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!

If you enjoy this video, please give it a like and subscribe to the channel!

——–

FOLLOW US
Website/Recipe Blog – https://www.pastagrammar.com
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/pastagrammar
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pastagrammar
Snapchat – https://www.snapchat.com/add/pastagrammar
Twitter – https://twitter.com/PastaGrammar

VISIT ITALY WITH US
Italian Food Tours – https://www.pastagrammar.com/tour

VISIT EVA’S HOMETOWN
Visit Dasà – https://www.visitdasa.com

SUPPORT US
Merch Store – https://teespring.com/stores/pasta-grammar-2
Shop Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/shop/pastagrammar

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

Happy Sunday guys we’re here today um unusually not really to discuss Italian cooking but Italian eating we are here uh to explain once for all how a normal Italian menu works because we received a lot of comment to question how you Italians eat yeah you know on the

Channel we talk a lot about first chuses and second courses and uh I know I had the experience of traveling to Italy for the first time and opening an Italian menu and being confused and ironically the more I learned the more confused I became until you get to a certain point

So we’re going to get to that point today so we’re going to eat a full five course meal and the first thing to throw you right off the bat is that a five course meal is kind of more like a seven course meal seven maybe so this is kind of what I’m talking

About this isn’t really a course but it’s a super important part of the meal that needs some discussion what we have in front of us which is bread is maybe the real stable Italian ingredient Italian food everyone thinks that for as Italian the most important thing is pasta or is

Pizza no for our the most important thing is bread because it doesn’t exist in Italy a table where people they see to eat and there isn’t bread it’s like almost illegal I can’t imagine your family like let’s say you you went to sit down for dinner and discovered you

Were out of bread no it’s a tragedy there would be no there would be no dinner it would be like we need to go find we need to make bread or find Brad like we need Brad we can’t eat without Brad bread is fundamental on every Italian family in every Italian

Restaurant when you sit in a restaurant the first thing that is brought to your table if you want or don’t want is the bread well that’s something that is kind of interesting here in the US because that used to be the case I remember when

I was a kid you go to just about any restaurant and they give you bread but it seems to be coming more and more rare yes because here in America you start a war against bread in general when when we did used to have restaurants that serve bread um especially in Italian

Restaurants everyone would put olive oil on their little plate maybe some pepper and dip the bread in that and that’s what they used the bread for it doesn’t really work like that now if you go in a restaurant it’s real that on the table you will find at the

Beginning bread and also like olive oil salt pepper and usually there is also balsamic vinegar the fact that these two elements are together on the table it doesn’t mean that you need to combine them because usually we don’t before we start to eat we don’t start to deep

Bread in olive oil and for sure we don’t dip bread in vinegar also because if you do like that you eat all the bread and in the moment in which you need to start actually to eat your lunch your dinner you’re are already full so yeah it’s

Meant to last through the meal and well we’ll we’ll get to all That okay that is one of my favorite moment before we actually start the meal it wouldn’t really be an Italian meal without some wine what is this oh chiro this is a chiro biano it’s a calabrian wine it’s a very very good wine and uh we choose to drink a CH biano because

I’m from Calabria and I really like my Southern Wine it is important to point out the the sort of cultural thing about how you don’t drink without eating or eat without drinking Chin Chin Chin Chin so the anti Pasto is kind of funny because it’s both one of the easiest

Parts of the meal for an outsider like me to understand because it’s essentially an appetizer but it’s also the most dangerous and when for instance we have guests in Italy like on our tour they can get into some trouble with this one is uh one also maybe of my favorite

Course during a meal antio is something that you eat before all the rest because antipast means before the meal just to let’s say open your stomach start your um your appetite appetite so it’s something that can involve various kind of food in this case we have some cheese a little

Bit of PR Crudo we have some uh preserved ches yeah preserved vegetables we have some olives but there are also other things so many things that’s the problem it’s like brus you can have brete you can have little fried things fried meatballs there’s just like so much even even smaller portions of

Things that could be more of a main course thing like yeah or even a parm melan small thing that so it can really like appetizers it can really be anything except salad m because I know that usually here in US you are used to start your meal with a salad but salad

For us itan isn’t an anti and it’s dangerous because you arrive at that moment that actually you want to eat so they bring to you all this kind of food that you can snack on and you start where you don’t really end you don’t really it there can be so much food in

The antipasto time time and time again it happened at our wedding with my family we had this huge spread of uh of anti Pasto Foods uh it happens on the tours and people go crazy and they eat all this food they’re having all this amazing stuff and like meatballs and

Fried potatoes and all stuff and then they’re like oh I’m so stuffed I don’t know if I have room for dessert and it’s like guys we haven’t even hit the first course yet and also when you in a normal restaurant in the big cities like like Roma f

Milano in the restaurant they bring you a menu so you choose which kind of Antipas you want but more you go in the South or more not fancy is the place where you eat you can actually ask to bring something to start like for example bring me something perfect so

The I will this is actually the movement that my dad does every time that he goes out in a restaurant and say bring me something so we don’t really know what sometimes this something is but we know that something delicious and with anti with the antipasta you eat the bread you

