Northern Italian vs. Southern Italian food

[TDAS04]

These differences are general, there's overlap, and there are differences within each region, but...

Northern Italian=more butter, cream sauces, red meat
Southern Italian=more olive oil, tomato sauce, vegetables, seafood (more Mediterranean)

[TDAS04]

What would be an example of a Northern Italian dish?

Risi e bisi (rice and peas) is a northern Italian dish.

Anyway, it's not uncommon for northern Italian dished to contain risotto (rice) or polenta instead of pasta, even though Northerners love pasta too.  It is also more common in the North for pasta to contain eggs.

Northern Italian is somewhat similar to French, and there's also some Germanic influence.  Southern Italian food can be pretty spicy due to the climate and influence from other Mediterranean areas.  Spicy tomato sauce is definitely southern Italian.