Aperitivo: The Cocktail Culture of Italy by Rizzoli International Publications

PADUA A Party on Every Piazza

tramezzino and lively conversation, a spritz can quickly evolve into two or three, which is often the case. Come rain or shine or even snot, the people of this fine city find a way to enjoy an aperitivo, even if huddled under a portico.

Padua is a university town in Northeastern Italy with a population of little over 200,000 people. Visit the city around sunset and you are likely to encounter the majority of them sitting in one of Padua’s three central squares – Piazza del Signore, Piazza delle Erbe, and Piazza della Frutta – sipping on a spritz like it’s a sport. Packed with a buddy-like punch, a spritz, made with wine, soda water and a bitter liqueur, can be enjoyed on an empty stomach, making it an ideal aperitivo. When paired with a little Italian tea sandwich or

These small Italian egg salad sandwiches are truly a crowd pleaser. The classic combination of egg, crispy cured pork is not only hard to resist, but down right addictive. I don’t go a week without one. Gran Caffè Diemme

CARBONARA TRAMEZZINI ( Makes 4 tramezzini )

4 ounces guanciale, pancetta or good dry-cured bacon, cut into ¼-inch cubes

Place a skillet or sauté pan over medium high heat. Once hot, brown guanciale until crispy and golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer guanciale to a plate lined with paper towels and let cool.

4 hard-cooked eggs (see Mezzi Ovi, page TK, for instructions), shelled and chopped ½ cup grated Pecorino Romano, loosely packed 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, storebought or homemade (see recipe page TK)

In a bowl, mix together guanciale, eggs, grated Pecorino Romano, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, and a couple grindings of black pepper.

Freshly ground black pepper 4 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed

Arrange the bread slices on a cutting board of flat work surface. Spread some of the remaining mayonnaise atop each slice. Divide the egg mixture between two slices, then close the sandwiches with the remaining bread, mayonnaise-side down. To make four tramezzini, cut each sandwich in half either lengthwise or diagonally.

PADUA

In Piemonte, peppers and anchovies often make their way onto the same plate. The sweet, piquant flavor of peppers pairs beautifully with the rich, briny flavor of the fish. For this preparation, small, red peppers or pepperoncini would normally be hollowed out, pickled, stuffed with a mixture of anchovies and tuna, placed in jars, and conserved in olive oil. Processed Peppadew peppers sold in upscale American supermarkets (or online at www.peppadewusa. com) are a great substitute for fresh pepperoncini, saving you a considerable amount of time and work. Stuffed peppers can be prepared and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

PEPPADEW PEPPERS STUFFED WITH ANCHOVIES AND TUNA ( Makes 24 )

6 oil-packed anchovy fillets, rinsed 1 cup canned tuna in olive oil, not drained (from about 3 8-ounce cans) 1 tablespoon salt-packed capers, rinsed and finely chopped

Drain tuna, transfer to a bowl, and use your fingers to break it apart until fine and uniform in consistency. Mash the anchovies into a paste with the back of a fork. Mix in anchovy paste and chopped capers. Add enough olive oil so that the mixture is moist. Season with a little lemon juice and a couple grindings of pepper. Adjust salt to taste. Using a teaspoon, fill peppers with tuna mixture. Serve at room temperature.

about 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil a lemon, for juice freshly ground black pepper salt, to taste 24 Peppadew peppers

TURIN

The Ligurian coast is blessed with sunshine and rich soil. Niasca, a small Portofino-based farm, takes advantage of these fortunate growing conditions, cultivating Tigullio lemons, as well as other fruits and herbs, which they use to make a selection of note-worthy products. Their sparkling lemonade or limonata, sold at Eataly, is lightly flavored with elderflower. In place of Niasca limonata, add a teaspoon of elderflower syrup (see recipe page) to give your Ligurian mojito a floral note.

LIGURIAN MOJITO ( Makes 1 )

½ ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice ½ teaspoon sugar 4 leaves basil Cracked ice

In a small Collins glass, muddle lemon juice with sugar. Tear basil leaves apart by hand and add to the glass. Fill glass 2/3 with cracked ice and pour in the rum. Top off with sparkling lemonade and stir.

2 ounces white rum 3 ounces sparkling lemonade, preferably Niasca brand

Garnish with a slice of lemon.