Have the bread on the table because needs to be eaten with the bread because a piece of cheese needs to be eaten with the bread but yeah in general if you’re ordering in a restaurant you won’t get in trouble because you will have ordered your specific things but if

You go to like an Italian family’s feast or Sunday lunch or something be careful because that that first big wave of food there’s a lot more coming after it all right now the meal is really getting going because we’ve arrived at Il Primo the first course and the first

Course in Italy is always or pasta or rice which means that it needs to be a carb based would palenta be a first course sometimes yes because Penta is carved exception is for potatoes except if they are noi so if potatoes they become noi it’s a first course a single

Potatoes is never a first course one important thing to remember about first course meals such as risoto or pasta is that they’re very time sensitive things so as we’ve said before on the channel the sort of rule is you dig in right away so before we talk more about the

First course let’s try this pasta what is this by the way this is one of the most simple Italian pasta dish which is pasta and cherry tomatoes quick easy simple nothing too complicate still one of my favorites yeah so if you go to a restaurant and

You look on the menu you’ll see the prei and that’s where you’ll find carbonara or ravioli or whatever all the pastas and stuff res the idea is to start the meal with carbs with fiber s with fiber yes I like that with fiber fiber not with carbs it’s

Like with fiber it’s very important to understand about the first course you don’t put usually pasta or rice on the bread like scooping it up you mean see you also give a bite of pasta and a bite of bread except if you’re not my cousin if you are my cousin maybe this can

Happen but but normal people no we we don’t do if someone invites you actually on the table you will find a lot of other things not just the pasta maybe you can find I don’t know as I said the bread maybe some leftover from the anti

Past or maybe you can find also a ready a side dish like a vegetable based dish that doesn’t mean that you need to mix what you find on the table in your plate there is nothing more triggering to an Italian than serving them a plate of pasta with something else on the plate

Like no meat not a big slab of chicken on the plate there are a few exceptions actually though like um um ooso Buco and Rosato Al Milan but that’s a rare exception maybe one uh maybe the only one that I can think of because uh it’s

Like it never comes into your mind to have a plate of spaghetti and on top a Ceta when you and I I first met and you know you would like almost die if you saw uh in like American restaurants how you have like a big pile of spaghetti

And then like a big piece of meat on top of it or something and I was always like I don’t get it what’s the big deal but I realized there’s a really important reason for that and that’s because the meat that you put on your pasta or next

To your pasta you eat with a fork and a knife but you you don’t eat pasta with a knife so if you’re cutting your meat you’re inevitably cutting up your pasta like cutting your spaghetti look at her right now cutting up your spaghetti into tiny little pieces pasta R they are they

On think you have your plate you enjoy you eat and that’s it we do need to talk about the important role that bread does play in the first course but first we need to finish our pasta absolutely a few moments later okay now we’re ready because the pasta is gone

But we have all this delicious sauce left on the plate plate that can’t go to waste so that is the moment in which you take some bread and what you do you clean and you have a name for this see we call this scarpeta and this is a

Symbol a sign that actually you loved your plate of pasta because the idea is it was so good that I need to clean my plate if we were in a restaurant or if we wear in an Italian home a plate like that is the best best think that

Actually you can give back because you appreciate your food so much that it’s all cleaned although be careful if you’re in a home that means oh good here have some more be careful okay now that our plates are squeaky clean it’s time for the second course so what is the second course this

Second course is uh most of the time what you call here in make a protein based dish which means can be meat can be fish then in Italy we are very very attached also to our vegetarian second vegetable bed such as for example or so the second course is pretty much

Everything that isn’t like strictly carb based so if it isn’t like P or Rosato or like Penta that’s the sondo it’s the SE so yeah strictly speaking if you’re having a full five course meal you will first have the Primo which will then be followed by the sondo the 2 course

However in this trips people up including me when I first started going to Italy you open up an Italian menu and you see often it’s translated it it’ll say like you know the anti pasta you sort of get that you’re like okay appetizers first course you’re like all

Right I see pastas and stuff and then you see the second course I think a lot of people wonder like am I expected to get a first and a second course nowadays not really it’s like also we Italians when we go to a restaurant we don’t

Order from the antipasto to the last the dish to the usually what we do we decide antio plus a primo and a and antio Plaza and there are occasion where actually we sit and we as we say we honor the table from the anti pasor to

The but these are occasion such as a celebration can be Christmas can be Easter Sunday lunch at home Sunday lunch at home when maybe all the big families eating all together or maybe in the case of I don’t know an anniversary a birthday that are the cases in which we

Play the heavy cards it’s worth pointing out though that if you do go to a restaurant in Italy be aware that usually because the menu is set up to have the first and the second course usually the serving sizes will be smaller than what here we would just

Call an entree you know cuz the idea is sort of that your meal is split up between an anti Pasto at least a Primo or a sondo maybe a side dish a dessert Etc so what do we have here here we have a stew what we call spino and this time

Is made out of goat meat and it smells really good I used a lot of onion Tomatoes meat some wine um from your reaction so good now you might notice that while we have our sondo here we also have something else what we have in front of us is

Contour which means side dish it’s a vegetable B a dish and it’s something that you order because you eat together with the second together pay attention doesn’t mean in the same plate no because you don’t want to mix all the flavor someday I promise I’ll catch I’ll

Get a picture of her reaction every year when she sees my big Thanksgiving plate with everything all the mashed potatoes and gravy and turkey this in Italy doesn’t exist every course should have is on plate these are Fel Mediterranean style let’s go like that is what we call

Gratinati which means Fel bread crumb some cherry tomatoes black pepper and chees baked in the oven this is a tomato based is a saucy dish while here we have a what we say gratinato so we don’t mix because can you understand that that goes here no those would not go well in

The same thing no you before but mashed potatoes and gravy do potato this is the kind of sauce that scarpeta was made for the sauce is so good it’s like just the thought of losing any of it also here if you really appreciated your dish it’s a very good

Things to do something like that because you don’t want to waste now if you’ve been doing the math in your head regarding our five course meal uh you’ve probably thought well they had the anti Pasto and they had the Primo the first course the sondo the second

Course the contorno the side dish it must be time for dessert but depending on where you’re eating you you might be wrong and that’s why this is this is probably the most dangerous part of a of a feast because uh at the end of this four course there is not really a course

There a break there’s a pause yes because it’s like you need can last like an hour or more yes because you need to understand you are at this point you are chatting you are drinking you are happy so it’s the moment in which you can just

Relax a little bit and let digest see make some space and how we make in it some space by eating more see but this is for cleaning I guess you would call this this course that isn’t really a course you would call it fruta fruit cuz it’s normally

Some fruit comes out um but it can also be other things like peanuts in cabria is a really big thing and my personal favorite you’ll just have like often piles of peanuts on the table and everyone’s just sitting there another favorite of mine is fava beans big fava

Beans in the Pod and you bust them open and eat them maybe with some cheese but the fruit is what chps people up because uh let’s say you’ve come on the the pasta grammar tour and you had a huge anti Pasto that you thought was the

Entire meal and then you had a first course and a second course and a side dish and then maybe someone brings out a big tray of melon and you’re like oh oh a light little dessert to finish things off that’s not dessert now fruit is something that uh is not mandatory to

Eat have this at a restaurant uh no usually in a restaurant you can decide if you want to have some fruit like usually they serve I don’t know pineapple something more exotic at home you can have cherries when they are in season you can have oranges banana pear

Maple all kinds of fruit it’s up to you you can eat it or you can also live there it again kind of goes back to the philosophy of not drinking without eating and if you have something like this it usually means it’s a Sunday lunch or it’s a holiday or something

Where everyone’s gathered together and everyone’s drinking and sitting at the table for a long time you guys have to understand this meal we’re talking about can be like many hours if not an entire day so in that pause after the kind of main courses and the dessert people are

Still sitting there chatting and drinking and it’s like considered just totally backwards to not have something on the table that you can snack on and now we’ve come to the final and definitely simplest course of all IL do the dessert yes har the last one is the

Dessert and what is a dessert it’s a dessert now in a restaurant you order the dessert and they bring bring you one dessert what you order if it happens that you are in a family meal maybe you have have three four five the so it’s up to you if you

Want to choose one and need just that or just uh try jump one of my favorites is when the family goes to like the the bakery and they’ll just get a tray or several trays often of all the different kinds of pesti cheria treats like little canoli and

Spia and all the little cookies and stuff that is what we call pastel and actually is a very long tradition because back in the past you didn’t always have a the available so Sunday think after the mess people they went to the postier to buy a tray of the

Bring a home to to enjoy because it was the lunch was the meal of the week and still now we keep this tradition and it’s always amazing to to see someone coming home with this tray of the sand oh wrapped up you order it by the kilo

What are we enjoying today today we are enjoying a slice of ppana because Easter is approaching so I’m you’re you’re using any excuse you can to eat pastiera yes this is one of my favorite Des want a see what is everything see what is that taste the orange blossom

Ofo that mhm you know what Italy needs something like bread that you can use to make a dessert scarpeta there you go that should be a thing okay Pata doesn’t need one but is let’s say you have like a Tumi Sue or something you have some Brios and you Innovating and after the we close our meal with Cafe and mat Cafe Cafe is coffee like this a mat Cafe is what you call the digestive it can be a lionell that for sure is one of the most famous but it can be also anamar it can be graa

It should help you to digest but I don’t really know if if actually helps you to digest thank you guys for joining us today we hope uh we answered a few questions about the Italian menu before we go a quick shout out to a pasta Garian in action he made these very

Beautiful looking NTI Sardi very very good job we have a video I’ll put it up here all about how to make fresh semolina pasta if you want to become a pasta Garian just hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already follow us on social media @ pasta gramar and uh

Tag us in a picture maybe send us a send us some meal pictures with atieast Prim all right guys we’ll see you next time you know there’s a course that actually I just realized we completely forgot about which is the 4 hours after dessert has been had and everyone’s

Still partying and hanging out and Gathering and celebrating and someone goes all right I’m just going to make a big thing of alolo pepperino at like midnight that’s the course we forgot about