lollardfish

Contorni are side dishes. Like salads, peas, potatoes, or carrots cooked in a delicately mild yogurt curry (which is the inventive kind).

Italian meals work as follows:

Apertif - A little prosecco (Venetian sparkling white wine), perhaps mixed with fruit juice or fruit liquer.

Antipasti - Light seafood, Prosciutto (with or without melon, better with), maybe some sort of cold veggies.

Primi - Pasta, generally speaking.

Secondi - The main dish. A piece of meat. A large portion of seafood. Sometimes, in the Veneto (the region near Venice), with polenta on the side.

Contorni - Eaten during or after the Secondi

Dolci - Cheese, sweets, fruit

Caffe - Caffinated, for Italians. Usually an espresso. Sometimes there is an after dinner brandy or something added in.

I note that my dinners in restaurants, even when someone else is paying, generally consists of a primo and a secondo, often with a salad for contorno.

And this is a bad bad bad place to be a vegitarian in, although seafood eaters would never miss a beat.