by Ron James

Created on: September 08, 2008   Last Updated: December 04, 2011

Traditionally, dinner parties are "themed" affairs. Obviously, if you're serving Italian food, you've already established a theme. You've probably picked out some red and white checkered table cloths and some chianti bottles for candle holders, complete with wax dripping down the sides. Or maybe plain white tablecloths with red and green accessories? You've also likely gotten some background Italian music, featuring either traditional Italian tunes or a mix of popular Italian singers. So let's move on to the dinner itself.

How Italian do you want to be? If you want to pull out all the stops and fire off all the big guns, you'll need to prepare eight courses. A more manageable number of courses might be five, and with trends in modern Italian cooking lending themselves to "all-in-one" dishes, you might even get by with three or four.

You've got to start with an "antipasto," or appetizer. From there, you can choose your direction and go with a "primo," "secondo," "contorno," "dolce" menu or do a combo dish that covers your primo, secondo and maybe even your contorno, finishing up with a nice dolce.

Traditionally, the primo piatto, or "first course" consists of a hot dish like pasta, risotto, gnocchi, polenta or soup. The secondo is usually a meat, fish, or poultry dish and the contorno is one or more side dishes, such as salads or vegetables. Again, in contemporary Italian cuisine, a dish combining pasta and meat or pasta and vegetables, or meat and vegetables is often served as a single course.

You'll likely want a "dolce," or dessert, course. This can be as simple as cakes or cookies or a nice gelato, or you can really whip up something elaborate.

Now, there are three other traditional courses that, if you are creative, you can combine into one for a great finish to your party. These courses are the "formaggio e frutta", or cheese and fruit, the "caffe" or coffee, and the "digestivo," a service of liquors or liqueurs.

Okay, now that we've laid out a course for your courses, let's throw around a few recipes. Note the yields on these recipes and adjust accordingly.

Here's an easy antipasto. I served this at an afternoon tea for 35 people just a few days ago.

CROSTINI ALLA ROMANA

12 slices of ciabatta or crusty Italian bread, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
12 slices of prosciutto, very thinly sliced
12 slices of fresh mozzarella, thin sliced
3 tablespoons butter
6 sage leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.
Place the slices of bread

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