Compensation was provided by Bertolli Frozen Meals. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Bertolli Frozen Meals.
I am not sure you aware of this, but I am 100% Italian with most of my family coming from Sicily and other locations from Northern and Southern Italy. My family has been here for a few generation, so we have lost a lot of our Italian habits – like eating pasta for every meal. Growing up my mom would macaroni (pasta) and gravy (tomato sauce) every Sunday for dinner. We would eat extremely early in the day. It was more like a brunch time than dinner time you traditionally think of in the US.
It is no secret that Italians devour more pasta than Americans! One-quarter of Italians eat pasta on a daily basis, compared to just two percent of Americans. (Note) There are more ways that Italians and American differ. Italians say lunch is their largest meal of the day, while Americans cite dinner as the largest. Italians are more likely to agree that fresh ingredients and homemade dishes are important during the day’s biggest meal. Eighty-four percent of Italians eat at the table with family, and 70 percent of Italians eat family-style, compared to 31 percent of Americans who eat family style. Italians are three times more likely to have wine with their meals and more than two times more likely to set the table than Americans.
Note: These results are from an online survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Bertolli of over 2,000 nationally representative individuals in the United States and Italy. The U.S. survey with 1,074 completes was conducted between July 28-29, 2016. The Italy survey of 1,013 individuals was conducted from July 29 – August 4, 2016. The margin of error in each country is +/-3.1%
How to Eat like an Italian Family
- Eat your largest meal at lunch hours.
- Set the dinner table.
- Eat with your family.
- Eat family style so that your family can serve themselves out of large bowls in the middle of the table.
- Talk as loudly as you want. Inside voices are not allowed during dinner time.
- Include fresh ingredients in your meals.
- Have Sunday dinner in the afternoon.
- Eat more pasta for lunch.
Bertolli is proudly introducing a completely reformulated line of authentic Italian skillet meals. The meals feature recipe-like, simple ingredient list with transparent packaging that offers a look inside the bag. Bertolli frozen meals make it easy to dine like an Italian at home and bring elements of “Mangia” (eating in Italian) to your dinner table with ease. We enjoyed how easy it was to make the Bertolli Chicken Florentine & Farfalle this week. Also, it was extremely tasty! Explore more ways to mangia here.
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