You Won't Find These Traditional Italian Breadsticks At Olive Garden

You may initially head to Olive Garden for a tasty bowl of pasta, but the chain's unlimited breadsticks are what keeps many customers coming back. These breadsticks are fluffy and full of delicious garlic flavor that makes them irresistible, even if Olive Garden doesn't bake them fresh in the kitchen. While a breadstick alongside your pasta dish may seem like part of a quintessential Italian meal, Olive Garden-style breadsticks actually aren't necessarily the kind you'd see on an Italian table. One version of an Italian breadstick, known as grissini, is thin and crunchy — the complete opposite of the bread you love at Olive Garden. 

Grissini dough contains flour, water, yeast, olive oil, and salt, which is then formed into a thin pencil-like shape to help achieve their crunchy texture. These breadsticks are baked in the oven until they achieve a perfect golden brown crust. Grissini are typically seasoned with olive oil and salt, but they can also be topped with herbs like rosemary or oregano. While you can find them prepackaged at almost any grocery store, you can also bake grissini from scratch. But perfecting their crunchy texture can be difficult. You can twice-bake them if needed, once for crispiness and again for a golden finish. The final result will be far different from the fluffy kind Olive Garden diners are used to, with a crispy, cracker-like finish.

These days, grissini may be found anywhere in Italy, but these breadsticks originated in the northwest region of Piedmont in Turin. Some say they were made around the 17th century as a cure for a young duke who was experiencing digestion issues. Another theory comes from the 14th century, when bakers made loaves of bread that became increasingly smaller over time, causing locals to dub them "grissino," or "tiny loaves of bread" — grissino is the diminutive term for "grissia," the local word for bread. 

However grissini came to be, you can enjoy these tiny breadsticks in more than one way. You can serve them as an appetizer paired with meats and cheeses or even wrapped in prosciutto. Olive Garden's breadsticks are typically served as an appetizer (and arguably the cheapest and best appetizer on the Olive Garden menu), often with dipping sauces, and you can do the same with grissini. 

Olive Garden may be a classic Italian chain restaurant, but its cooking methods cater to Americans and aren't always exactly traditional to Italian cuisine — most traditional Italian restaurants don't use as much cheese, either. And while you won't find grissini at Olive Garden, you may be able to find them at authentic Italian restaurants in the U.S. Though, for the full Italian experience, a trip to Italy may be necessary.