carpaccio

The classic carpaccio is beef, dressed with olive oil and lemon or mustard sauce (the Italians especially like it with rocket and shaved Parmesan), but the technique has spread to other kinds of meats, and increasingly any fruit or vegetable sliced thinly. Another word, finissima is sometimes used for thinly sliced fish.

Originally a dish from Piedmont known as carne all'albese, it re-named after the great Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio in 1950 by the owner of Harry's Bar in Venice, who found the reds of the meat reminded him of the red Carpaccio used in his paintings.