A subtext here is that we don't do this for white/European foods, which have equally SEO-unfriendly names. It's never "pasta with cheese and black pepper;" it's "cacio e pepe." "Coq au vin" isn't ever "braised chicken with wine, bacon, and mushrooms." https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889vvv/when-it-comes-to-a-recipe-whats-in-a-name

We reserve the "SEO-friendly" excuse for erasing culture in food and recipes for those cuisines we also misguidedly call "ethnic."

People will argue that Americans are "more familiar" with Euro foods, but that's nonsense. Nobody knew "cacio e pepe" ten years ago. My mom took fuckin *pesto* to share with her college class in 1976 in California and NOBODY had seen "green pasta."

We learn the names of the food when people *use* the names of the foods, and food media has more power to do this than anyone.

I've heard people argue that food from certain cultures are hard to pronounce and THAT is why they use other terms. Well, I can tell you first-hand that almost none of you are pronouncing Italian food right and you're not letting that stop you.