Sicilian Appetizers

An Appetizer is a small portion of a tasty food or a drink at the beginning of a meal to stimulate the appetite. (Webster’s)

The Sicilian cuisine has no tradition of antipasto.  It was an accomplishment when the majority of the people could get three meals a day!.. And in those days there were no problems of cholesterol or overweight.

In the baronial cuisine of the rich and noble families, the Sicilian chefs the Monzu’ (a contraction of monsieur), would arrange a table with toasted bread entrenched in olive oil, olives, anchovies, and other small appetizing dishes, served with wine when they were not ready on time to serve  their masters and guests at the banquet.
These morsels of finger food, were not part of the planned banquet, in fact, this food was served “outside the work” ordered and therefore from the French was called “hors d’oeuvre(s)”.   
The hors d’oeuvre is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as “an appetizer, made of olives, anchovies, etc., served usually at the beginning of a meal”.

I do not know the Sicilian translation of the word antipasto and in my family the antipasto was not customary to our meals.
When we had guests and it was time to serve the pranzo (the dinner), a small table would be set with olives, anchovies, a selection of vegetables in oil and vinegar, sometime a frittata cut in bite size pieces, some wine and pane fritto  (fried bread ) or toasted sliced bread,  moisten with olive oil, herbs and spices.
In the late 50s’, when the economy “boom” improved the social conditions in Italy, l’antipasto became part of all formal dinners and was not limited to olives, anchovies, etc, but expanded  to include verdure fritte(fried vegetables), fish, meats,  cheeses and many contorni(side dishes).