Italian Inspired Four Course Dinner

My latest adventure of trying something new is a culinary one. My good friend Kaitlin came over for dinner on Friday. She runs an amazing food and healthy living blog called Kaitlin with Honey which you should absolutely check out. Since Kaitlin is a food blogger, I knew she would be up for something a little different, and what better way to celebrate a friendship than by trying something new?

I decided I wanted to try making an Italian style meal for the first time. I don't regularly eat meals with multiple courses, so it would really be a nice treat. I would have Kaitlin's help in the kitchen, so I wouldn't have to face the challenge alone. All lights were go. Except I first needed to figure out what exactly goes into making an Italian meal course progression. (I often decide things are a good idea before I know the whole story. oops.) I did a little research about traditional Italian meal structure and found a good summary here at my old friend wikipedia. Here is the menu I came up with:

Since we wouldn't be drinking I skipped the idea of an Aperitivo and went straight to Antipasto. After thinking of a million delicious options I settled on tomato, mozzarella and basil with olive oil and balsamic. So simple, so yummy and in my mind, very Italian. (Please forgive the ugliest picture in the world.)

The next course, Primo, is normally a hot pasta or soup dish. Since we were going to be eating four. whole. courses. I went for the lighter soup option in order to guarantee we'd have room for the next two courses. Sticking with the Italian theme, I made a modified version of this Healthy Minestrone Soup. (I cheated a little and made this the night before since it required at least an hour on the stove and I didn't want THAT much time between courses.) Here is it cooking away. Mmm I looking forward to enjoying the left-overs.

For Secondo, the meat course, I made a home favorite of mine, pork tenderloin with a balsamic cream sauce. While it isn't exactly Italian cuisine it is just too easy and delicious to pass up. While I worked away on making the pork, Kaitlin was left completely in charge of making our Contorno dish, a cooked veggie dish normally eaten along with the meat course. In our case we chose to make the sometimes unpopular brussels sprout. We used a recipe from The Daily Garnish that I had tried before, it lived up to my memory and beyond. Yum.

We topped everything off with the Fromaggio e Frutta course, literally cheese and fruit. (Note: my pronunciation of this particular course made Kaitlin laugh out loud.) We simply sliced strawberries and ate them with a little goat cheese. What a great combination! It's creamy and sweet without feeling overwhelmingly desert-ish. No recipe here, I just came up with it. Oh yeah. I'm good. At this point we called it quits after a yummy and filling meal and skipped the sweet, Dolce course.

I absolutely recommend the Italian meal structure as a fun way to mix up the routine. I certainly enjoyed the more drawn our dinner with time to savor many different flavors, and of course more time to chat and catch up. Next time I try this multi-course meal structure (yes there will be a next time) I think I'll make each piece a little smaller, so that I don't end up quite so full at the end of the night. I'm pretty pleased that we managed to successfully pull off four courses, a personal record. And I certainly expanded my knowledge of the Italian way to eat a meal. Personally, I think those Italians are onto something. What cultural cuisine or meal progression should I try next?

Claire Out.