> The 2026 list is below.
 
 
2015: AN INFORMAL LIST

Nation’s Restaurant News (NRA) reports something that may not even be news: Italian food remains America’s favorite “international” restaurant cuisine. No other cuisine comes close, although Mexican and Chinese round out the “big three.”

Sixty-one percent of the 1,000 people surveyed said they eat Italian food at restaurants at least once a month. By comparison, Mexican cuisine was eaten at least once a month by 50%, and Chinese cuisine by 36%.

We couldn’t find an official survey of the most popular Italian dishes, but one informal survey we found nominated the following as the Top 10 favorite Italian restaurant entrées in the U.S. (excluding pizza, the majority of which is consumed at pizzerias* rather than conventional Italian restaurants):

1. Chicken Parmigiana
2. Fettuccine
3. Lasagna
4. Linguine With Clam Sauce
5. Veal Marsala
6. Chicken Saltimbocca
7. Pasta Primavera
8. Shrimp Fra Diavolo
9. Penne Alla Vodka
10. Spaghetti Marinara (with tomato sauce)

 
Our own Top 10 list would be different, but we wouldn’t turn any of these down! And we’d add our own Top 10 Italian Desserts list: cannoli, panna cotta, zabaglione, tiramisu, berries with mascarpone, riccota cheesecake, biscotti, gelato/semifreddo/spumoni/tortoni, sorbetto/granita and bomboloni.

The NRA defines “ethnic” cuisine broadly as any cuisine originating in a different country or within a specific region of the United States. We prefer the term “international cuisine” (it’s hard to think of French and Italian food as “ethnic”), but that doesn’t always work. American cuisnes—think Cajun and Creole—are ethnic but not international, as are California, Hawaiian, New England, Southern and Southwestern cuisines, among others.

Choose the term you like better and read the full article at NRN.com.
 
 
2024: THE YOUGOV LIST (INACCURATE!)

A YouGov survey data from 2024-2025, claims that these are the top 10 favorite Italian dishes in the United States. However, three of their Top 10 aren’t even Italian! And Pasta With Chicken And Garlic Sauce? Is that a “Top 10” thing now? What happened to Chicken Parm?

In order of popularity, YouGov’s methodology has produced:

1. Spaghetti with Meatballs: 84%
2. Ravioli: 80%
3. Pasta with Tomato Sauce: 80%
4. Macaroni and Cheese: 80% (NOT ITALIAN!*)
5. Lasagna: 78%
6. Caesar Salad: 74% (NOT ITALIAN!*)
7. Pasta with Chicken and Garlic Sauce: 73%
8. Fettuccine Alfredo: 73%
9. Taco Salad: 72% popularity (NOT ITALIAN!*)
10. Baked Ziti: 68% popularity

*Caesar Salad was created by an an Italian immigrant restaurateur Caesar Cardini, in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920s (the history of Caesar Salad).

*Taco Salad? Definitely Tex-Mex, developed by the inventor of Fritos for Disneyland in 1955 (the history of Taco Salad).

*Mac and cheese was invented by Thomas Jefferson (or his cook—the history of macaroni and cheese).

So let’s get on with a better list.
 
 
2026: THE ABACUS LIST

We asked one of our favorite A.I. “consultants,” Abacus, for its take. It advised, of course, that there is no one official list. “But based on U.S. restaurant menus, sales, and general popularity, these are the 10 Italian (or Italian‑American) dishes that are consistently the biggest hits in the U.S.:”

1. Pizza (especially pepperoni & Margherita)
2. Spaghetti With Meatballs (or Bolognese, meat sauce)
3. Lasagna
4. Fettuccine Alfredo
5. Chicken Parmigiana
6. Garlic Bread
7. Ravioli
8. Baked Ziti and other baked pasta casseroles
9. Tiramisu
10. Cannoli

 
We vote with Abacus!

[2] Spaghetti and Meatballs.

[3] Lasagna.

[4] Fettuccine Alfredo. Our favorite variation adds green peas and pancetta (photos #4 and #5 © Taste Of Home).

[6] Garlic Bread. The photo for Number 5, Chicken Parm, is below.

