Flavorare

Flavorare is an Italian transitive verb meaning to give flavor to food, to season, or to perfume with taste. It is used primarily in culinary contexts and often sits alongside more traditional terms like insaporire. In practice, flavorare describes the act of imparting a specific flavor to a dish, sauce, or preparation, for example flavorare una salsa con pepe nero e aglio or flavorare un impasto con erbe aromatiche. In everyday speech, insaporire is more common, while flavorare appears in recipes, product labeling, and marketing language.

Etymology and usage: The verb flavorare is a loanword from English flavor (or flavour) adapted to Italian phonology with the -are ending. It entered modern Italian through cookery and industry language, especially in contexts involving processed foods or promotional material that emphasizes added flavor.

Conjugation and grammar: Flavorare follows the regular -are conjugation. Present indicative forms: io flavoro, tu flavori, lui flavora, noi flavoriamo, voi flavorate, loro flavorano. The past participle is flavorato, used with avere in compound tenses (ho flavorato). Other tenses follow the standard -are paradigm: imperfect flavoravo/flavoravi/flavorava, future flavorerò, conditional flavorerei, subjunctive flavori/flavori, etc. The verb is transitive and commonly takes a direct object (flavorare una salsa) or is used with con to indicate the ingredients used to flavor (flavorare con spezie).

See also: insaporire, aromatizzare, condire.