La SCARPETTA
There is a name for wiping the plate with bread, and it means little shoe Fare la Scarpetta. The last of the sugo pushed round the plate with a crust, the plate going back to the kitchen looking washed. In a restaurant it was bad manners. At nonna’s it was the highest compliment a plate could receive, and she watched for it.
Nobody agrees why it is a shoe. The bread scoops like a slipper, or the crust looks like one. Either way the word is on every Italian table.
New York Italian 