[7] Ravioli (photo © Chesapeake Bay).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Elote is the Aztec (Nahuatl) word for what the corn on the cob. It is pronounced ay-LOW-tay. Removed from the cob, the recipe has a different name, esquites, from the Nahuatl word for toasted corn, ízquitl.

This hack from Good Eggs in San Francisco eliminates the need for a grill. Just use a gas range to turn ears of fresh corn into this Mexican street treat.

Here’s more about elote, including an off-the-cob elote salad.
 
 
RECIPE: STOVE TOP ELOTE

Ingredients

1. USE tongs to hold the ears of corn directly over the stove top flame, turning to to blister the kernels.

2. REMOVE from the heat, slather with butter, roll in crumbled queso fresco and finish with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of ancho chile powder.
 
 
ELOTE CONDIMENTS

In Mexico people serve the classics: ancho chili powder, lime, queso blanco. But in the U.S., some people substitute mayonnaise or sour cream (crema) for the butter.

Pepper or seasoned salt are also options (lemon pepper is popular in Texas, per Wikipedia). Other options: cilantro, fresh parsley, oregano.

Or for a true American take, how about crumbled bacon?
  

But according to Spiegelau, a manufacturer of fine glassware in Bavaria, Germany, we have it all wrong. You only get about 15% of the flavor of the beer when you drink it from the bottle.

That’s because smell, not palate, is the major component of taste (and explains why you can lose your taste when you have a badly congested nose and can’t smell). You get zero aroma through the narrow neck of the beer bottle, covered by your mouth as you take each sip.

When you pour beer into a glass, the head* releases the bubbles (carbon dioxide) that burst into aroma.

On top of that, different types of beer benefit from different shaped glasses, engineered to bring out the special attributes of the beer (Riedel, the parent company of Spieglau, was the pioneer in developing different wine glass types).

Engineered to bring out the best in American craft beers: from left, IPA, wheat beer and stout glasses. Photo courtesy Spiegelau USA.

Different regions have long made different glass shapes for their beers. Think beyond the German stein to the British pint glass; the tall, tapered Pilsner† glass; the stemmed snifter for Belgian ales and IPAs; the tankard for ales, lagers, stouts and porters; and others. See the different types of beer glasses in the chart below.

 
*The head is produced by bubbles of carbon dioxide gas that rise to the surface. The carbon dioxide is produced during fermentation.
†Pilsner is the English spelling of Pilsener, the German spelling. The name derives from the town of Pilsen, a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic, where the style was originally brewed in October 1842—a new, clear, pale golden beer created from new malts, Pilsen’s remarkably soft water, Saaz noble hops and Bavarian-style lagering. It was a sensation. The Czech spelling of the town is Plzen.

 
CRAFT BEER GLASSES FOR SPECIFIC STYLES OF BEER

Spiegelau has developed a Craft Beer Glass Collection, with custom-designed glasses for the three most popular American craft beer styles: IPA, Stout and Wheat Beer. Each glass is designed, according to the company, to highlight “the complexity of aromas on the nose while demonstrating the optimum beer texture, balance and flavor intensity on the palate.”

Riedel has done this for wine glasses with great success (you won’t believe how much better the wine tastes in a specially engineered wine glass than on a generic one). Now, they’ve done the same for beer.

An expert panel of master brewers tested multiple glass shapes before finding the optimum shape for each beer type. Here’s what resulted:

 
And you thought a glass was just a glass!

Custom-shape beer glasses isn’t hype: It’s precision engineering and it works. Buy yourself a set and test it against what you’re currently using. We had great results with the Spiegelau glasses.

Beer glasses are a great gift for beer connoisseurs, and other companies have gotten the custom-shape message.

MORE BEER STYLE-SPECIFIC GLASSES

Lenox has a new line of beer glasses in four styles: IPA, Pint With Crown, Stemmed Pilsner and Wheat Beer. And surprise: The shapes are totally different from conventional designs—as well as from the Spiegelau designs.

The Pilsner is a stemmed tulip, like the traditional Belgian Ale glass. The IPA and Wheat Beer glasses are tall and narrow with a tapered waist, like the conventional Pilsner glass. The Pint With Crown is a sleeker version of the pub pint glass.

Here’s what they say about their shapes:

 
Frankly, we bet on the precision of the Spiegelau glasses. We’ve tasted with them, and they work! There are no better glassware engineers on earth than Riedel, the parent company of Spiegelau.

