Dry bread

Italian meals start with dry bread. This is never (repeat, NEVER) eaten dunked in olive oil – or even worse – olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I remember one day in Senigallia (famous for its golden sands – the velvet beach) when a waiter in the City Hotel told me with horror that it was considered very kitsch to eat bread with oil and vinegar.
No, bread is eaten dry and at the beginning of the meal..
Dry bread can be as deathly dull as it sounds. But here in Trieste the bread is much better than that in Marche. For a start, it has salt in it so it tastes of something. And is softer. Much of the bread is still white, but it is also possible to get a type of brown bread with a yummy caraway flavour.
The good thing about the bread being served dry however is that it is almost a carte blanche (carta bianca?) to dunk in whatever yummy sauce is languishing on the plate.
Monday night the sauce was butter and sage.
And it actually made cold olive oil and a drop of vinegar seem a bit kitsch!