What Is Secondi? The Main Course on an Italian Menu

Secondi (singular secondo, short for secondo piatto) is the main course of an Italian meal, usually meat or fish, served after the primo, the pasta, risotto or soup course. On most New York Italian menus it is the shortest section on the page, and where it sits and what it costs relative to the pasta tells you how the kitchen thinks. Four Manhattan menus, read off each restaurant’s own site on October 7, 2026, arrange it four different ways: at Rezdôra the halibut costs less than the most expensive pasta, while at Scarpetta every main costs more than every pasta. Learning to read that gap is the fastest way to know what a kitchen wants you to order.

At a Glance

Secondi are the main courses that follow the pasta on an Italian menu. Across the four menus read here, the section runs from four dishes to eight. The step from pasta to secondi is clean at Scarpetta ($44 pasta ceiling, $46 secondi floor), wide at Babbo apart from a single $40 chicken, narrow at Rezdôra, and absent at Via Carota, where every fish and meat main is priced at $28 or $29. The short version: where the secondi list is small and priced like the pasta, the pasta is the point. Where it is long and priced above, the kitchen has built a main-course menu and you should order one.

What does secondi mean on an Italian menu?

Secondi means “seconds,” the second course in the traditional Italian sequence of antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno, dolce. The primo is the starch course: pasta, risotto, soup, covered in what the primi course means on an Italian menu. The secondo is protein, served on its own. The vegetables are not on the plate with it. They are a separate order, which is why every menu below prints a distinct vegetable section, and why a secondo can arrive looking sparse if you did not order one.

That structure is the source of most confusion at an American table. A piece of fish at main-course prices with little beside it reads as a bad deal if you are expecting a plated main with sides. Read against the Italian sequence, it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do, and the contorni section is where the rest of the plate lives.

How big is the secondi section? Four menus compared

Menus read October 7, 2026. Prices change; check the current menu before you plan around a number.

Rezdôra runs nine pastas against four secondi, and two of those four are built for two people: the section is subdivided into “Padella” and “Per Due,” with the Cotoletta Bolognese at $52 and a 60-day dry-aged ribeye at market price under the second heading. That leaves exactly two single-portion mains — a sirloin dish at $38 and halibut at $36 — against a pasta list where the Uovo Raviolo also runs $38. When the top pasta and the main cost the same at a kitchen whose stated business is the cooking of Emilia-Romagna and house-made pasta, the menu has answered the question for you.

Babbo is the opposite arrangement. Eleven primi and six secondi share a full dinner menu, and apart from one dish the price bands do not overlap: pasta runs $28 to $45, and every secondo except the $40 chicken al mattone costs more than every pasta, from a grilled branzino at $56 through a veal chop Marsala at $95 to a 32-ounce bistecca alla Fiorentina at $150. Dry-aged pork chop, wagyu tagliata, the veal chop — that is a full main-course menu, not a courtesy section, and skipping it means missing what the kitchen spent its money on. Babbo’s $115 tasting menu makes the same point: two pastas served family-style, then “one entrée and accompanying contorni.”

Scarpetta splits the difference and then adds an annex. Four secondi from $46 to $68, and then a separate section headed “To Share” holding Dover sole at $95, a charred whole branzino at $89 and a Milanese veal chop at $78. The pasta section is six dishes from $36 to $44 and carries the line “all pastas are handmade daily in-house.” Two clear paths, priced far apart.

The menu that refuses the word

Via Carota does not print “secondi” anywhere. Its mains are split into “PESCE” and “CARNE,” four dishes each, and the pricing is almost aggressively flat: every fish is $28, every meat is $29. The only breaks sit under a specials heading: a whole branzino baked in salt at $69 and a hand-chopped grass-fed steak, the Via Carota svizzerina, at $30.

The real tell at Via Carota is the vegetable section. “VERDURE” runs fifteen items at $22 to $24 — more dishes than the pasta and the mains have between them, priced within a few dollars of the mains. Most Italian menus print contorni as a short appendix of a few plates. A kitchen that gives vegetables fifteen slots and near-parity pricing is telling you the vegetables are not a side. Order two or three of them and treat the meat as the accompaniment, which is the reverse of how the menu is usually read.

How to order from the secondi section

A working method, applied to any Italian menu you sit down with:

Count both sections first. The larger one is where the kitchen’s attention is. A nine-to-four split in favor of pasta is a pasta restaurant regardless of what the awning says.

Compare the top pasta to the cheapest main. If they are within a few dollars, the secondi are not a step up in ambition, only in protein. If there is a clean gap of ten dollars or more, the mains are the serious cooking. One outlier, like Babbo’s chicken, does not change the read if everything else sits well above the pasta.

Check whether any main is priced for two. Sharing shows up three ways — a sub-heading (“Per Due” at Rezdôra), a whole section (“To Share” at Scarpetta), or only the size of the cut (Babbo’s 32-ounce bistecca at $150). A main for two reorganizes the whole order, because it replaces two separate mains and usually wants a pasta before it rather than beside it.

Read the vegetable heading before you order the main. “Contorni” printed small at the bottom with a few items means order one per person and move on. “Verdure” with fifteen items at pasta prices means the vegetables are a course.

Then decide how many courses you actually want. The traditional sequence assumes small portions and a long evening. Ordering an antipasto, a pasta and a secondo each in an American dining room usually produces too much food. Pick two of the three per person and share a contorno.

Before you order

Menu sections change with the season, and every price here was read on a single day. Pull up the current menu on the restaurant’s own site before you plan an order around a specific dish.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between primi and secondi?

Primi are the first courses, pasta, risotto or soup, and secondi are the main courses of meat or fish that follow them. In the traditional sequence of antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno and dolce, the secondo arrives on its own and the vegetables are ordered separately as contorni. On the four Manhattan menus read here, the secondi cost more than most of the pasta.

What does secondo piatto mean?

Secondo piatto means “second plate,” the main course of a traditional Italian meal. Secondi is the plural, which is why menus use it as the heading for the meat and fish section.

Do secondi come with sides?

Usually not. In the Italian structure the meat or fish arrives unaccompanied, and the vegetables are a separate order from the contorni section, which is why a secondo can look sparse on the plate. Order one contorno per person, or share two across the table.

Is it rude to order only pasta as your main course in an Italian restaurant?

No. A pasta as a single main course is normal in New York, and American Italian restaurants have priced and portioned their pasta as a main for decades; at the restaurants above, pasta runs $25 to $45. If you want a fuller meal, add a contorno or an antipasto to share rather than forcing a secondo you do not want. The one situation where it is worth ordering from the secondi is at a kitchen like Babbo, where most of the mains carry a real price step and clearly represent the more ambitious cooking.

Editor’s note: The Pasta Notebook is one of several New York dining sites published by the same owner, and its articles are produced with AI assistance. All menu headings, dish names and prices above were read from each restaurant’s own website on October 7, 2026. Confirm current details with the restaurant before you go.