Undoubtedly, Italian restaurants offer some of the best and most delicious meals that you can get anywhere. No wonder, it is easy to find an Italian restaurant in different places around the world. Despite the tastiness of numerous Italian cuisines, unhealthiness is a major concern for many of them. Therefore, if you are truly concerned about your health, you should be careful when choosing a meal at an Italian restaurant.

Don’t get worked up over this as this article will show you 7 healthiest options you can pick when dining at an Italian restaurant.

1. Caprese Salad

Fresh mozzarella, sweet basil, and tomatoes are the main ingredients of a Caprese salad. As the mozzarella offers you some calories to carry on with your day, sweet basil and tomatoes ensure that the meal stays healthy. Reduce the calorie by asking them to reduce the amount of olive oil in the meal.

2. Grilled calamari

Grilled calamari offers you about 100 calories with an additional 17 grams of protein for every 4-ounce serving. The combination of the nutrients guarantees that you can take this particular meal without worrying about your health. Consider asking the chef to lower the amount of oil that will be added to your grilled calamari.

3. Gnocchi

Gnocchi is generally made with pasta dumplings which many know to be unhealthy. Therefore, you need to be careful when choosing gnocchi. When you are dining at an Italian restaurant, you should order potato gnocchi with tasty Checca sauce. Each 1-cup serving of this meal offers about 200 calories as well as 5 grams of protein. Make sure your chef doesn’t add too much oil to it.

4. Bruschetta

Fresh tomatoes, bread, and olive oil are the major components of bruschetta. Resultantly, a serving of this meal will give you several macronutrients such as healthy fats, carbohydrates, and vegetables. Like others, let the chef go easy on the olive oil.

5. Minestrone

Since minestrone has lots of vegetables with only a handful of pasta, it is a healthy soup that most Italian restaurants usually serve. So, you should consider having a taste of this soup as you wait for the main course.

6. Charcuterie

Every charcuterie board comes with lots of meats and cheeses that can fill up your tummy before the arrival of your main course. This appetizer doesn’t have lots of calories and fats; so, it is generally healthy and recommended for everyone.

7. Mussels in white wine sauce

In a 4-ounce serving of mussels, you can get as much as 27 grams of protein. Even though there is usually butter in the white wine sauce, you can hardly finish all the sauce; hence, you are not putting your health at risk by eating mussels with white wine.

All of these 7 Italian cuisines are healthy options as they contain the right nutrients. Therefore, think about ordering any of them when next you are dining at an Italian restaurant.