Antipasto

A friend of mine who worked all over Italy told me that the food gets better the further south you go, and I would have to agree. Sicily is the place, and I'm certainly having a good time with the food and drinks. In a restaurant, everything is ordered a la carte, so you can have exactly what you want, whether it's one course or five.

Appetizers (antipasto) are the place you start. This can take the form of tomatoes with the real (Bufala) mozzarella cheese drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with fresh basil. "Bufala" refers to the long-horned cattle near Naples that produce the milk from which this cheese is made. Up on Mt. Etna, mushrooms from the forest are very abundant and popular in all courses, including appetizers. Many places have a "Sicilian antipasto" mixed plate which might include roasted peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, ham, cheese, and olives (all cold). Many people like the melon or fresh pineapple slice with thinly sliced smoked ham (proscuitto). Sometimes there's an antipasto buffet with such substantial things as quiches and spinich lasagna like I experienced earlier this week. In fact, one could make an entire meal from a buffet like that one.