'Leaving something delicious on the plate would be a far worse crime': How Italy's guiltiest food ritual went public

Once considered improper, a beloved Italian dining ritual reveals a surprising clash between etiquette and the pleasure of eating.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my Italian grandparents' house in Kent, where bread was never not on the table. I remember my nonna slicing it into thick chunks and presenting it in a plastic basket lined with kitchen roll. 

We'd eat it throughout lunch or dinner, but its starring role came at the end: mopping up the last of the pasta sauce or soaking up oil and vinegar from the salad. It was, and still is, my favourite part of any meal.

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Giulia Crouch is a British food journalist specialising in Italian cuisine. She regularly visits family in southern Italy and writes extensively about the country's food, culture and traditions. She is the author of The Happiest Diet in the World and a certified olive oil sommelier.

These days I'm baffled when my husband leaves good sauce on the plate. "You’ve missed the best bit," I'll cry, tearing off a piece of bread to mop up what's left.   

It was only when I got older that I learnt that this ordinary habit has a name in Italy: "fare la scarpetta" – literally "to do the little shoe" – using bread to mop up the last of the sauce or juices from a meal. 

On a recent trip to Naples, I was surprised to see la scarpetta done at a white-tableclothed restaurant as casually as at my grandparents' table. While my Italian dining companion and I were waiting for our pasta dishes to be cleared away, I noticed his eyes darting towards a bit of pesto left on the plate. He eagerly tore off some bread, wiped up every last bit and popped it into his mouth with gusto. 

He didn't ask if I minded or look up to register any kind of disapproval on my face – not that he'd have found any. He just did it with an uninhibited enthusiasm I found oddly life-affirming. It communicated: this food is good and should be thoroughly enjoyed. On the second course, I followed his lead.

So how did a habit once frowned upon in polite company become something Italians now proudly do in public?

How scarpetta got its name

There are many theories online as to why the ritual is called "little shoe". Some Italians suggest it's because the piece of bread looks like a small shoe or clog; others suggest it refers to being so hungry you'd eat the sole of a shoe. 

Italian food historian Luca Cesari says neither explanation has much evidence behind it. "Its origin is uncertain, so I'd leave aside the more fanciful theories you find online," he says.

The earliest written example Cesari has found is from 1871, in Roman dialect, when a character in the Roman magazine La Frusta asks to make scarpetta with a little sauce left on the plate.

The expression also appears in an 1885 dictionary of the Abruzzo dialect, suggesting its........

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