Mark Hix serves up a feast of bite-sized venetian snacks

I know I wrote about tapas a few weeks ago, but what's really catching on these days is serving small plates of Italian food. These delicious cicchetti, as they are known, are served during the early evening in the bars of Venice – with a glass of wine, naturally.

My friend Russell Norman opened his new restaurant Polpo around the corner from me in Beak Street in Soho at about the same time as I opened Hix; and he is packing in the customers with his snack-sized portions of Venetian fare. The atmosphere is relaxed and non-pretentious and just goes to show how people really want to eat these days.

You could have a lot of fun serving these up for an informal dinner party with a few glasses of prosecco.

Calf's tongue Milanese

Serves 4-6

Whether it's served hot or cold, tongue is one of those great under-used cuts of meat – and I reckon that even the kids might consider eating this dish.

1 calf's tongue weighing about 500g
Flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten
50-60g fresh white breadcrumbs mixed with 1tbsp freshly grated parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3tbsp vegetable or corn oil
60g butter

For the tomato sauce

3tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1tsp fresh oregano leaves
1 x 227g can of good-quality chopped tomatoes

Put the calf's tongue in a saucepan and cover with water, add a tablespoon of salt, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 2 hours or until tender. You may need to top up the water during cooking. Either leave the tongue in the liquid to cool or remove from the liquid. Once cool enough to handle, remove the tough outer skin and cut into cm slices and put to one side. Any extra tongue can be refrigerated and used cold.

Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce: heat the olive oil in a saucepan and gently cook the onion, garlic and oregano for 2-3 minutes until soft, add the chopped tomatoes, season, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

While the sauce is cooking, have 3 bowls ready, one with the flour, one with the beaten egg and the third with the breadcrumbs. Season the slices of tongue then pass through the flour, shaking off any excess; then put them through the beaten egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

Heat some of the vegetable oil in a heavy or non-stick frying pan and cook the slices of tongue for 2-3 minutes on each side, adding a couple of good knobs of butter halfway through cooking. You will probably need to cook the tongue in a couple of batches. Drain the tongue on some kitchen paper, then spoon the sauce on to a warmed serving dish and arrange the tongue on top. Serve with wedges of lemon if you wish.

drive from www.independent.co.uk