The Ultimate Italian Sunday Dinner: Cousin Mike’s Full Menu

Quick Answer: A classic Italian Sunday dinner is a full menu built in courses: start with garlic bread and a Caesar salad, bring out a main like chicken parmesan or three-meat lasagna, serve a pasta such as penne alla vodka or spaghetti and meatballs in marinara, and finish with tiramisu. Here is the whole menu, each dish with the one trick that makes it work.

Sunday dinner is the meal this whole site is really about — the big, unhurried Italian spread where the table is loud, the sauce has been going for a while, and nobody leaves hungry. Over time I have worked out the handful of dishes that make the perfect Italian dinner, and more importantly the one trick behind each one that takes it from fine to the version people ask you to make again. This is the full menu, start to finish. Make all of it for a feast, or pull two or three for a great weeknight.

The main event

Crispy Chicken Parmesan — my favorite dish, and the one that stays crispy under the cheese because you fry the cutlets deep golden first and keep the sauce off the crust.

Sweet & Spicy Three-Meat Lasagna — sweet sausage, hot sausage, and ground beef in one sauce, layered rich and never watery. The showstopper centerpiece.

Pasta & sauce

Creamy Penne alla Vodka — the vodka is not a gimmick; it unlocks tomato flavors you cannot taste without it and keeps the sauce silky.

Homemade Marinara Sauce — the base for half this menu. Hand-crushed San Marzanos and a spoon of butter off the heat make it taste slow-simmered in 30 minutes.

Tender Italian Meatballs — a milk-soaked bread panade and a gentle hand keep them melt-in-your-mouth soft. Finish them right in the marinara.

On the side

Homemade Garlic Bread — cook the garlic in the butter first so it goes sweet and never scorches bitter under the broiler.

Homemade Caesar Salad — a real emulsified dressing and cold, dry, crisp romaine. Do not fear the anchovy; it is the savory backbone.

Dessert

Classic Tiramisu — the one-second dip keeps the ladyfingers from turning to mush, and an overnight chill lets it slice clean. The perfect finish.

How to build your menu

For a full Sunday feast: garlic bread and Caesar to start, chicken parm and lasagna as mains, penne alla vodka or meatballs-and-marinara for the pasta course, and tiramisu to finish. For a weeknight, pick one main, the garlic bread, and a salad and you are still eating well. Most of these can be made partly ahead — the marinara, the meatballs, and the tiramisu all actually improve overnight.