One of the many things that Italy is known for is its food. Now, if you are Italian or have been to Italy, you already understand why. However, if you haven’t gotten to experience Italian food, this blog will open your eyes to what you have been missing out on. Think of this as an Italian guide to eating.
Italian cuisine has many staple dishes and ingredients, including burrata pasta, ciabatta bread, and Italian pizza. We will start with what you can expect at the beginning of a day with an Italian breakfast. Usually, breakfast is comprised of small serving sizes of sweet pastries such as cornetto or ciambella and a light coffee with milk. These pastries can be bought from a cafe or made from scratch from your Italian cookbook! This meal aims to kickstart your day and boost your energy.
As we move into lunchtime, what you eat may depend more on your lifestyle. A “panino” or Italian sandwich is expected if you are having a quick lunch. On the other hand, some may opt for a more extensive lunch that usually starts with pasta paired with an Italian cooking sauce or risotto. After the first dish, you would choose a meat dish, which could be meat or fish, based on your preference, paired with a side dish that often includes fruit.
We are now moving into dinner time, where you will see similarities to lunch, and you may start to think of the essentials of classic Italian cooking, but typical food in Italy is not just pizza, as some may think. Italian dinner usually begsalad oran appetizer, which often includes cheese, such as a burrata Caprese salad, cold cut meat spread, or bread. After the appetizer, you will usually have a pasta or risotto dish again as the “primi piatti” or first course. As we move onto the “secondi piatti,” this is where you will usually have your choice of meat, whether that be steak, chicken, veal, lamb, or sausage, and it is traditionally paired with vegetables or an alternative side dish. For your last course of the meal, you will have dessert. Typically, for this dessert, you will have something small such as amaretti cookies or a slice of a cake like tiramisu paired with a sweet wine.
Now that you have learned to eat like an Italian, we hope you look forward to your next meal!