Il Bollito Misto or Italian Boiled Dinner: What's On the Plate?

Bollito misto might strike you as one of the simplest and most obvious things there is. And you'd be right, but if it's prepared properly a North Italian boiled dinner is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying meals imaginable, so nice that in the late 1800s Crown Prince Vittorio Emanuele and his friends would sneak off to Moncalvo, a town far from the stifling air of the Court in Torino, to enjoy a rich, flavorful bollito misto: seven kinds of meat, seven vegetables, and seven condiments.

The Crown Prince's Bollito Misto was from Piemonte. The boiled dinner pictured here is is instead Veronese, prepared by Pietro, who owns the Ristorante al Calmiere in Piazza San Zeno, and wheels out a spectacular cart for those who order bollito. I asked for seven cuts from the cart (there were more), and sauces too.