We haven’t tried Lenox or other contenders, and you can’t be sure without trying. So we’ll keep testing, and will keep you posted.
 
CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THE GLASSES?

 
If you don’t care about precision engineering but like the idea of different glass shapes for different beers, try:

TRADITIONAL BEER GLASSES
 

See the original chart at DailyInfographics.eu.

For a refreshing iced latte, just squeeze two drops of concentrate into your favorite type of milk. Photo courtesy Folgers.

Now, all we need to make a truly delicious iced latte—in less than a minute—is our milk of choice and a bottle of the new Folgers Iced Café Coffee Drink Concentrate. The bottle is so small, it fits into a shirt pocket.

Just fill a glass with milk (and ice, as desired), add two squeezes of coffee concentrate and stir.

Make it with 2% milk and you have a drink that tastes like a milkshake without the ice cream: so creamy, it’s hard to believe this is a low-calorie drink. The drinks are called lattes, but if you’re used to a skim latte, as we are, the taste with 2% or almond milk approaches a milkshake.
 
Folgers Iced Café Coffee Drink Concentrates debuted in four equally scrumptious flavors:

The two drops of concentrate (per eight ounces of milk) add just 10 calories to the milk calories. The suggested retail price for a squeeze bottle with 12 portions is $4.99.

The flavors are very lightly sweetened with Sucralose. It was so light that we, who normally don’t add sugar to coffee, really enjoyed it. Along with the creaminess of the milk, it heightens the “milkshake factor.”

You can glamorize your latte, of course, adding whipped cream, chocolate syrup, ice cream or whatever. But the drinks are just perfect as is.

You can find Folgers Iced Café at retailers nationwide (store locator) and can buy it online.

We’re adding this “instant latte” solution to our list of delicious stocking stuffers.

Much of what we know about Aztec customs is thanks to Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), a Franciscan friar, missionary priest, scholar and ethnographer who traveled to New Spain* (current-day Mexico) after its conquest. Arriving in 1529, he learned the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs and spent more 61 years documenting their beliefs, culture and history.

He wrote extensively about Aztec cuisine. This article focuses on pozole (poe-SOE-leh, and often spelled posole in the U.S.), a hearty soup or stew made of hominy, meat, chiles and other seasonings.

The dish has either a red or green color depending on the chiles used for the soup base; there’s also white pozole. In addition to the traditional pork, later variations used beans, beef, chicken and seafood.

Pozole† is actually the Aztec word for hominy, corn that is hulled (the bran and germ have been removed) by bleaching the whole kernels in a lye bath (called nixtamalization).

In Sahagún’s time, pozole was cooked only on special occasions. Later, it became a popular holiday and “Saturday night” dish.

Pork pozole, garnished with cabbage,
cilantro, lime and radishes. Photo courtesy Chef Ingrid Hoffmann.

NOTE: Don’t confuse pozole with pozol, a porrige-like drink made from fermented corn dough.
 
*After an 11-year struggle for independence, New Spain became the sovereign nation of Mexico in 1821.

†Also spelled posole, pozolé and pozolli; the original Nahuatl spelling is name is potzolli.
 
CLASSIC POZOLE RECIPES

 
A modern variation:

Pozole interpreted as a salad, for a first course or side. Photo courtesy Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog.

Today we feature a vegan pozole salad from Hannah Kamimsky of Bittersweet Blog. It is intended as a first course or a side dish.
 
RECIPE: POZOLE SALAD

Ingredients For 8 Side Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F. Toss the cherry tomatoes and onion with the olive oil and oregano, and spread them in one even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 15-25 minutes, until the tomatoes are blistered and beginning to burst. Let cool. Meanwhile…

2. PREPARE the dressing: Add the cilantro, sundried tomatoes and garlic to a food processor or blender, and slowly pour in the lime juice while running the machine on low. Thoroughly purée, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl or blender jar as needed. Once the purée is mostly smooth, add the agave, chili powder, cumin and salt next, and drizzle in the olive oil (with the motor running) to emulsify.

3. TOSS together the tomatoes and onions, cabbage, hominy, avocados, and jalapeños in a large bowl. Pour the dressing on top and toss to coat. Chill for at least an hour before serving to allow the flavors to fully meld.