Italian Steps - Dishes and meals - Cultural notes

Fact File

• Italians start their day with la prima colazione, breakfast. This is followed by lunch, il pranzo, the main meal of the day served between midday and about 2.30pm. La cena, the evening meal, is generally lighter and is served from around 8pm.



• Italy's national dish, pasta, is usually only served as il primo piatto, first course. It's then generally followed by il secondo piatto, the second course of meat or fish with un contorno, a side dish of vegetables or salad. Desserts are referred to as dolci.



• Italian cooking is still very regionally based, with even staple foods such as bread and pasta all having distinct regional varieties. Many local foods like pizza from Naples and salame from Bologna have, however, become national favourites.



• The idea of antipasto, literally 'before the meal', is to arouse the appetite and prepare the palate and stomach for the piatti forti, literally 'strong dishes', of the first and second courses.



• Pasta has a long history in Italy. Legend has it that Marco Polo brought pasta back from his travels to China in 1292. By the 18th Century, in some parts of Italy pasta was being made by mixing semolina dough by foot. Pasta comes in over 300 different shapes, each one unique and originating from the different regions and towns of Italy that created it. For example, tagliatelle come from Bologna, while tortelli come from Emilia Romagna.



• The word pasta usually means a little cake or sweet pastry and not pasta as we know it. On menus, you need to look out for le paste, literally 'pastes', which is simply pasta. As pasta is considered plural, the names such as tagliatelle and fettucine are always written with plural endings.



• Pizza originated in Naples and legend has it that it first came about when leftovers of cheese and meat were placed on bread. The patriotic Pizza Margherita, resembling the Italian flag with its colours of green basil, white mozzarella and red tomatoes, was named in honour of the Queen Margherita.



• The lush Alpine meadows in the northwest of the country help to produce some of Italy's finest cheeses, including the blue-veined Gorgonzola, Mascarpone and Taleggio. Named after the town of Parma in northern Italy, Parmigiano is one of the world's most popular cheeses. Cheeses originating from the south of the country include the creamy Mozzarella di Bufala, made with buffalo milk, and Ricotta.



• The renowned Prosciutto di Parma, Parma ham, is appreciated throughout the world. The dried ham, which originates from the town of Parma, is still made according to traditional methods and standards going back more than 2,000 years.



• Some of the finest Italian olio di oliva, olive oil, comes from the south of the country and over 75% of Italy's olive harvest is produced in Puglia. Extra vergine, extra virgin, refers to the pure, unblended oil from the first pressings of the olives.



• Italy's most famous dessert isn't the delicious gelati, ice cream, but tiramisù, literally 'pick-me-up' - a rich blend of mascarpone cheese and coffee-soaked sponge cake fingers, called savoiardi or 'lady fingers'. You'll also come across zuppa inglese, literally 'English soup' but actually the Italian for trifle.