Indogirl1

My son (9 y) is allergic to eggs, so i am thinking to stick with potatoes, pizza , meat and steak and vegetables when we eat out . i know box pasta here in the US (Barilla etc,) doesn't have any eggs in it. But I think Trader Joe's box pasta has eggs in it , and if i remeber correctly, it's made in Italy. i plan to avoid pasta for him eventhough he loves it. How about polenta or risotto dishes? do they add eggs it it? I know i can ask the waiter but from experience from US restaurants ,sometimes they don't bother answering .(too busy etc. etc)

flanneruk

It isn't that Italian pasta has eggs. Most doesn't, and (though I'll accept correction) if it does, it's rare enough that the menu will say it ("pasta all'uovo"). Spaghetti (as well as linguine and buccherini), penne, macaroni (usually spelled "maccheroni") and cannelloni never do: it's almost always ribbon pasta (usually called tagliatelli or papardelle) where there's a risk, though the best Italian eateries (ie those serving local food) have hundreds of names for varieties of pasta.

First, though, on a recent trip I was amazed how sensitised Italian waiter and food stores now are to genuine allergies, like eggs (as opposed to what they still see as silly foreign fads, like strict veganism). So yo can probably trust their advice.

Second, you do need to acquire menu Italian. There are grisly Western versions of pizza, for example, that include an egg - and some Italian classics (spaghetti carbonara above all) where eggs are essential to the sauce, and the rareEnglish translations might not bother spelling this out. Ditto "meat" dishes like cotoletta alla milanese (or almost any other breadcrumbed meat or fish), where the crumbs are bound to the animal protein by egg.

It depends what you mean by "allergic". If it means near-fatal reaction, the only sage strategy is to learn what's guaranteed to be egg-free, or learn a small safe repertoire (like spaghetti with tomato sauce), and stick rigidly to that.

If it just means his eyes water and he sneezes, it might well be easier to eat anything not self-evidently eggy, and learn from experience.

Indogirl1

I am cautious about giving him spagetti with tomato sauce, unless the waiter can bring me the actual pasta box where i can read the list of ingredients ,which might be a problem to do in certain restaurants. i love to cook and read/watch cooking show so I am usually familiar or can guess if the dish has eggs in it. But if Something is questionable I rather not give it to him.

StCirq

<<unless the waiter can bring me the actual pasta box where i can read the list of ingredients>>

I realize that boxed pasta in Italy is probably the norm (and perfectly fine) in many eating establishments, but I wouldn't go to a restaurant assuming they used boxed pasta (and you'd need to read Italian to figure out the ingredients anyway).

asps

It is not difficult to tell apart fresh egg pasta from the eggless dry pasta; you just need some practice. Spaghetti, penne, conchiglie, farfalle, fusilli are usually eggless (I do not remember ever seeing spaghetti with eggs, they would have to be much thicker). Flat pasta like tagliatelle, fettuccine, pappardelle, tagliolini are usually with eggs. Lasagne come in both versions.

downtownbrown

I think you have a problem. You can never be sure if a pasta or pizza dough was made using egg, unless you ask and are certain of getting a truthful answer.

Stick with plainly-cooked meat, vegetables, and salads. Sorry, but I really think that's your only option.

Gretchen

Do what you think is best, but having NO EGGS written out and ask, I think you could do better. What do you do in the US? But he won't starve.
Gnocchi?

flanneruk

In half a century of eating, selling, designing labels for and arguing with regulatory authorities in several countries (including Italy) about the labelling of, pasta I've never seen or heard of eggs being used to make spaghetti.

As far as I'm aware it's chemically and physically impossible to achieve the taste and mouth feel of spaghetti if the pasta includes eggs.

downtownbrown

flanner: People I know who have severe egg allergies generally avoid all types of store-bought pasta for fear that the machinery used to make even egg-less pasta may also have been used to make an egg pasta. It's not just about the ingredients.

AJPeabody

I am faced with a similar problem of a food allergy. My solution is to carry a detailed description of what I am allergic to and a request in the native language that I not be served anything with it, translated by a native soeaker of the language, who, was for Italy, a doctor. For any dish that had a chance of including the offending ingredient, I showed the translation to the waiter. I had no incidents.

I also have it in Chinese, which got me a substitution for one dish on a banquet menu. The waiter spoke no English.

AJPeabody

(Native sPeaker)

Oh, beware of gelato, some flavors of which have egg. Others won't, unless it is in the base (unflavored) mix.

AmyB81

Love the question as I'm facing the same dilemma. I'm highly sensitive to yolks (near instant migraine) but can handle most breads and eat pasta all the time.

Italy without pasta seems like sacrilege to me but then I also have the option planned in for the accidental ingestion of both carrying my medication with me and making sure the staff is advised of the potential issue.

How you handle it will definitely vary based on the severity of the allergy.

Good luck!

cathies

Don't assume that all Italian pasta comes out of a box, I'd be hoping to eat at restaurants where it's freshly made in the kitchen.

Have the sentence you need translated into italian and typed up on something you can show a waiter.

My daughter will be in Italy in a few weeks and she has an anaphylactic allergy to lamb and to pork and pork products. She is going to have a translation with her just to be on the safe side. She will also have a couple of epipens just in case.

Indogirl1

Back from Italy, happy and relieved that egg allergy was not an issue while there. My son loved gelato and more often that not the salespersons were able to tell me which ones have eggs in them. If they can't ,my son will have the granitas instead. In one shop in San Quirico, the shopkepper even changed the the gelato scopper for me. That's service!never happenned here in the States!. As far as pastas, flanneruk is right, the box pastas usually are not made with eggs, ie: ravioli,fettucini.
So we stick with spaghetti to be save. In Tuscany , he was in steak heaven with the Biscteca Fiorentina and skip the pastas.