| Many Italian dishes are famous all around the world ... even if you may come to know that in Bologna, the most spread pasta in the world,
pasta bolognese
(bolognese means "from Bologna"), does not exist!
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But here I am not going to talk about the single dishes... but what means a complete Italian meal, that is different from other cultures.
In Italy a real complete meal (the ones that are still served in ceremony days, in marriage parties, and in some Sunday family lunch) begins with the aperitif. A soft or light drink with some appetizers signs the beginning. It is usually served outside, if the weather conditions allow it, and people are all around, with a few chairs or seatings.
Then it's time to take a seat at the table. It's antipasto time. The word antipasto says it all: anti = before, pasto = meal; even if it's real food that is served.
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There are a lot of antipasto used in Italy. It goes from seafood salad (with octopus, shrimps, mussels, clams, etc) to "land" food, with raw ham, salami, olives, raw sausage and some preserved vegetable as artichokes (carciofi).
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There are three plates on the table: the first one, small, for the antipasto, the second one, a soup bowl, is used for the first dish - pasta, risotto or soup; the third one is for the second that is meat or fish or both (one after another, not together) with a side dish.
The first dish is usually pasta, but there are no rules. I saw a lot of people, including tourists, eating a good minestrone (vegetables soup) in a restaurant. It can be a seafood risotto, or another kind of risotto. There are so many as the ideas that may come to the chef's head.
The second dish is meat or fish. It is important to know that the dishes in Italy are sold and served separately. In a lot of countries, Italian food is served as unique plate.
In Italy you'll never eat an Alfredo tagliatelle made with chicken or mushrooms. Never.
A vegetable soup could be enriched by meat, but ... Italians will never add meat to a minestrone!
So, as people say in Italy, "Places you visit, uses you know" (Paese che vai, usanze che trovi).
So, when you order a grilled filetto, for example, you have to ask for a side dish, if you desire it. It will NOT come with french fries or anything else. It will come alone.
The sides are maybe the less famous between other dishes. Usually it is green salad, french fries, or some grilled vegetables. It depends on the city and the restaurant.
| After that you can have fruit and then a dessert. The most known ones are probably
tiramisu
and
panna cotta
. Tartufo is also known, but unfortunately there are really a few artesanian ones; the most are industrialized, even if good the same. |  |
Tiramisu
is very tasty and it's not difficult to find it made by the chef.
After the dessert... coffee. And then, one "amazza caffè" (kill coffee) that is a
liquor
. You can choose your preferite liquor. Usually people drink grappa or limoncello nowadays; but there are other choices. By now you should have finished. If you ate it all, probably accompanied with a good wine, you'll probably feel like sleeping for a while... this is probably the reason why the shops in Italy used to close from 1 to 4pm! (don't worry, now a lot of them make a continuos opening) | | |
