Where you can buy Italian Food in the US

Welcome officially in the Italian Food lovers club. Whether you’re an Italian who recently moved abroad or just a real Italian food fan, this article is for you. Here I’ll show you where you can find it here in the US (but for the online options, also in other Countries where the service is available).

I’ll start by saying that for some things you can always rely on Amazon. Once, during one of my pregnancy cravings, I spent $25 for a ten pack size box of Ciobar (a hot chocolate Italian brand). Me, who drinks hot chocolate maybe twice a year! Then I found out how to make it at home and I cried a little for those $25! Long story short, most of them are very expensive. The only thing that I feel to recommend so far is the saffron. Here in the US is awkwardly expensive and finding the powdered one that we Italian are used to is a titanic challenge. But on Amazon is definitely available and fairly priced (compared to the US average).

So where can you buy Italian food?

Thank God there are several options more or less expensive, but still valiant. Grocery stores improved in time but clearly you can’t find everything, right? Maybe you’re not Italian but you went there on vacation and now you’re craving to find the brand of cookies that you loved so much and seems impossible to find.

So check this out!

I’m about to put down a list of places where you can find REAL Italian food.

Grocery Stores

For fresh generic food at a decent price I suggest to find the closest
Fresh Market to your house. If you visit their website you can click on “Find my store” and search by location. Here you can find meat, fruit, veggies and fish. All of good quality. But also some deli such as croissants and European cheese. Prices for meat and roasts are phenomenal, especially if you decide to cook them in the Crock-pot.

For the next two options you’ll need a yearly membership, but it’s definitely worth it, especially price wise. I’m talking about Sam’s Club and Costco.

Since they’re present pretty much everywhere, both offer the option to order online, but I strongly suggest to carefully check the shipping methods to avoid extra costs. These are the typical mega-stores where you can buy in bulks for months ahead. Besides, it might be convenient to also buy other types of products, such as house detergent and products, drinks, diapers and so on. But don’t get too distracted. You landed on this page to look for Mascarpone cheese and fresh mozzarella. But since they offer free shipping for purchase above a certain amount, you might want to take the chance to restock other items too.

Then, there’s Aldi. I discovered it when they opened a store near to my house and I can tell you that it’s definitely the cheapest and provides more Italian food products than many others more famous stores. And quality is good as well. So far it remains my favorite among the grocery stores.

At last, I strongly suggest Trader Joe’s. It’s a smaller grocery store chain, but products are really fresh. Unfortunately some things are slightly expensive, but some others (such as Extra virgin olive oil) are fairly cheap. Besides, they have a good quality of Gnocchi, fruit, veggies and seasonal products such as Pandoro (a typical Italian Christmas sort of cake).

Online websites

Get ready because this IS my favorite. Not only it specializes in Italian food products, but offers free shipment for orders above $50. I’m talking about
Supermarket Italy. Clearly, when you decide to restock your Italian deli pantry and fridge, 50 dollars is the least necessary, so we can assume that you’ll never pay for shipment.

Here you can find EVERYTHING!! Even San Daniele prosciutto, believe it or not! Ok, maybe there’s no hot butcher slicing up the prosciutto for you while flirting a little, but you can’t have everything, right? 😉 I recently discovered this one, so I’m still exploring all the options. So far though… Spectacular!

For fancier stuff you can rely on Cucina Amorosa. For love of honesty, I need to say that I haven’t had to the chance to place an order through this website, but people I trust recommended it to me and it looks very intriguing. I’ll update this article as soon as I’ll have the chance, I promise. Or if decide to use it before I do, let me know what you think about it in a comment.

Another option is World Market. In the “Food & Drink” category you’ll find the Italian section. I need to warn you that there’s not a huge selection, but there are a couple of treats such as taralli or truffles that are not easy to find elsewhere.

Other options

The closer you are to big cities, the easier it’ll be to find international stores of every kind and size. Believe it or not, I once found the Savoiardi cookies (otherwise called Lady fingers) in a Romanian mini-store. I strongly suggest to explore all international stores in your area, especially if European because you might still find products and Italian food at interesting price.

Besides, this doesn’t mean that some products such as Barilla pasta or Voiello, mascarpone, parmesan (the real one) don’t exist in more renowned stores such as Walmart, Publix or Kroger. Simply there’s not much selection and when there is, it’s not exactly cheap.

Recap of where you can find Italian food:

Fresh market
Sam’s Club
Costco
Aldi
Supermarket Italy
Cucina Amorosa
World Market
Something on Amazon
International stores in your area

You thought you were lost without our beloved Italian food? It’s nice to see that there are so many option, right? In time you’ll learn which one offer products and service that best resonate with your needs and your wallet, but meanwhile… It’s kind of a relieve, isn’t it? 😉