Italiano
In the Italian culinary tradition there is a “practice” which, although consolidated, is still considered not in keeping with etiquette: the custom of making scarpetta, literally “little shoe”.
Its encyclopedic definition is «to collect the sauce left on the plate by passing a piece of bread stuck on a fork, or more commonly held between the fingers», although making scarpetta represents much more.
It’s a tacit, but quite sincere, way of saying you enjoyed the sauce!
Its name probably comes from the image of a shoe that “mops” what is left on the plate, until it is so clean that it looks like it just came out of the dishwasher!
So, yes, a gesture of gluttony (although frowned upon by the “purists”), but dictated by a pragmatism that is (fortunately) appreciated nowadays: food should not be wasted.
Nor is a good sauce wasted. Whether it’s with pasta, with cutlery or, indeed, with a piece of bread to make scarpetta.
