Americans are in love with Italian food and if you eat Italian food the American way it can be extremely fattening. Obese wives across the land are doting upon their fat families with large helpings of high-calorie, high-fat pizza, pasta and ice-cream, and with new trendy trattorias and Mamma's restaurants constantly opening up, the amount of Italian food being consumed is exploding.
Americans are in love with Italian food and if you eat Italian food the American way it can be extremely fattening. Obese wives across the land are doting upon their fat families with large helpings of high-calorie, high-fat pizza, pasta and ice-cream, and with new trendy trattorias and Mamma's restaurants constantly opening up, the amount of Italian food being consumed is exploding. For feeders, where better to take your partner than an all you can eat Pizzeria, and for feedees, sitting down to a menu with so many fattening choices can be pure heaven. However to enjoy your visit to the max, relaxed in the knowledge that your meal is truly stomach stretching and flab forming, you need to do your homework. With that in mind, here are a few tips to ensure you get plenty of extra pounds.
At the restaurant...
* Starters: Select a fried entree. Veal, chicken, or eggplant parmigiana is breaded, fried and covered with tomato sauce and cheese. Suppli' is a great snack. It is rice mixed with tomato sauce and mozzarella, formed into a ball then dipped in flower and eggs and deep fried.
* Bread: Traditionally Italians don't serve butter or olive oil on the table with the bread, but they're sure to have some in the kitchens so make sure you ask the waiter. Similarly if your cooking for family or friends, have plenty on the table, it avoids them having to ask. Alternatively why not go for some addictive and fattening garlic bread?
* Main course: Contrary to popular belief pasta itself is not particularly fattening, it's the added oil, sauces, cheese and meats that counts. Try to avoid the low-fat vegetable-based sauces, instead opting for rich, creamy sauces or sauces full of fatty ingredients such as sausage or cheese. The average dinner serving of pasta with marinara sauce contains 580 calories, compare that to more than 1200 calories with Alfredo or Carbonara sauce.
* Salad: By all means go for a salad, but at 75 calories a tablespoon it's well worth adding plenty of dressing. In Italian restaurants when you order a salad, you will normally be expected to do the dressing yourself and will be provided with an oil and vinegar set.
* Dessert: Of course ice-cream makes a great dessert, and it's easy to forget just how much of a splurge it is. At 1,270 calories and 38 grams of saturated fat, eating a Haagen-Dazs "Mint Chip Dazzler" sundae is like eating a T-bone steak, a Caesar salad and a baked potato with sour cream. Other desserts might include cakes, pastries and sweets (dolci), ices (gelati) or frozen cakes (semi-freddo).
* Coffee: Traditionally the meal ends with a strong, black espresso coffee, or else a frothy cappuccino dusted with cocoa is delectable.
If you're going out to a restaurant, try to make this the main focus of the evening and set out early so that you have plenty of time to eat. Choose a night when it won't be too busy so that you don't have to wait too long for your food, and try to get to know the waiters so that they'll remember how you like your food the next time you go. Finally if you or your partner are particularly large, remember that fat bottoms need comfortable seats - you don't want any reason to have to leave early.
