Jumbo-Sized or Baby-Sized Italian Food Options You Should Try

An Italian restaurant menu has a plethora of options to choose from, including multiple pastas, sauces, and proteins. As you browse an Italian menu, you will also notice many items are listed as either jumbo- or baby-sized. Learn exactly what those mean and what you can expect when you order these items for your meal. 

Check out some of the more common jumbo- and baby-sized items you will come across on a restaurant menu and how each one changes your meal and the way you eat.

Jumbo Meatballs

A pasta meal with one jumbo meatball is quite a sight when the server delivers it to your table. A bed of pasta almost looks like a nest with a huge meatball that sits in the middle. Ideally, you would cut the meatball up into small pieces and mix it around the pasta. The meatball will break apart and crumble, creating a nice mixture of meat and sauce that blends well.

Most meals with jumbo meatballs include one large meatball, but the size could vary. You may find that restaurants serve two to three jumbo meatballs. The key to the jumbo part is that the meatballs are not intended for consumption in a single bite. Cutting up the meatball is an ideal way to spread the flavors around the whole dish.

A jumbo meatball is included with several main dishes but is also available as an add-on option. You can order a jumbo meatball as an appetizer or a side dish and enjoy the meatball covered in a signature red sauce.

Baby Meatballs

The complete opposite of a jumbo meatball is a baby meatball. Baby meatballs easily slide onto your fork and are designed to be eaten in one bite. When you order a pasta meal with baby meatballs, you will get a large quantity of the baby meatballs spread across the plate. The baby meatballs are an ideal bite size and you do not need to worry about cutting the food.

Baby meatballs make it easy to portion out your meat to pasta ratio so you do not run out of meat too early or consume too much pasta and get left with a lot of extra meat at the end of your meal.

Jumbo Shrimp 

One of the main jumbo options for seafood is jumbo shrimp. The oversized shrimp includes a lot of meat and you can enjoy big bites from this shellfish. Much like the jumbo meatball, you would cut a jumbo shrimp into smaller pieces and spread it around your plate.

Unlike a traditional pasta meal like shrimp scampi, jumbo shrimp gives you a lot of the middle of the shrimp instead of just the edges. If you enjoy the middle meat of the shrimp, then you can expand those flavors and get a lot more with an order of jumbo shrimp.

Depending on the size of the shrimp, you also have the option to add extra jumbo shrimp to your pasta dish as well.

Baby Spinach

Many Italian pasta meals and salads are served over a bed of spinach to add a healthy touch, unique textures, and layers of flavor. Often, you will see baby spinach listed as one of the main ingredients. Unlike other foods like meatballs or baby carrots, baby spinach actually refers to the age of the spinach leaf.

Baby spinach is pulled from the crop at a much younger age, so the leaves are smaller. Full-sized spinach tends to look more wrinkled and has a harder, crunchier center. When you order a meal with baby spinach, you can easily consume the leaves without the need to cut the spinach into smaller pieces.

Try all of our baby and jumbo food options at Picano's Italian Grille. We have a large menu to choose from and a lot of different traditional Italian foods to try the next time you dine out.