Sep
15

sweet! traditional italian breakfast

the simple italian breakfast

the simple italian breakfast

I found a tasty recipe for creamy polenta and it got me to thinking about what was a traditional Italian breakfast? So I started to search. Of course, I knew about polenta; I have it often for breakfast along with my omelette. And my omelette will often be turned into a fritatta. So there we have at least two Italian dishes for breakfast, but what is a traditional Italian breakfast? That’s hard to say because Italy is a big place with many regions. After all, consider that in the North they eat polenta as most of Italy eats spaghetti, just as one example. So could there be a “typical” or “traditional” breakfast in Italy? Probably not. I did find a list that suggests some Italian Breakfast foods at WikiAnswers:

What is a typical Italian breakfast?

An Italian breakfast consists of the following;

  • Coffee – strong freshly made Italian style [usually magnificent] – it will be served in a pot along with a pot of hot milk combining the two to make your own “caffe-latte.”
  • Pane – crusty bread – fresh and delicious for your jam.
  • Panini – bread rolls fresh, often hot from the oven, and when broken an aroma to die for.
  • Brioche – breakfast pastries – flaky and so fresh – yes mouth watering Italian pastries just melt in your mouth.
  • Cornetti – croissants – similar to the French version but more like cake and less like puff pastry
  • Marmellata – jams of different types [of good quality often made with chunky pieces of fruit throughout] – probably home/monastery made from fruit from the monastery’s orchard

  • Looks bready and sweet. I am not seeing any polenta or fritatta. So I went to about.com and searched on Italian Breakfast and I found this article from the 2006 Olympic coverage: Breakfast of Champions.

    That said, Stefano recently commented about what the components of a “real” breakfast in Italy:

  • at home: if you aren’t in a hurry, a bowl of milk, or caffelatte (milk mixed with espresso), where we dip biscuits, or cereals. Some variations include bread and marmalade, or honey, or Nutella. Anyway, anything sweet. (we can’t imagine to eat eggs, bacon or sausages at 7.00 am, even if it’s just an habit…). If you are late, just a moka coffee and something “to fill the hole” in the stomach.
  • at bar: espresso, or cappuccino (but in the north many call it “cappuccio”) with a croissant.

    • …. Any American mother would be appalled by reading the details of an Italian breakfast. Then she’d put her foot down and cross her arms and tell you in no uncertain terms that no one ever won Olympic gold without eating an enormous breakfast first.

    Wow! And I thought Americans ate poor breakfasts. So how has this translated into the Italian-American experience? I found this report at Italy In SF: The Directory to Everything Italian in the San Francisco Bay Area:

    Colazione: A Guide to the Italian Breakfast

    Posted on September 12th, 2008 by Vanessa

    I am truly not sure why, but breakfast in Italy is sweet. Cake is a traditional breakfast food, and so are cookies. We are always a bit stunned when we hear Americans making fun of the concept of cake for breakfast, mostly because that’s the norm for us!

    Whereas the French will indulge in omelet or crepes and fresh fruit along with croissant and jam, and Germans will add ham to their toasts, in Italy there is no tradition whatsoever of savory foods on the breakfast table. Continental breakfast is a concept we embrace to the tee! Even fruit is looked upon with suspicion! The typical Italian breakfast is made of a hot beverage, like cappuccino or caffe’, with something sweet to eat- cake, cookies, pastries, brioche, croissants, or toast and jam.

    When at home, caffelatte and coffee made with the moka are the more common choices for drinks, and usually small breakfast cookies (Mulino Bianco, anyone?) provide the sugar rush. Cereals are available on the shelves in the grocery store, but mostly eaten as an afternoon snack, not for breakfast! Italians often consume their breakfast out- the thousands of bars you will walk by everywhere in Italy serve cappuccino and paste (brioches, or bomboloni) for a breakfast you can conveniently consume while standing at the counter!

    Eggs? Ham? Bacon? THOSE ARE DINNER FOODS! (It seems to hear grandma!) In the Bay Area you can indulge in a perfect, Italian style breakfast at Emporio Rulli. My favorite is the one in Larkspur, but all locations will really work out for my monthly fix of bomboloni con la crema! You can also find bombolni at I Preferiti di Boriana at the Ferry Building, and a good breakfast can be snatched at Cocola.

    ____________

    To a number of comments disputing the claim that the Italian breakfast is sweets and coffee Vanessa posted the following:

    Hello Hannah,

    Italian traditions and Italian-American traditions started diverging with the landing of the first wave of Italian immigrants in the US! In addition, before WWII there was no sugar to go around for anyone- but breakfast before the well-beings of the post war years was stale bread in milk pretty much all over Italy. Each family, then, carries on its own traditions, but in modern Italy breakfast is sweet all around- in Southern Italy even gelato is considered breakfast food!

    Ciao!

    Vanessa

    ___________

    OK! So much for polenta and fritattas. And so much for cold pizza and warm beer!

    Posted by Nat'l Breakfast Month Subscribe to RSS feed