On the topic of food traditions in Italy: 'Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong', in the FT recently - https://archive.is/4gwGh#selection-1454.0-1454.1
> Indeed it’s hard to imagine that people who survived the second world war eating chestnuts, as my grandfather did, would be concerned about using pork jowl instead of pork belly in a pasta recipe. Or as Grandi puts it, “Their ‘tradition’ was trying not to starve.”
I think it's wise to remember that for most of history the majority of people have been too poor to be picky.
regarding some things about food, here in italy the rule is don't ask and don't tell