There’s nothing quite like Italian food. Simultaneously comforting and fancy, it’s as perfect for family dinners as it is for romantic date nights. No matter what type of occasion you’re having, don’t let the pasta, pizza, or prosciutto on your plate be the only Italian food you’re enjoying. Instead, start the gastronomical delights early by preparing one of these 34 Italian appetizers to go along with your meal too. Buon appetito!
While we’re all for tried and true recipes that fall squarely into one category or another, we also love ones that can fall into multiple camps. Take pizza, for example—it’s one of our favorite Italian dinners, so we thought, Why not serve it as an appetizer too? With our spinach-artichoke flatbread, our focaccia, or our flatbread pizza, you get to enjoy your faves twice as often.
Pasta (and its traditional accompaniments) can get the same treatment. Our pasta chips, our antipasto tortellini skewers, our Italian meatballs, and our toasted ravioli are all proof that Italian mains can go way beyond the dinner plate. Serve these up with a little warm marinara, and you’ll have an appetizer that’ll be talked about for days.
Speaking of marinara, we’d be remiss to not mention tomatoes when we’re talking about Italian appetizers. Our recommendation come summertime when they’re gorgeously ripe? Keep things simple and let their umami-filled flavor shine. We love them in our burrata salad, our bruschetta, and our summer panzanella, but really, even all on their own they make a perfect appetizer.
Now you’ve got the beginning of your meal down, don’t forget about the end! Check out our favorite Italian desserts guaranteed to end (or start, no judgment from us!) your meal with a “chef’s kiss.”
Arancini, 3 Ways
The Italian dish is prepared by forming cooled risotto into balls, filling them with some sort of filling (typically cheesy!), then breading and deep-frying them into golden, crispy perfection. We've got three different flavor options here, but our fave for spring is pesto provolone!
Get the Arancini, 3 Ways recipe.
Burrata Salad
Think of burrata salad as Caprese salad's fancy cousin. Peak-summer tomatoes are topped with this luscious cheese (think a shell of mozzarella filled with a soft, creamy filling) and garnished with a shower of peppery basil leaves and savory chives. 😍
Get the Burrata Salad recipe.
Antipasto Bites
Fresh tortellini make these the hearty bite-size appetizer of our dreams. Feel free to swap in and out your favorite ingredients (or have guests build their own from a topping bar!).
Get the Antipasto Bites recipe.
Focaccia Bread
All you need is a little patience (and a LOT of olive oil), and you can create the classic crackly-on-the-outside, soft-and-pillowy-on-the-inside-texture that’s synonymous with the Italian flatbread.
Get the Focaccia Bread recipe.
Bruschetta
Easy to throw together and made up of simple, classic ingredients, bruschetta was made for chill warm weather snacking. While you can make it all year round, the best time to enjoy this appetizer is summer, when fresh tomatoes are at their peak.
Get the Bruschetta recipe.
Garlic-Rosemary Marinated White Beans
Whether you make these beans as a healthy side or appetizer for toast, these marinated beans will be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
Garlic Bread
Our top tips for homemade garlic bread? Keep it simple, and use plenty of garlic. All you need are a handful of staple ingredients and less than 30 minutes to create this herby, garlicky side to complete all of your pasta dinners right at home.
Get the Garlic Bread recipe.
Pasta Chips
From the genius minds behind toasted ravioli now comes our new favorite obsession—pasta chips! They're the perfect thing to dip in a bowl of warm marinara and snack away.
Get the Pasta Chips recipe.
Spinach-Artichoke Flatbread
For this recipe, we’re turning our favorite Italian-inspired flavor combo—spinach and artichoke—into an easy yet elegant app in the form of a flatbread pizza that’s simple enough for a weeknight but impressive enough to serve to guests.
Get the Spinach-Artichoke Flatbread recipe.
Gazpacho With Burrata
Creamy burrata on top of a tomato and basil gazpacho is the most refreshing no-cook summer app we can imagine. Some gazpacho has bread in it for added texture, but for this version, we liked the idea of serving toasted bread alongside to dip into the soup and spread the burrata on.
Get the Gazpacho With Burrata recipe.
Caponata
Five cups of this classic Sicilian dish may seem like a lot, but when you realize it is the perfect summer condiment, toast-topper, pasta mix-in, and poultry and seafood accompaniment (among many other things), you'll be wishing you made double.
Get the Caponata recipe.
Toasted Ravioli
Breaded and fried, it's so fun to eat ravioli with your hands and dipping it in plenty of marinara. Bonus! Toasted ravioli works in the air fryer too, meaning you can skip all of the oil for an even more perfect appetizer.
Get the Toasted Ravioli recipe.
Cannellini Beans With Herb Sauce
White beans are a great blank canvas, especially for bright, assertive flavors like lemon and fresh herbs like basil. Perfect as a side, or as a meal topped with a poached egg, these beans prove from-scratch really does make a difference.
Flatbread Pizza
Homemade pizza is super-delicious, but it takes a bit of time and special attention. These flatbread pizzas come together MUCH faster, and they're just as cheesy and flavorful as the classic version. 😍
Get the Flatbread Pizza recipe.
Antipasto Squares
Antipasto salad gets even better when layered between flaky, buttery crescent rolls. Feel free to swap in and out your favorite ingredients, then serve these as an anytime app (or even an easy packed lunch!).
Get the Antipasto Squares recipe.
Peach & Burrata Caprese
We changed up the classic caprese salad by switching out juicy tomatoes for plump summer peaches and replacing sliced fresh mozzarella with its creamier cousin, burrata. Surrounded by fragrant basil then topped with candied pecans and a drizzle of spicy honey, this sweet & savory salad is a STUNNER.
Get the Peach & Burrata Caprese recipe.
Cannoli Chips & Dip
A Sicilian favorite across the globe, cannoli will always be a dreamy delicacy. In this version, the classic dessert is transformed from a creamy ricotta-filled crispy shell to a shareable party dip.
Get the Cannoli Chips & Dip recipe.
Caprese Salad
This is one of our favorite ways to show off those juicy, in-season farmer’s market tomatoes, by complementing them with fresh basil and creamy mozzarella.
Get the Caprese Salad recipe.
Winter Rainbow Panzanella Salad
This rainbow salad is packed with in-season veggies, crunchy sourdough croutons, and coated in a tangy grapefruit vinaigrette, making it the perfect way to brighten a bleak winter day. It’s time to toss the tomatoes and cucumbers (for now) and fall in love with beets and squash instead.
Cheesy Brussels Sprouts Mini Toasts
These crostini featuring shredded Brussels sprouts sautéed in a mixture of garlic and crushed red pepper, then topped on toasts with white cheddar will be beloved by all (even sprout haters!).
