Italian meals have several courses, with one dish served at a time. Rarely will you see multiple offerings on a single plate. Even vegetables are serve separately after the main course. Salad is usually with simple greens, oil, salt, no pepper, and plain white wine vinegar. Basalmic vinegar is for stews, berries or cheese--not for salads.
First Course:
Pasta, Soup or Rice (risotto)- Dry commercial pasta must be served al dente. That is it must demonstrate resistance to the tooth before yielding. Fresh pasta should be soft and tender, never al dente. Fresh pasta needs a light sauce. In general, Americans over-sauce their pasta relative to Italians. You should taste the pasta, which means it needs to be of a quality worth tasting. Dried pasta can stand up to a more substantial sauce. When cooking pasta use plenty of water, salt it and never add oil. Oil prevents the sauce from clinging to the pasta, and prevents the pasta pieces from absorbing the flavors of the sauce--an unfortunate waste of calories. When making dried pasta, you can add a very thinly sliced potato to the water. It will disolve, but add extra starch to the pasta, improving its ability to hold sauce. In Genoa, where basil pesto is particularly famous, the pasta is made with flour and white wine--no eggs. Use 100% semolina for dried pasta. Plain all-purpose flour is great for fresh pasta--no need to use semolina unless you want it to stand up to a very big sauce, in which case, mix some in. Fresh pasta cooks for about 5 seconds if made within 30 minutes of making.
Soup (minestra) can be simple broth with pastina (little pasta) or something more substantial like pasta fagioli. Broth is made in one hour. Stock takes many, many hours. They are different beasts. Broths are Italian, stocks are french.
Risotta is a slightly brothy mixture that must be eaten immediately after serving. If you give thanks before meals, give it before you serve the risotto. When it hits the table, eat it--don't wait for others.
Second or Main Course:
Meat, Fish or Fowl. Italians do not go to market looking for specific foods. They go see what is good and use their market visit to plan their meals. Game is important to the Italian diet, along with pork and chicken. Beef and lamb have their places but are less predominant than in America. Seafood is important where it is available fresh. Even today, many parts of the interior get fresh seafood only once a week or so.
Vegitable Course:
Must be served on a different plate. Salad served occasionally with main course but usually as a separate course after the Main course.
Dessert:
Fruit and Cheese
