The article, titled Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong, challenges received ideas about some of the "classics" of Italian cuisine, suggesting that they are "actually recent inventions".
The interviewee of the piece, Marxist academic Alberto Grandi, undermined many of the founding myths of Italian cuisine and even claimed that certain famous dishes are, in fact, American.
Coldiretti described the article as "a surreal attack on the iconic dishes of Italian cuisine, precisely on the occasion of the announcement of its candidacy for UNESCO's Intangible Heritage of Humanity".
The article "tries to trivialise traditional national food, from carbonara to panettone, from tiramisu to Parmigiano Reggiano," the agricultural organisation said, adding that many of the claims were "imaginative".
Coldiretti also warned of the possible economic consequences of such claims, as well as of the damage to image.
"The lack of clarity on Made in Italy recipes in fact provides fertile ground for the proliferation of fake Italian food products abroad," it said.
ANSA
