An authentic Italian Christmas menu

Hi, a lot of people in the world are finding for a real Christmas menu as we use to do in Italy.

Here and in the following posts we are going to show you some examples of Italian menus at Christmastime. You can choose among them for your Christmas dinner party or New Year’s Eve dinner or other occasions at holiday according to the Italian style.

At first you have to know  how we plan a menu in Italy; a menu is composed by the following courses:

1) starter made with a lot of appetizers

2) first course,  in other words a rich dish of pasta or risotto

3) second course made with fish or meat with the accompaniment of assorted vegetables or other side dishes

4) assorted cheese (only at lunch)

5) dessert

Well, now we are going to suggest you a traditional Christmas menu of the North of Italy (this is the typical  Piedmont menu for Christmas)

1) assorted canapés or other finger food with the accompaniment of a good cocktail; you are not obliged to serve them at table. You can prepare a little corner with finger food and cocktails apart. After tasting them according to the Italian style your guests can sit down at the table.

2) assorted salami with pickled vegetables and/or vegetables in oil, a savoury pie sliced, Russian salad

Assorted salami

3) smoked salmon in slices sprinkled with lemon juice just before the traditional first course

4) first course:  risotto with wild mushrooms or another Italian risotto with seasonal ingredients

Risotto with wild mushrooms

5) second course:  boiled beef with the accompaniment of some sauces and/or Russian salad; this is a traditional dish in Italy. In Piedmont we add other kinds of meat to beef such as hen, pork sausage, beef tongue …

6) second course: roast turkey

7) assorted cheese; a tidbit is serving mascarpone cheese sprinkled with cocoa powder

At last:

- assorted cakes such as typical Italian Christmas cakes (panettone, pandoro, panforte, panpepato …)

- dried and fresh fruit

Christmas pepperbread, Italy-style

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta