Impress Your Date With A Full Italian Meal

Italian isn’t just one of the romantic languages. It’s also one of the most romantic cuisines. If you’re working on your culinary skills, you’ll want to brush up on some of these classic Italian dishes. Don’t take your next date to the local Italian chain restaurant, impress them at home with some homemade dishes and a nice bottle of Chianti.

Start the meal with a Caprese salad
This salad is almost painfully simple, and as long as you use quality ingredients, it’s guaranteed to be a hit. Find some good, ripe tomatoes and leave them out of the fridge for a couple of hours before you serve them. Gather the freshest mozzarella you can find along with some bright green, sturdy basil. Cut all of your ingredients up and top them off with some high-quality olive oil and coarsely ground salt and pepper.

Main course: Chicken parmigiana
Chicken parmigiana is one of those dishes that seems to taken a lot more time to prepare than it did. To make a killer entree of chicken parmigiana, simply bread some chicken cutlets and bake them for a while. Cover them with slices of mozzarella and tomato sauce (from a jar or homemade, depending on how ambitious you are or how much you like your date) and finish baking. Serve your chicken atop a bed of spaghetti. If someone is a vegetarian, eggplant makes for a great chicken substitute.

Side dish: Bread
You might be saying, “Why would I make all of this when we can go out to eat and have ever-ending breadsticks?” Well, your supply of bread will last as long as you allow it to. A simple bread dish made with your favorite bakery bread makes a wonderful side dish for your chicken parmigiana. Grab a baguette or loaf of focaccia from your local bakery and top it with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Bake it for a little while and serve alongside your Italian feast.

Finish it up with tiramisu and espresso
Alas, all good things must come to an end. The grand finale of this meal will take the most time to prepare. Tiramisu is one of the most popular Italian desserts, a decadent, creamy cake that literally means “pick me up” in Italian. It takes quite a bit of preparation, but only contains ladyfingers, egg yolks, sugar, coffee, mascarpone cheese, and cocoa powder.