If you go for a meal in a restaurant with Italian friends you will probably find this to be a long drawn-out affair with many courses! You do not have to order every course, but you will find that Italians take their food and drink very seriously. For a quicker meal a pizzeria or trattoria would probably fit the bill. Wherever you eat, buon appetito!

Restaurant menus will normally be divided up as follows and each region will have its own specialities.

Antipasti
These are what we would call hors d’oeuvres or starters, and are likely to include crostini (small toasted slices of bread) with various toppings. Antipasto misto would be a selection of meats, raw vegetables etc. Prosciutto crudo (uncooked ham) is also often served with melon or fresh figs (fichi).

Primi Piatti
These are the first courses, probably pasta, soup or rice dishes.

There is such a large range of pasta available in supermarkets outside of Italy that it hardly seems necessary any longer to explain what they all are! The word “pasta” actually means dough or pastry (the same word is used for sweet pastries in a cake shop). The type used for each dish depends on the heaviness of the sauce and whether the pasta is to be stuffed or not. The finer types of pasta (e.g. semini and vermicelli) are likely to be found floating in soups. Where the pasta is to be boiled and served with a thin sauce you will find spaghetti or tagliatelle (ribbon-shaped strands) etc. and with a more robust sauce fusilli (twists), penne (small tubes) or farfalle (bows). For a meat, spinach and ricotta (light white sweet whey cheese) or cream stuffing, ravioli (pouches) or canneloni (large tubes) will be used.

If you are unfamiliar with the range of pasta sauces, you may find the following helpful:

Secondi Piatti
These are the second courses, usually meat, poultry or fish dishes. They will be served in various styles and again with various sauces.

Bistecca (steak), cotoletta (cutlet), pollo (chicken), agnello (lamb), maiale (pork), manzo (beef), vitello (veal), trota (trout), tonno (tuna) may feature here in various guises:

Contorni
These are vegetables or salad, often served and eaten separately from the other courses.

DOLCE
There is not the enormous range of desserts, pies and puddings that we are used to in the UK. Italians tend to finish their meal with fresh fruit (frutta), cheese (formaggio) or icecream (gelato). You may see a few more regional dishes though if you are lucky.