New Sous Chef needs help with Old World Italian Lunch Menu

Tomorrow I am starting a new position as the Sous Chef in an Old World Italian Style restaurant. The restaurant is high end with Moderate to Expensive prices. The chef is from Italy and likes to cook in Old World style Italian. I need some ideas on how to come up with a lunch menu. I've designed dinner menus in the past, but have no experience in this type of cuisine for lunches. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[cape chef]

First of all, Welcome to cheftalk risingchef.
I am sure you will enjoy this site. As for your menu, Is it Northern or Southern? Or a blend of the two.Take a good look at the dinner menu,really study it , so as not to duplicate anything, Allthough many restaurants run the same items both for lunch and dinner service. This is a wonderful time of year for menu development.
The markets are full of root veggies,fennel,artichokes,cardons winter squashes Autumn shrooms (fennel rissoto with Porcinis and roast Delicata squash)Small portion for lunch, and little crostini on the side.A nice beef carpachio,arugula,olive oil parm,cracked black pepper.Olive and rosemary foccachio with ground sea salt,roast peppers and tapinade with a little side salad. maybe a grilled salmon with panchetta and Balsamic vinager reduced with citrus juices to a syrup and then whisk with some nice olive oil serve of wilted spinach, Braised lamb shank,with sweet roasted garlic cloves and a cannoloni-tomato stew,sliced and set in a timbale with the meat and the stew and garnish with the roast garlic cloves and turned baby artichokes.riccata-braised escorole angolotti
with roast yellow tomato broth and diced cordons. Just some ideas. Be confident but not arrogent and always be opened minded, and read read and then read some more!!! Keep coming back to cheftalk and you are almost gauranteed to succeed, Good luck and keep us posted
cc

[shroomgirl]

Pastas!!!! Risottos!!!!Bruschettas!!!
Consider making sausages
Soups too
Gelatos

[mudbug]

Uummmm..... gelatos!

[crusso]

I'll tell you what...it's 6:41 AM where I'm at, and reading all those suggestions made me hungry. Good job everyone...

One other suggestion, which is good year-round, is to make a variety of fresh pasta. Use traditional egg pasta, but also spinach fettucini, make fresh herbed pasta, use tumeric/saffron for yellow to orange, use tomato, roasted bell peppers, or red chile for red, and more. Almost anything you can think of can be put into pasta.

I once made heart-shaped chocolate ravioli filled with raspberry, served over cream anlgaise, ete, etc, as a dessert pasta dish for a valentines day meal.

If you have the time (labor cost), making two thin sheets of sfoglia and placing fresh herbs between them before running it through again. This can be used sparingly as a garnich to make the time spent worth it (showing this off on each plate).

Have fun cooking!

[Harpua]

The best thing about Tuscany for me was the soup. Get some crock-like bowls and serve some rosemary infused white bean/vegetable soup over a piece of rustic bread with an egg scrambled in it just before service. Can't remember if it was tomato based, but I don't believe so. Not really a minestrone. So good.