara. But try it Sicilian style and you may abandon old traditions forever to start a new one.

Italian bread is another of those less well-known highlights of Italian cuisine. Sure, you've probably had some Focaccia. But when was the last time you went to the store or restaurant and picked out Piadina or clutched at a Ciabatta?

You'll need some cheese to go with that bread, and for the hundreds of Italian dishes you have yet to explore like a fine risotto. You may be under the impression that the French have more to offer here. Think again.

Go beyond the Gorgonzola and embrace a fine Fontina for your fonduta and you may change your mind. Try an Abbamare from the sunny island of Sardinia if you're not fully convinced yet. Sooner or later, you just can't help but regard Italian cheeses as the equal of their cousins to the north.

While you're trying to decide, you might get hungry. A little Gnocchi can help stave off those hunger pangs. These potato dumplings are great for a snack, or as part of a larger dish. They even make for a great addition to any of dozens of zuppa (soup) recipes. Once the Minestrone Veronese is served you'll be too busy thinking about how wonderful you feel to worry about it anymore.

But, hey, no one says you can't have a plain old pizza. This dish from Naples, with ingredients as far flung as tomatoes from Spain (by way of the New World) and flatbread from Greece, is now popular the world over. Of course, you may be surprised to learn that it isn't just California that has found a hundred new ways to make it. That innovation started in the old country when every sailor decided to try his hand at making something to take on the long sea voyage.

So, get ready for new adventures in cooking and dining in Brampton, Mississauga or Caledon. Italian food is about to be served...