PORTOFINO

From the word bruscare, meaning to toast, bruschetta (brooh-SKEH-ta) is basically toasted garlic bread. And as with any seemingly simple Italian recipe, the secret is in the quality of the ingredients. To prepare bruschetta that will have a grown Italian man shouting “mamma mia”, use only the best of the best fresh summer tomatoes. Grape or cherry tomatoes are usually a good bet. If what you find isn’t ripe and sweet, pass on fresh tomatoes and grab a can for the very best peeled Italian tomato fillets. You may need to taste a few until you find one worthy of serving. The small Piennolo variety from around Mount Vesuvius is a good option. And as for the bread, look for a rustic or country-style loaf made from a natural starter. Something that around eight by twelve inches is ideal, but not necessary. Good quality extra virgin olive oil, however, is a must. Litro

TOMATO BRUSCHETTA TWO-WAYS ( Makes 6 bruschetta )

SUMMER TOMATO BRUSCHETTA

WINTER TOMATO BRUSCHETTA 1 ½ cup canned tomato fillets, drained of sauce

½ pound fresh tomatoes ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzing 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, plus extra

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzing 2 teaspoons flaky sea salt, plus extra

6 fresh basil leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried oregano 2 teaspoons salt-packed capers, rinsed

3 slices of rustic bread, halved

1 clove garlic

Freshly ground black pepper

Roughly dice tomatoes and place in a medium bowl. Add olive oil, salt and handtorn basil leaves or dried oregano. Toss to mix and set aside. Toast bread in a toaster until the edges turn dark brown and the center golden. Remove from the toaster and arrange on a serving plate. Slice of the tip of a garlic clove and rub the exposed end across each half slice of bread. Drizzle a little olive oil across each slice, then top with 1/3 cup of tomatoes on top. Finish with a tiny pinch of sea salt and a grinding of pepper.

Follow the recipe above substituting peeled tomato fillets for fresh tomatoes and adding capers to the other bruschetta toppings. Note: Bread can also be arranged on a baking sheet and toasted for TKTK in a TKTK oven or grilled until brown and crisp.

ROME

VENICE

The itinerant aperitivo

Like fashion and finance, the Milanesi take their aperitivo very seriously. As soon as the business day draws to a close, locals take to rooftop bars and hotel lobbies, sipping the cocktail of the season and enjoying designer bar snacks.

euro for a cocktail or a glass of wine grants you access to the free food. A rip-off if you are on a liquid diet, but the best deal in town if you don’t mind noshing at the bar. The aperitivo quickly become the focal point of a night out on the town and the “apericena” was born, an unfortunate compound word implying that dinner is replaced by aperitivo hoping.

Given that Italians aren’t particularly good drinkers, at least not according to Anglo-Saxon standards, they expect alcohol to go with food. Banking on this shortcoming, Milanesi bar owners, back in the late 90s, began setting up elaborate, allyou-can-eat spreads during the hours of 7 to 9 pm. Spending a couple more

Fortunately in more recent years, there has been a return to a more civil approach to the aperitivo. Small plates of finger foods are brought to you at the table and often hot from the kitchen.

Primer:

CAMPARI Up until recently, Campari’s colorant of choice was an all-natural dye extracted from the conchinea, a beetle-like insect native to Central and South America. The bug juice was replaced with FD&C Red #5 in 2008, some claiming, however unlikely, in the response to animal activists.

What is it Campari is just about as Italian as you get. Bright red in color and bracingly bitter in flavor, it stands out in a pack. The Ferrari of aperitivo liqueurs. Intended to be sipped on its own or mixed into drinks by the ounce, Campari falls in the category of a potable bitters rather than not aromatic or cocktail bitters such as Angostura. It’s made by infusing a base of alcohol and water with a proprietary mix of herbs and fruits, including rhubarb, orange, and a variety of sour orange known as chinotto in Italian. The bitter alcoholic infusion is then sweetened with sugar in the form of simple syrup and stiffened in accordance with its destination: 24% alcohol (48 proof) for American drinkers and 25% alcohol by volume (50 proof) for the Italians. Differences in taxation on alcohol are the most likely explanation, as Italian are particularly well known for their high tolerances. Campari’s signature ladybug red color comes from added colorants.

