La Colazione: the Italian Breakfast

Come on, let’s go to the bar at 9 o’clock in the morning! “Why so early?”- you would ask. We can have some Italian breakfast there. “In a bar?”

 In Italy people enjoy a light breakfasts consisting of coffee or hot chocolate and some pastries eaten in a breakfast-bar ( a café in English). It is often an on-the-go meal, that can be consumed standing or on a bar stool by the counter.

Coffee

Coffee is an essential part of the Italian breakfast. Whether at home or at the bar it is usually a short and strong espresso or a cappuccino which is black coffee with milk froth on top. Later in the afternoon it is common to have instead of cappuccino another espresso or espresso with some milk froth called “caffè macchiato”.

Italian Croissant

The Italian version of croissant is called cornetto in central and south Italy and brioche in the North. They are usually softer than the French croissant and could be filled with cream, jam or chocolate. They are also often covered with powdered sugar. Italians prefer to drunk their cornetto or brioche in coffee.

Biscotti

Biscotti are twice-baked biscuits originally called biscotti di Prato. They are a kind of sweet bread that was baked, cut into slices and baked again. The Biscotti are very dry and hard and that is why Italians eat them together with their morning cappuccino.

Bread and Cheese

If sweet breakfast is not what you long for then the most common alternative is bread and cheese. Ciabatta is a well-known bread eaten with soft mascarpone, ricotta, mozzarella cheese or with harder cheese such as Parmesan. Tomatoes and fresh basil leaves could also be added.

Pastry

Throughout the day Italians like to consume some pastry with their afternoon coffee or eat them for dessert. Cannoli are Sicilian pastry looking like “little tubes” filled with a sweet, creamy filling. Bombolone is s filled doughnut which is rich in calories. There is a big variety of small baked cups filled with cream which have different fruits on top.

There are very few examples of what you can eat in Italy but isn’t this what you can call the dolce vita?

Anna