The art of Italian cooking: a simple dinner menu idea

Hi, this is the twenty first post about Italian cooking and entertaining.

It’s time to show you how to combine different recipes to prepare a real Italian dinner menu. Don’t worry: it isn’t difficult. Have you learnt how to cook the Italian pasta? are you able to find Italian salami  and to buy ready made short pastry? Then you can prepare this winter menu, Italy-style.

Are you ready? In Italy there are different ways to combine our recipes and to plan our menus as there are a lot of circumstances.

We begin from the simplest way we have to invite friends to a dinner party. A menu composed by three courses

1) Starter – 2) main dish – 3) dessert

We are in winter and so we show you a perfect winter dinner menu

1) You can start with a classic Italian antipasto

Classic Italian antipasto

We start a dinner party with friends in this way. Assorted salami, sliced and arranged in a serving plate. You can combine prosciutto, speck, salami … with quail eggs or artichokes in oil or crostini.

2) As main dish we suggest the last pasta recipe we spoke you about: cavatelli with broccoli and crab meat. We remember you can use other short pasta if you don’t find cavatelli.

Pasta tossed with broccoli and crab meat sauce

3) The last course: a fantastic orange tart! Oranges are healthy and tasty. Enjoy this recipe from Sicily!

Orange tart

We have modified the original recipe  that is too rich in sugar and butter. Mmm … gnam, gnam!

A shell made of short pastry filled with oranges slices and  pastry cream!

If you have no time to prepare the short pastry or aren’t able to make it you can buy frozen short pastry.

What about this delicious dinner party, Italian style? We’re waiting for your comments!

In the next days  we are going to publish a new dinner menu idea dedicated to friends who live south of the Equator. It’s still summer there, isn’t it?

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta