In cooking, al forno or al forno di legna, are both Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 expressions describing food that is "at/from the oven". Baked pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

, breads and pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

 dishes are often part of this genre. Because pasta "al forno" is cooked twice, once boiled by itself, and once baked in the oven in the prepared dish, it is very difficult, if not impossible, for it to be al dente

Al dente

In cooking, the Italian expression 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...

, which means "at/to the tooth". One of the most common pasta dishes one will see the label "al forno" affixed to is lasagna

Lasagna

Lasagna is a wide and flat type of pasta and possibly one of the oldest shapes. As with most other pasta shapes, the word is generally used in its plural form lasagne in Italy and the U.K. Traditionally, the dough was prepared in Southern Italy with semolina and water and in the northern regions,...

. "Al forno" usage can vary from a more strict use of only the traditional wood-fired brick oven, than stated as "al forno di legna", or more loosely used in more modern recipes that use a conventional oven

Oven

An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...

 like the casserole

Casserole

A casserole, from the French for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish 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 or casserole pan...

 ziti al forno

Penne

Penne is a type of pasta with cylinder-shaped pieces. Penne is the plural form of the Italian penna, deriving from Latin penna . In Italy, penne are produced in two main variants: "penne lisce" and "penne rigate" , the latter having ridges on each penna...

.

History and culture

Al forno is a term that described cuisine in Northern Italy

Northern Italy

Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

 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 mozzarella.