History Campari is the brainchild of Gaspare Campari. Born in 1828 in Cassolnovo, a small town outside of Milan, Gaspare started working as a waiter in a bar by the age of 14. He eventually purchased a bar of his own and began tinkering with cordials and bitters, eventually stumbling upon a combination of botanicals that he first called “Bitter all’Uso d’Holanda” or in the style of Holland based on his perceptions of Dutch liqueurs; this back in 1860, a half-century after the advent of sweet vermouth. From the beginning the Campari family had a hunch for marketing. In 1867, order to get his red bitter in the hands of Milanese influencers, Gaspare moved his operation

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CAMPARI ON THE ROCKS

into the heart of the city, taking up residence in the newly inaugurated Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an ice cube’s toss from the Milan cathedral. Bar Campari, or Il Camparino, was soon “the” place to be and his bitters “the” think to drink. Continually on the forefront of the aperitivo scene, Campari installed a revolutionary pumping system below the bar bringing icy-cold soda water directly to the counter: enter the Campari Soda. In the 1930s, Gaspare later passed the family business down to his sons, Davide and Guido, along with it his astute business acumen. Within no time, Davide decided to bottle Campari and soda water together, creating the first “ready-to-drink” beverage in the world. He commissioned Italian futurist painter Fortunato Depero to design the signature conical bottle, still in use to this day. Depero was just one in a long list of Italian artists to have works commissioned by Campari, many of which were asked to design large posters or the annual Campari calendar. These ads were displayed in bars across Northern Italy in exchange for the right to buy and sell the red liqueur. In recent years, Campari has called upon big name photographers, like Mario Testino and Jean Paul Goude to capture the spirit of Campari each year. The Campari calendar has since reached cult status and is considered a collector’s item.

( Makes 1 )

Simple makes perfect, nothing beats chilled Campari served under the sun. 2 or 3 cubes ice 2 ounces Campari Slice of orange or lemon peel, optional

Fill a small chilled glass with ice and pour Campari on top. Garnish with a slice of orange or lemon peel and serve.

CAMPARI SHAKERATO ( Makes 1 )

Campari meets the cocktail shaker, both born in the mid-1900s. 3 cubes ice 2 ounces Campari

Place ice and Campari in a shaker. Shake vigorously for a minute to break down ice into tiny pieces. Pour into a chilled double shot glass or small martini glass.

APERITIVO

CAMPARI SODA

pairs beautifully with grapefruit juice. To make a Campari Pompelmo, simply swap freshly squeezed grapefruit juice for the orange juice.

( Makes 1 )

Ice

Campari and soda water, a match made in heaven.

1½ ounces Campari 1½ ounces freshly squeezed orange juice 1 slice of orange

Ice 2 ounces Campari

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add Campari, then add orange juice. Garnish with an orange slice.

Soda water

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add Campari and top with soda water.

note There are two schools of thought on how Campari Orange should be served, stirred or unstirred. Try both and choose for yourself.

note You can do without the ice by using chilled Campari and chilled soda water.

CAMPARI ORANGE A.K.A. GARIBALDI

CAMPARI ICE CUBES ( Makes 14 1-ounce ice cubes )

Campari ice cubes are a festive way to dress Tonic water or fruit juices. They can also be used slowly transform a cocktail as the ice melts. Add Campari ice cubes to your next Manhattan and sip as it gradually becomes a Boulevardier.

( Makes 1 )

A classic aperitivo named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian general who assisted in the unification of Italy during the Risorgimento. In this cocktail, Campari is a node to both the Northern Italian city of Milan, as well as the red shirts worn by his military volunteers, and the orange juice symbolizes his arrival in Sicily, where blood oranges grown plentifully. Campari also

4 ounces Campari 10 ounces water

Stir together Campari and water and freeze in an ice cube mold.

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My aperitivo table always includes some sort of pinzimonio, raw vegetables paired with an olive-oil based dipping sauce. This recipe can be prepared year-round, but feel free to introduce additional seasonal vegetables like cherry tomatoes in the summer or leaves of endive or cauliflower florets in the winter. Provide guests with individual bowls of the dipping sauce, keeping a little extra on hand in case they want more.

VEGETABLE

PINZIMONIO

10 Corso Como

( Serves 6 )

3 medium carrots, trimmed, peeled, quartered, and cut into 3-inch-long sticks 3 stalks celery, trimmed and cut into sticks 3-inch-long sticks 12 radishes, washed and trimmed 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick strips 1 cup extra virgin olive oil 4 tablespoons lemon juice

Arrange vegetables on a large serving plate.

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper

In a bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper until emulsified. Divide dipping sauce between 6 small bowls. Serve.

