The Italian Menu Explained

Primi, secondi, contorni, oh my!

The Italian menu can be a little confusing at first. There are some unwritten rules and unofficial "courses" that can get unsuspecting guests and diners (or at least their waistlines) into trouble if they don't know how a feast is meant to work.

Today Eva's going to answer, once and for all, some of the many questions we get about Italian meals, how they work, and how Italians like to eat!

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00:00 - The Italian Menu Explained
00:58 - Il Pane - The Bread
03:36 - Il Zino - The Wine
04:18 - L'Antipasto - The Appetizer(s)
08:09 - Il Primo - The First Course
12:47 - Il Secondo - The Second Course
15:46 - Il Contorno - The Side Dish
17:27 - La Frutta - The Snack
20:25 - Il Dolce - The Dessert
22:50 - Il Caffè e Ammazzacaffè - The Coffee and Digestivo
23:30 - Pasta Grammarian in Action!

#italianfood

[PastaGrammar]

Happy Sunday! What's on the menu for your Sunday lunch (or dinner)?

[rianaconklin]

I'm just now realizing that I wasn't a picky eater growing up because I hated my food mixing on a plate so I put everything on separate dishes, I just had Italian sensibilities 😊 now can show my mom this video and prove that I wasn't the only person in the world who didn't like to mix food lol

[judithmetraux]

You have just described our “Sunday meal”, but we always have a green salad at the end of the meal before the dessert. My Grandmother (from Abruzzo) considered the salad an important digestive. After that we would pause, clean the table, do the dishes and then have dessert, fruit, nuts and coffee.

[jeffs]

My grandmother and great grandmother, who was originally from Naples, always served a salad (which they claimed was to help you digest) after il secondo and before the fruit and nuts course, at Sunday dinners. Also, a couple hours after the coffee and and cordials, they would typically serve either a homemade sheet pizza and/or sandwiches and/or a parmigiana di melanzane, in the off chance that guests were hungry again…which somehow we always were. It’s a wonder any of us survived it. 😅 Happy memories. ❤

[marykoufalis]

In our Greek culture we do the same gesture that Ava said her dad does when he tells the waiter 'bring something'. At that point the waiter will bring at least 2 to 3 if not four dishes of appetizers.

[jeffs]

These traditions that we share, as Italian Americans, centered around food and family, brought over by our ancestors from the old country, have such a sublime effect on us, imbedded in our shared experience, and have such a profound impact on who we are and who we’ve become, even if we’re not cognizant of it. Our lives are so blessed and enriched by them .Such a gift.

[m.baroni]

In the north (mainly). before fruit we eat some cheese. We are used to say: "La bocca l'e' minga stracca se nun la sa de vacca", the mouth isn't tired/satisfied if it doesn't taste of cow (dairy).

[richardengelhardt]

When I was in jr and sr high school in the US, studying French, I corresponded with a long-term pen pal who lived in Nice. Her father was French, and her mother was Italian. When I graduated from high school, my pen pal's family invited me to come and stay with them for the summer, where I could study French intensively and live in a French-speaking family, before I returned to the US for university.

The experience was fantastic -- something out of the movie Call Me By Your Name. It changed my life forever, and I became a petmanent part of this family. But the point here is that this family had one culinarily leg in France and the other in Italy. And ne'er the teain could meet! Both father and mother were fantastic and enthusiastic cooks. At every meals, each course was "double" - a French and an Italian option. Well, my pen pal, her brother, and I were all teenagers, so we could eat endlessly, and usually on most days during this heady summer we were also busy as teenagers are with social engagements, and so we could eat (relatively) moderately by pick-and -choose before rushing out to be with our friends.

The problem was on Sundays. After church relatives would come over for dinner (brunch + lunch + supper, ) curious about this "exotic" American boy living with them. (This was 1968, and Americans had not yet flooded Europe, so somelike me was a novelty.) We started eating at 11 am and did not finish until well as dark, around 8 pm. Three long tables were set out in the garden. On one side was a table for French food, on the other for Italian. The table in the middle was where we sat. This table too was ladden with bread, an endless array of nibbles, fruit and of course wine (both French and Italian.)

The father and mother both spent all day Saturdays cooking, as well as Sunday mornings from before dawn. They didn't go to church because they were much too busy cooking. We kids were assigned to go to church to accompany the elderly grandparents - to get us all out of the house, so we wouldn't be in the way of the all-important food prep.

Visiting relatives, also brought more food.

