The honest, unfiltered lowdown on what kids eat in Italy from two local Italian experts… age 4 and 8
No better way to understand What Italian Kids Eat than speaking to two local Italian experts… age 4 and 8!
My podcast guests today were a charming four-year-old girl, and an equally charming eight-year-old boy both born and raised in Rome, Italy. They give us the honest, unfiltered lowdown on what kids eat from breakfast to lunch to dinner, snack time (merenda), and what they eat when out at a restaurant. Listen in for a fun and thoroughly charming episode that's also full of fascinating cultural information on Italian culinary tradition for children.
Riccardo and Sofia tell us all about what can't be missed at each and every Italian lunch, plus the special things kids eat when they're out at a restaurant.
No Kids Menu here in Italy: kids order from an adult menu and mostly adult dishes, including Riccardo's current favorite, spaghetti alle vongole (with clams).
What do Italian children eat for breakfast?
Riccardo and Sofia say their standard preferred breakfast is cereal and milk. Many Italian children also enjoy cereal and milk for breakfast, but perhaps the majority of kids have cookies and cake or crostata (jam tart) which they dip in milk.
This is in keeping with what most adult Italian have for breakfast: a coffee or cappuccino, and some kind of a sweet treat usually eaten at the coffee bar standing up.
Whereas Italians are vigilant about sitting down to both lunch and dinner, this doesn't carry through to breakfast. Some of the cereals I love most (as Riccardo and Sofia's American grandmother), are those that are impossible to find in Italy: plain Cheerios, and plain shredded wheat. Shredded wheat simply doesn't exist in Italy and although you can find Cheerios, it's only the sugar coated variety. Riccardo and Sofia both love plain Special K, and Rice Krispies.
Riccardo shared that there is now a coffee product, a coffee for kids. It's actually espresso machine pods made from barley which used to be the substitute coffee beverage during the second world war. Apparently coffee product companies are marketing this coffee for kids probably as a way to draw Italian children into the Italian coffee culture.
What do Italian kids eat for lunch?
Riccardo and Sofia, and almost every Italian child and adult, will tell you that lunch has to include pasta. As Riccardo says, maybe it's not pasta but lasagna, and as we know that's simply baked pasta.
Occasionally rice is served, but the bottom line is the lunchtime meal always includes a starch-based primo or first course. Italian kids generally choose simpler pasta sauces, like sugo, which is a tomato-based red sauce, or in bianco which is a Parmesan cheese based white sauce.
Sofia loves her pasta!
When rice is served, particularly at school, sauces are generally the same: tomato based red sauce, or Parmesan cheese based white sauce. Pesto is another sauce alternative.
Children are then served the secondo, or second course. It's usually some kind of meat or fish, and then a contorno - side dish - of vegetables: peas, potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, etc.
Vegetables are always a challenge for children, and children's palates evolve over time. Many Italians have an orto or garden, and frequently go to produce markets with their family, which increases children's exposure to different kinds of fresh and seasonal produce.
We have a garden and have always involved our grandchildren in the gardening process. Riccardo is now eight, but ever since he was a little boy, he's helped out in the garden as many Italian children do.
Lunch and dinner, of course, end with dessert and fruit.
Eleonora Baldwin shares this about Italian school lunches in a Gambero Rosso article:
"In Italy, lunch is consumed in a cafeteria setting where children receive food from a central kitchen. Kindergarten and primary school children are served by kitchen staff at the table, while middle school and high school student and faculty cafeterias operate as self service.
Back to school menus
Compared to what happens overseas, Italian school lunches have to include a starchy dish (alternating rice, pasta and soup), a main course (based on meat, fish, eggs or cheese), two or more vegetable side dishes and plenty of fresh fruit. Nutritional standards regulate dish rotation: at least ten meals in the 4-week cycle must include cooked vegetables, ten meals contain pulse, starchy foods or grains and cereal, eight meals comprise fresh fruit for dessert, with portion size set according to dish and age group. Italian law forbids cafeterias from serving deep-fried food such as potato chips, french fries, and even fried chicken, foods many US schools are still fighting to remove from their menus. Menus are issued to parents on a weekly basis to avoid meal overlap at home. Allergies, intolerances and religious restrictions are taken into account for children requesting special meals.
School nutrition policies approved in the year 2010 ruled that all Italian school meals be sourced locally and certified organic. Thanks to a program stemming from 2006 agreements between the EU and the World Health Organization, Italy is also leading the way in Europe in the overall improvement of school cafeteria standards, far beyond the menus. In Rome, for example, 70% of all food served at school cafeterias is organic, by law. Ingredients hail from hundreds of Italian organic farms, many of which are located in the Lazio region. Tables are set with silverware and come complete with bread baskets, ceramic plates, cloth napkins and clear glasses. Water – the only beverage allowed – is poured from water pitchers."
What Italian Kids Drink with Meals
At home most kids drink water, either sparkling or still. Sometimes Italian kids will have a soft drink or juice, but water is the standard beverage.
When out to dinner in a restaurant children in Italy may have an extra special beverage, but more often than not it's just water.
Do Italian kids drink wine with their meal? No, but a few sips here and there are made available to all kids and because it's not forbidden most kids taste it and decide it's not for them. Generally they choose either water or a special out-to-dinner beverage like the kids' favorite worldwide – Coca-Cola.
What do Italian kids eat for dinner?
More or less Italian kids eat about the same thing for dinner that they had at lunch. The meal might be lighter than lunch, but the basic elements of the meal remain the same.
In the winter months, it's common for children to have minestra (pastina in brodo), which is tiny pasta – stars, for example, – cooked in a broth and served with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Probably every single Italian child has this for dinner during the winter months. To be perfectly honest, we have it almost every night for dinner ourselves!
What do Italian kids eat at a restaurant?
Fee Stories says "in Italy, children aren't just taught maturity, they practice it. To start with, that means no Kids Meals [at restaurants].
Michela Chiappa explains in The Telegraph that Italian kids are expected to eat what the adults eat – and enjoy it too: “Whatever time of day, you will always be encouraged to bring your children to a restaurant with you; it’s not unusual to see children in restaurants with their parents at 10pm - and most waiters love to chat and interact with the kids.
It’s important to note that ‘Kids’ Menus’ do not exist in Italian restaurants – children are treated like adults and are offered plates from the main menu – in smaller portions, if they’re young.”
The reason for this? According to Chiappa, Italians believe children learn and mature by being with adults and doing – or eating – the same things they do."
Of course, a favorite for Italian kids and adults alike is pizza.
Italian kids order food from an adult menu and eat more or less the same things that adults eat. There's also the option to order a half portion - a mezza porzione.
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