Italian Food

The Italian restaurant has an image of family friendly fun and a healthy Mediterranean diet. Think of pasta and a variety of fresh vegetables in tomato and herb sauces. Add the olive oil, garlic and a glass of red wine and it’s hard to see how you can go wrong. See our Top Italian meal below.

But then there’s the pizza, the cream and the cheese to consider...

Which meals are usually the healthiest?

Most Italian restaurants include a selection of soups as starters. Try the minestrone or the chilled tomato for an, almost, fat free option.

Melon and Parma ham is also a popular choice. The melon will provide a sweet boost but only around 30 to 35 kcal per serving, with the same again from the ham.

Watch out also for stuffed beef tomatoes or stuffed peppers, a good choice.
Bruschetta – bread with tomato, onion, garlic and pesto is a better choice

For main courses choose fresh pasta with a tomato based sauce. Common spaghetti, penne and tagliatelle style pasta is best. The ravioli, tortelloni and capelletti products contain cheese and meat fillings but these can be a reasonable choice with a vegetable based sauce.

If you prefer to have more meat on show then chicken and seafood options of the above meals are best.

When you are offered seasoning by the waiter opt for more black pepper and less parmesan cheese.

Dessert could be fresh fruit salad or a selection of sorbets. And, of course, Italians are famous for their coffee. Just remember that freshly ground coffee often has around three times as much caffeine as coffee made from instant granules.

Which meals are best kept to a minimum?

Mozzarella cheese packs around 250 kcal per100g and is high in saturated fat. In a pizza this is not great but as a tomato and mozzarella salad drizzled with olive oil and pesto it is a potential disaster for someone on a weight control regime. A starter like this looks as though it should be healthy. But the problem is portion size - you are often served several days worth of cheese on one plate. Either share it, preferably with several others, or choose something else.
A glass of wine with your meal will add around 120 kcal

Creamy pasta sauces and pizza’s smothered in cheese are the weakness in Italian food’s healthy image. Foods like lasagne and cannelloni are often high in calories and fat compared to other choices which are equally tasty.

Pizza is also outclassed by the pasta and salad choices. The pizza base is often made from processed flour and of little nutritional interest so you have to take everything from the toppings. And they are better served in a dish rather than a bread base.

What about the side dishes?

Garlic bread generally comes either styled as long stick of baked white bread or as a pizza base. Both are smeared with a mixture of butter and garlic; freshly crushed or dried and from a packet depending on your host. In either case you should aim to avoid it or share it. And certainly don’t ask for it to be served with melted cheese on top.

Bruschetta – bread with tomato, onion, garlic and pesto is a better choice.

Mixed leaf salad is a great choice of side dish. Plenty of vitamins and minerals are included but with hardly any calories. A dressing of balsamic vinegar can help to boost its taste for just a few dozen calories and a little extra fat. However, adding a high fat dressing, parmesan shavings and some croutons to make a Caesar salad will push up that calorie count considerably. You may as well add the hot chicken and take it as a main meal.

A glass of wine with your meal will add around 120 kcal for a typical “large” 175ml of dry, white wine. Red wine will have similar calorie content but have the added benefit of containing some antioxidants (which help fight disease and may combat the effects of aging).

What is the per100g.com top Italian meal?

Start with a tomato and basil soup, served warm or cold, with home-baked seeded bread roll.

Follow this with Chicken Arrabiatta on penne pasta or tagliatelle. This spicy tomato sauce does not need black pepper to help it. And the chillies will rev up your metabolism for a few hours after eating, helping to burn a few extra calories.

A side dish of a mixed leaf salad and a glass of pinot noir will suit perfectly.

If you have any room afterwards then a scoop of lemon or raspberry sorbet will clean your palette and leave you feeling fresh and energised.

Estimated nutritional information based on typical serving sizes of similar products:

You can see that the wine (drinks cloumn) and bread roll (second values in the starter column) make quite a difference to this meal. Replacing the dessert with a coffee would cut the sugar intake by half.