In cooking,
al forno is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
phrase describing food that is "at/from the oven". Baked
pizzaPizza is a world-popular dish of Italian origin, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and cheese. Other toppings are added according to region, culture, or personal preference.Originating in a part of Italian cuisine, the...
, breads and
pastaPasta is a generic term for foods made from an unleavened dough of flour and water, and sometimes a combination of egg and flour. Pastas include noodles in various lengths, widths and shapes, and varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini...
dishes are often part of this genre. Pasta that is "al forno" is also often
al denteIn cooking, the adjective al dente describes pasta and rice or beansthat have been cooked so as to be firm but not hard. "Al dente" also describes vegetables that are cooked to the "tender crisp" phase - still offering resistance to the bite, but cooked through. It is often considered to be the...
which means "at/to the tooth". One of the most common pasta dishes one will see the label "al forno" affixed to is
lasagnaLasagna is both a form of pasta in sheets and also a dish, sometimes named lasagne al forno made with alternate layers of pasta, cheese, and often ragù or tomato sauce.The word lasagna,...
. Al forno usage can vary from a more strict use of only the traditional wood-fired brick oven or more loosely used in more modern recipes that use a
conventional ovenAn oven is an enclosed compartment for heating, baking or drying. It is most commonly used in cooking and pottery. Ovens used in pottery are also known as kilns...
like the
casseroleA casserole, from the French for "saucepan," is a large, deep pot used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a "casserole dish"...
"Ziti Al Forno".
http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=620
Al forno is a term that described cuisine in
Northern ItalyNorthern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative worth, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian nation...
which has the tradition of using wood-burning ovens and open-flame grills.
In cooking,
al forno is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
phrase describing food that is "at/from the oven". Baked
pizzaPizza is a world-popular dish of Italian origin, made with an oven-baked, flat, generally round bread that is often covered with tomatoes or a tomato-based sauce and cheese. Other toppings are added according to region, culture, or personal preference.Originating in a part of Italian cuisine, the...
, breads and
pastaPasta is a generic term for foods made from an unleavened dough of flour and water, and sometimes a combination of egg and flour. Pastas include noodles in various lengths, widths and shapes, and varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini...
dishes are often part of this genre. Pasta that is "al forno" is also often
al denteIn cooking, the adjective al dente describes pasta and rice or beansthat have been cooked so as to be firm but not hard. "Al dente" also describes vegetables that are cooked to the "tender crisp" phase - still offering resistance to the bite, but cooked through. It is often considered to be the...
which means "at/to the tooth". One of the most common pasta dishes one will see the label "al forno" affixed to is
lasagnaLasagna is both a form of pasta in sheets and also a dish, sometimes named lasagne al forno made with alternate layers of pasta, cheese, and often ragù or tomato sauce.The word lasagna,...
. Al forno usage can vary from a more strict use of only the traditional wood-fired brick oven or more loosely used in more modern recipes that use a
conventional ovenAn oven is an enclosed compartment for heating, baking or drying. It is most commonly used in cooking and pottery. Ovens used in pottery are also known as kilns...
like the
casseroleA casserole, from the French for "saucepan," is a large, deep pot used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a "casserole dish"...
"Ziti Al Forno".
http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=620
History and culture
Al forno is a term that described cuisine in
Northern ItalyNorthern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative worth, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian nation...
which has the tradition of using wood-burning ovens and open-flame grills. Wood-fired pizza ovens have often been constructed by Italian restaurants that offer "al forno" or "furnace" to continue this tradition. This style has spread all over the Mediterranean in terms of becoming a bread, pasta, dough cooking technique. The brick oven has become a kind of symbol for "al forno" with its arched oven door and a wooden board upon which the food was put in and taken out, the wood acting as a kind of insulator.
Use of terms
Many restaurants and food service companies have adopted the name Al Forno. It has also been adopted as the name for a more specific pasta dish made with Mattersons sausage, Chorizo and topped with Cheddar and Mozzeralla.