Antipasto from Italy

An antipasto is not the course before the pasta, but rather it means the food served before the meal, pasto. The wide range of Italian antipasti today was not seen fifty years ago. Historically, appetizers—that is, antipasti—did not play a very important part in the regional cooking of the Italian peninsula, unlike other European countries, especially France. Antipasti were nonexistent in the south and were always more evident in the cuisines of the north.

Called sfizi, merende, antipasti, or assàggi throughout Italy and cicchetti in Venice, these appetizers, like their Spanish tapas counterparts, are best shared, so that one can experience a variety of flavors and textures. Interestingly, in Italy, only Venice seems to have a tradition similar to the Spanish tapas bar. They are called cicchetteria or bacari, where one goes to get a “shade”—that is, a drink. In the last twenty years a variety of new drinking establishments have opened up in Italy that serve small foods. In Rome, pubs—that is, real English or Irish pubs—are very popular with young Italians. Wine bars are now ubiquitous, too, and they serve little foods occasionally.