Italian Meals

Italians live to relish the flavors of their culinary traditions; freshly picked vine tomatoes, handmade pastas, doughy salted breads, perfectly cured meats, mouthwatering mozzarella, and sharp shots of coffee, just to name a few. Typically, Italians enjoy all of their quintessential foods and drinks without guilt or hesitation. They enjoy these flavors with others, often pausing for a few hours to eat lunch or dinner with colleagues, family, and friends.

Each of Italy’s twenty regions are richly diverse and varied. However, there are some striking similarities in habits which unite the citizens of this very regional county. Despite the relaxed nature of eating and drinking in Italy, the people do have rules when it comes to how, where, when, why, and what they do or do not consume. Of course, Italian eating norms and etiquette hold some contradictions and exceptions, but they do not come about without reason. The way Italians eat and drink aligns with their family-oriented culture, balanced lifestyle, and hearty sense of pleasure, passion, and creativity.

The Typical Italian Breakfast

Italians are not heavy breakfast eaters. Eggs, sausage and toast for breakfast utterly perplexes Italians. Sure, they eat scrambled eggs, but they come in the form of a frittata, served at lunch or dinner. The idea of eggs at breakfast baffles them. Italians generally eat quite light, sugary breakfasts rather than large, savory morning meals. It is as if they are saving room for their habit of having delightfully long lunches and sit-down dinners.

Breakfast or la colazione, is usually eaten at the bar, the Italian equivalent of a cafe or coffee shop, or at home from 7:00 to 10:30am. You will not see an Italian asking for their "coffee to go." You rarely see Italians walking around drinking large cups of coffee.

At an Italian coffee bar, the typical breakfast is an espresso or cappuccino, which is a cupful of warm, foamy milk poured over espresso, and pastry such as a cornetto, which is a croissant-like pastry filled with miele, honey; crema, cream; marmelatta, jam; or cioccolato, chocolate. At home, Italians often only have coffee, milk, and a few biscotti or cookies for breakfast.

Italian Coffee Rules

Although coffee or caffe, usually in the form of espresso, is drunk throughout the day, there are some timing rules that Italians adhere quite strictly to. Most importantly, during the morning, which is anytime before 11:00am, it is perfectly acceptable to drink cappuccini. However after noon, Italians frown upon drinking large coffee drinks. That's because drinking milk after a meal hampers your digestion. After 12:00pm, they stick to espressi or cafe macchiati, which is a shot of espresso with a dab of foamed milk. Except at breakfast, coffees are always consumed after meals, not before or during them.

Mealtimes have set hours

Mealtimes can vary slightly, but Italians typically eat lunch between 1 and 2:30 p.m. and dinner between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Many restaurants will open for lunch around 12:30 or 1 p.m. and close the kitchen from 2:30 or 3 p.m. until 7 or 7:30 p.m. Restaurants that serve dinner before 7 p.m. are catering to tourists. In small cities and towns, don't expect to be able to sit down for a late lunch or early dinner — period. If you're hungry between mealtimes, you can get a sandwich at a bar.

Tramezzini

Tramezzini are popular Italian finger sandwiches that are perfect for snacking. Similar to English tea sandwiches, these flavorful triangular sandwiches are made with crustless soft white bread and homemade olive oil mayonnaise. First made at the Caffè Mulassano in Turin in 1925, tramezzini were and still are an Italianized version of British tea sandwiches. Made on white Pullman bread called pan carré, or square bread, in a very Turin combination of Italian and French, they were named by Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio.

Because the word sandwich was difficult to pronounce in Italian, d’Annunzio invented the word tramezzino (the singular) which has overtones of both “between” (tra in Italian) and “half” (mezzo), meant as a half-way between breakfast and lunch. Tramezzini fit right in. They're typically served and sold between breakfast and lunch at many restaurants and bars in Venice, Italy. Today, when few people in large Italian cities return home for the main meal of the day in the early afternoon, tramezzini are often eaten as a light lunch.

Some examples of fillings:

The Typical Italian Lunch

In Italy, lunch or il pranzo, is usually served and eaten from 12:30 to 2:30pm. Although, most Italians will eat their midday meal promptly at 1:00pm everyday. If not in a rush, Italians sit down and enjoy their lunch for at least an hour, either at home or in a restaurant or bar. The majority of Italian adults and schoolchildren go home for lunch, if time allows.

Quick lunches out in Italy include panini and pizze, but in reality, Italians prefer to sit down and eat a full, cooked meal at lunchtime. Italians do not put different foods together on one plate, instead they eat in courses. And, the salad ofter comes after the first course and the meat, not the other way around. Spaghetti and meatballs do not go together in Italy. They exist, but as separate dishes. They often cook with fresh, simple ingredients and eat seasonally. In this way, Italians eat very healthily and intuitively. Normally, lunch is Italian’s biggest and most sustaining meal of the day.

Traditionally, lunch starts with antipasti (appetizers), primi (pasta, rice, or soup), secondi (main courses, usually meat or fish), contorni (side dishes), and dolci (desserts). That said, you're not actually expected to order four courses every time you sit down at a restaurant. This kind of menu with antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno is above all for celebrations like weddings because in Italy you're at the table for three or four hours. The Italian style is to start with an antipasto and then choose a pasta or a main course with a side dish and then end with dessert. Table wine is also present throughout but rarely drank in tall-stemmed glasses; rather, it is drank from stemless juice glasses (it is a juice, after all).

Bread and pasta hardly mix unless, of course, you want to fare la scarpetta and wipe your plate clean of nonna’s delectable sauce. After the lunch plates are cleared, the basket of fruit comes out and apples, pears, nectarine, grapes, or oranges are eaten with a fork. Italians don’t eat fruit with their hands, and they rarely eat the peel, which is removed with their fork and knife. If the occasion is special, a small sweet will be offered and coffee served.

Bread is present for all of these courses but usually only eaten with the contorno or a saucy protein. Bread or pane is a dietary staple, but not a whole side dish, in Italy. Italians do not put butter or pour olive oil on their bread. Freshly cut pieces of bread are always on the table and Italians use a piece bread at the end of the meal to mop up the sauces and flavors left on their plates. This even has a name, fare la scarpetta, which literally translates to ‘make the little shoe,’ but really refers to wiping one’s plate clean with a piece of bread.

Italians always order water with their meal. Water is not free, but it is also not expensive, and it is not normal to order tap water, acqua di rubinetto, although it is possible. Every Italian bar or restaurant will offer acqua frizzante or sparkling water and acqua naturaleor still water for just a few euros. Italians also almost always order vinoor wine, and only sometimes birra or beer, with their food. They never order too much alcohol to drink and usually always order something to eat while they drink. Italians often chose the house red or white wines in restaurants. House wines, as well as higher end wines, in Italy are incredibly flavorful and satisfying.

Italian Aperitivo Culture

In 1925, it was traditional in Italy (as it still is today) to stop for an after-work snack and a glass of wine or an aperitif on the way home, while fashionable ladies might entertain friends at home after shopping or a game of cards. Between 6:00 and 8:00pm, just before dinner, it is the Italian aperitivo time. Aperitivo is a drink and a snack or small bite before dinner. If having aperitivo out, the typical price of €10.00 usually includes the food and one drink. Traditionally, an aperitivo is a carbonated, bitter, and low-alcohol beverage, such as the Aperol spritz, which is made with Prosecco, Aperol, and a spritz of sparkling mineral water. Typical aperitivo fare includes crackers, olives, meats, cheeses, and bread. This is an idyllic way to catch up with friends or spend time with colleagues after work, before it gets too late in the evening.

Type of Drinks: While wine is common, aperitivo hour is the perfect time to try a classic Italian drink, like the bitter Campari or the slightly less bitter Aperol. Both are fantastic mixed with soda, or in a slightly sweeter Spritz (sparkling wine, soda, and Campari or Aperol). If bitter brews are right up your alley Italy has a whole class of them called amaro. If sweeter tipples are more your style, opt for the classic Martini Rosso or Martini Bianco. Both of these are types of vermouth, which have alcohol concentrations around 15%. If you’re after something with more of a punch that is still very Italian, you have to try a negroni, Italy’s most famous classic cocktail. It’s a sort of dark martini with gin, campari, and red vermouth. If that’s a little too lush for you but you still want something with a bit more kick than the average spritz, try a negroni sbagliato, or “broken negroni” which replaces the gin with prosecco.

An aperitivo should be bitter or sour, not sweet. "Aperitivo shouldn't be sweet because if you taste something and it makes you salivate at the tip of your tongue, it's acidic. Something that makes you salivate stimulates your appetite, so drinking something bitter or sour gets your palate ready to eat lunch or dinner

The Typical Italian Dinner

Italian dinner or la cena, usually from 8:00 to 10:00pm, is another time that Italians enjoy sitting down together and socializing. Dinner can be much later than 10:00pm, especially if eating out or dining at a friend’s house. Dinner can be one of a number of options: another dish of pasta, seafood cooked lightly in the pan with EVOO-dressed salad, or a breaded piece of chicken with fennel. Generally, this meal is lighter, and also involves the local wine, of which you will have a glass. Dinner could take more of the form of lunch, if it is a special occasion.

After dinner, it is normal to have coffee, as well as digestivi, which are warming alcoholic drinks that are served after a big meal to aide digestion and capitalize on enjoyment.

Italians eat seasonally

When it comes to Italian cooking, freshness and seasonality are crucial. Though nowadays you can get many fruits and vegetables year-round, Italians know that they're going to taste better during their peak season. Tomatoes are most flavorful in summer, while fall brings squash, winter is the season for artichokes, and spring is bursting with green veggies like peas, fava beans, and asparagus. Many restaurants change their menus seasonally or offer seasonal specials in addition to the usual dishes.