Antipasto all’italiana | Antipasto e sfizioso

I could do without everything, but not appetizers, difficult to give up. An appetizer anticipates, until some time ago the appetizer had the task of anticipating lunch, but with the passage of time our eating habits have also changed, and appetizers have become the protagonists of our table, even replacing the first and second courses, becoming more and more unique dishes. Every lunch and dinner should start with an appetizer that teases the palate and introduces the main course. 

Prepared with great creativity already in the times of the ancient Romans, appetizers belong not only to the popular culinary tradition but also to that of high gastronomy. Typically, Italian and very quick to prepare is the appetizer based on cold cuts such as raw and cooked prosciutto, salami, bresaola, mortadella, and capocollo. The slices can be arranged rolled up or folded in an artistic way on a large oval or round serving plate and can be accompanied by vegetables in oil, such as eggplant, artichokes or peppers, or by slices of aged and mixed cheeses and non-aged cheeses. In small baskets, also remember to arrange bread cut into slices or breadsticks on which to wrap around the cold cuts.

It is a very Italian tradition to anticipate intermediate and evening meals with convivial moments of gastric "accommodation". The so-called appetizers nothing more than a gradual approach to lunch or dinner, so the value of "anti" should not be conceived as something "against", but on the contrary decidedly "pro". The appetizer is a decisive moment for our digestive system in which the first gastric juices are produced, and our body is prepared for the next meal. It is therefore not to be underestimated its meaning and value, nor the type of food that is chosen. 

There are regions of Italy where the appetizer is a real complete meal. Try to go to Puglia and ask for the appetizer in a restaurant: at least ten to twelve portions of small tastings of everything that the land and the sea offer. And then, of course, it is difficult to continue with the first and second courses. Quite the opposite happens the longer you stretch to the north, where the Milanese metropolitan appetizer is called "lounge", where glamorous environments and electronic music round off atmospheres that must make up for what is not on the plate many times. I'm going to extremes of course, but sometimes I just need to look at the faces and sad eyes of my southern friends in front of a selection of appetizers of some "cool" place in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Eyes that recall the legendary counters full of the bars of Via Toledo in Naples or Piazza Pretoria in Palermo.

The art of composing an appetizer based on cured meats lies in mixing seasonality, "regionality", combinations of aromas and aromas sometimes unexpected. The more you experiment, the more emotions you get.