24 Of The Best Italian Breakfast Recipes You Need To Try (2024)

FAQs

What do most Italians eat for breakfast? ›

A healthy Italian breakfast might consist of some bread, butter, jam, some yogurt, and fruit. Italians also eat muesli and cereal in the mornings with yogurt or milk. A combination of dried fruit, fresh fruit, nuts, and yogurt is a healthy and popular option.

Some Italians prefer espresso, which is the coffee of choice throughout the day, but breakfast is also an acceptable time to have a cappuccino. A whopping ⅔ of Italians have said that they need a coffee to start the day, so it makes sense that breakfast in Italy is always accompanied by a caffeine hit.

For breakfast, Italians are eating anything from pasta to assorted meat and fish. Christmas morning in Italy is all about panettone and pandoro. Sugar is known to generate energy. So, they may throw in some panforte to sweeten things up.

Sweet treats are a staple of traditional Italian breakfasts, making mornings a little more indulgent. Pastries and cakes, such as cornetto, brioche, and biscotti, are commonly enjoyed with a steaming cup of coffee, providing a delightful start to the day.

Eggs in Italian cuisine. Whereas eggs in the United States are primarily a breakfast item it's the opposite in Italy. Italians often have eggs for dinner and in classic lunchtime dishes like pasta carbonara.

These beverages are also quite popular among Italians and offer a unique taste experience. Ultimately, individual preferences may vary, but Coca-Cola is generally recognized as the most popular soft drink in Italy.

Traditionally, cappuccini are taken in the morning. Some cynics suggest that it's a massive faux pas to order a cappuccino after 10am but, while it's unlikely that your Italian amici will be sticking milk in their coffee after dinner, late-night cappuccino-drinking is not – as yet – an illegal activity.

If dining at home, a common Italian breakfast food is a kind of rusk. Like a very very crunchy slice of toast, in texture more similar to a hard cookie, it may be worth searching online for “fette biscottate” as they are a very particular Italian breakfast food.

In areas like Tuscany and Umbria, people tend to have red wine called Chianti (grown in Chianti region of Tuscany) with biscuits as their breakfast. It is quite common for Italians to have breakfast in late mornings by 11, which consists of tramezzino and bread rolls.

What do Italians eat for breakfast healthy? ›

Yoghurt and Fruit

Italians also love to have breakfast with yoghurt and fresh fruit. In order to be even more healthy, you may choose low-fat yoghurts and seasonal fruit. To have a complete meal you can add some dried fruit – highly satiating – and a teaspoon of honey.

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.

Italian breakfast biscotti are a fantastic way of adding some sustenance to our morning coffee ritual. Biscotti da inzuppare (biscuits for dipping) are an all-time classic. They're quite easy to make and they're delicious - especially when you follow our Italian breakfast recipe!

So what do Italians eat for dinner? To ensure a good night's sleep, dinner is usually lighter than lunch and enjoyed around seven or eight in the evening for optimal digestion. Most dinners consist of a salad, the primo (pasta or soup dish) and the secondo (meat or fish dish).

Whether eaten at home or at a bar, breakfast in Italy is usually a very quick affair. There is an Italian habit of speed at breakfast, one because they are short of time, needing to finish before the start of work or school, but also because, if at a bar, the entire meal is consumed while standing up!

Ideally, lunch includes courses; a primo piattoor first course, like pasta, gnocchi, or rice, a protein, and vegetables. Normally, lunch is Italian's biggest and most sustaining meal of the day.