This was a real challenge for me, as everyone wanted the American boy to try everything -- and to have an opinion on which was best! I had to learn to eat only the tiniest portion of each dish, so I could get through the day. And I wasn't helped in this by my pen pal or her brother. On the contrary. My pen pal was firmly on "Team Italy" and did her best to stuff me with Italian delicacies, while her brother was the self-appointed captain and cheerleader of "Team France" and demanded my unwavering loyalty to his cause.

It was a jolly time and I learned a lot about the best of both Italian and French food!😅😋❤

[JohnPasquenza]

I remember when I was young ( in the 1950's) in Brooklyn NY, my mother's family would serve holiday dinners just the way you describe. My grand parents were immigrants. It was an all day affair, As time went on my mother and her sisters kept the custom going until they got too old. I took it for granted, that it was the way it was done. Thank You for the memories. I love your channel.

[Percykap]

The best food channel ANYWHERE! Mangia!!

[tjeanvlogs]

My family is from Molise and Calabria. I will do a fast americanized lasagna with store bought components relatively frequently, but I am know for my from scratch "show stoppers" including my lasagna. Except for the hard aged cheese, everything is from scratch: ricotta, mozzarella, sausage, pasta, and my ragu. It takes 3 days to pull this dish off.
My husband begged snd begged for me to make it. So i serve it and he smoothers it in ranch dressing without tasting it. He did live and we are still married, but he catches all sorts of grief decades later.

[gizmo]

I grew up in an Italian household with Grandma and my mother. My mother learned from grandma but we ate like ordinary Neapolitans, nothing fancy. No five courses, but oh, so much bread and meatballs for Sunday dinner, every Sunday. Holidays with their different meat themes, was always started with pasta. We broke in between. Had to. This five course info really appeals to me, taking your time too. Thanks for showing us how it’s really done. Going to make my bread now! Ciao!

[AmandainGeorgia]

So many of these things are also true for Georgians in the Caucasus. My Georgian husband and I were in Tuscany last October, and he felt right at home. The dishes were different, but the basic rules felt very familiar. Especially the bread. At home, if we don’t have bread, he can’t eat. He will go out and get bread or ask the neighbors for some, even if there’s plenty of other food. 😂 So he really approved of Italian bread culture. ❤

[rightorwrong]

I have looked for this information for ages! The explanation that you don't have to have both the 1st course & the 2nd course is golden. The idea of having to have both, and to finish each so you didn't insult your host, was intimidating - unless you are having a meal that lasts all day (still a bit overwhelming). Maybe at a family meal you serve yourself and can then choose your portion size; that could lower the trepidation of being able to eat it all. A family meal that lasts all day with all those people sounds amazing!

[Quackman]

There is a very small restaurant chain in the Detroit area called Salvatore Scallopini. Very authentic high Italian fare there. First course is always good Italian bread, but until I schooled them on providing a small plate with EVOO, a little tomato sauce and a good amount of Parmagiano Reggiano and pepper to accompany the bread they were clueless. This is the way I was raised and now this is the way my favorite Italian restaurant (Salvatore Scallopini) serves everyone that comes in to dine. Recently, they gave me a free meal for helping to increase their business! It turns out that EVERYONE digs the dish!

[mariaboccia]

Inevitably, the first time I make a traditional meal for non-italian friends, they eat WAY TOO MUCH antipasti, and then can't eat any of the piati!. One family, it took them three times before they learned how to pace themselves. When I made a feast of Fiorentine piati for my friends on returning to the States, I warned them to pace themselves. Some who had experienced it before did fairly well, but others needed "doggy bags"! home-made pici with napolitano ragu, and fiorentine beef stew . . .

[gregmuon]

At my house growing up, for holidays there would have been an apertivo course also. It's usually in a different room before going to the dinner table.

[jelsner]

When I was growing up, we always had a big "Sunday Dinner" which usually started at 1pm. Relatives often joined us. We did serve everything on one plate, though! (But the meal was usually roast beef or pork, mashed potatoes and gravy and some sort of vegetable. Bread was also served with butter. If there was a salad, a small separate plate would be used. Dessert was usually pie or a cake. Good times.

[ClaireRousseau]

I went out to a wonderful Italian restaurant a couple days ago for a friend's birthday and we did exactly this! The staff recommended that we order a couple plates of each course to share between four of us, and we had the most delicious, 3-hour long dinner, it was amazing.

[alicetwain]

I like to explain the foreigners (most foreigners, the French, the Greeks, the Spanish actually don't need to be explained) the meaning of the word "companatico": what you eat with bread. Companatico is basically all of the food except bread. Everything is supposed to be had with bread.
Also, even with ossibuchi, you traditionally add a scoop of the sauce to the rice, and serve the ossibuchi as a secondo. Serving everything in the same plate is a newish thing.