Common Italian expression
| Pronunciation | |
| Literal translation | To make the little shoe |
| English translation | To mop up your plate with bread |
| Meaning | You like a dish so much you pick up all the gravy with a piece of bread |
Examples
| Quando sono al ristorante, faccio sempre la scarpetta. | When I’m in a restaurant, I always mop up my place with bread. |
| Fare la scarpetta è maleducazione? | Is mopping up your place with bread rude? |
Where does this idiom come from?
There are two different origins for this Italian idiom. For some, a scarpetta refers to a particularly hollow-shaped pasta that helped to mop up any left sauce on a plate. Some others think it comes from scarpa, “shoe,” alluding to a kind of cheap, low-quality shoe. This is because the action can be perceived as rude.
Related lessons
- fare (to do)
- scarpa (shoe)
- definite articles
- descriptive suffixes
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