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«Bar Basso only to be found in hotel bars. His skillfully mixed libations served in custom-designed glassware didn’t go unnoticed. But how could they? Negronis are poured over a Rubik’ssized ice cube and served in glass chalice that could pass for a stemmed fishbowl, requiring two hands to drink. Thankfully, Sbagliatos come in a more manageable glass, often leading one to order a second or a third. Today, Bar Basso is run by Mirko’s son Maurizio, whose contagious smile is a welcome sight in the long, grey Milan winters.

Bar Basso is a Milan institution. During the city’s annual Salone del Mobile design fair or any given fashion week, the wood-paneled dive is packed with stylish insiders sipping cocktails well into the night. Mirko Stocchetto, the bar’s owner, is known among older Milanese bartenders to have revolutionized the way people drink in Milan. Once the resident barman at Hotel Monaco in Venice and later at Hotel de la Poste in Cortina, Stocchetto took over Bar Basso in 1967, introducing Americanstyle cocktails that were formerly

APERITIVO

At Rebelot, a small restaurant along Milan‚Äôs main canal, globetrotting bartender Oscar Quagliarini helped to put together a cocktail program to compliment the kitchen‚Äôs upbeat small plate menu. My favorite of his many ‚ÄúGintos‚Äù calls for No. 209 Gin distilled in San Francisco and Thomas Henry tonic water from Germany, finished with small fresh chili peppers and a sprig of rosemary.

CHILI PEPPER AND ROSEMARY GIN TONIC

Robelot

( Makes 1 )

4 ounces No. 209 gin 5 ounces Thomas Henry tonic water or other quality Tonic water 5 small fresh red chili peppers 1 sprig fresh rosemary

Fill a tall, narrow Collins glass with ice. Add the gin, then the tonic water and chili peppers. Stir well and garnish with rosemary.

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The once unheard of combination of cocktails and pizza is gaining a following in cosmopolitan Milan in large part thanks to Dry, a bar/pizzeria in Milan’s trendy Brera district. Bartender Guliermo Miriello pours updated versions of classic cocktails to go with chef Simone Lombardi focaccias, served in the front bar area, and pizzas, served in the back. Since opening, the focaccia with vitello tonnato and caper powder has been a constant on the bar menu and for good reason. While making your own caper powder may prove difficult, or at least time consuming, without a dehydrator, finely-chopped capers are a good stand in.

FOCACCIA WITH VITELLO TONNATO & CAPERS Dry

( Makes 4 8-inch focaccias, serves 8 to 10 )

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1½ to 2 pound lean veal roast, preferably the top round

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 medium carrot, peeled

1 cup homemade mayonnaise (see recipe TK) or store-bought mayonnaise

1 stalk celery 1 medium onion, peeled

½ cup salt-packed capers, soaked, rinsed and finely chopped in a food processor

3 springs parsley 1 dried bay leaf 28 ounces basic pizza dough (see recipe page, Venice chapter)

Extra virgin olive oil

1 seven-ounce can imported tuna packed in olive oil

Place veal and aromatics in a medium pot; add enough water to cover, then remove the veal and set it aside. Bring water to a boil and return meat to the pot. Once

water returns to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook for 2 hours. Remove from the heat and let meat cool in its broth.

continued <

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Meanwhile, divide pizza dough into 7-ounce balls and stretch across 8-inch round baking dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm area. Allow dough to rest until doubles in volume and becomes airy, at least 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400Â°F.

Place two round baking pans on a baking sheet on the lowest shelf of the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they just begin to turn golden. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a cooking rack. Bake the remaining two focaccias, the remove, and let cool.

Drain the canned tuna and put it into a food processor with olive oil and lemon juice. Process until blended uniformly, then fold into mayonnaise. Adjust and lemon juice for tartness.

Once cool enough to handle, cut each focaccia into eight pieces. Place a tablespoon of tuna sauce onto the center of each slice of focaccia. Arrange a slice of veal on top and finish with a pinch of chopped capers and a drizzle of olive oil.

Once the meat has cooled, remove it from the broth and place on a cutting board and thinly slice. If you have a meat slicer, use it.

Variations PROScIUTTO AnD STRAccIATeLLA FOcAccIA

Top each slice of focaccia with a spoonful of creamy stracciatella cheese and a half-slice of paper-thin prosciutto crudo. Stracciatella are tangy, cream-soaked strands of mozzarella. Look for it at specialty cheese stores or use a slice of burrata. STRAcHInO, MORTADeLLA, AnD WATeRcReSS STUFFeD FOcAccIA

Before cutting each focaccia into eights, slice in in half horizontally. Spread four ounces of creamy strachino cheese across the bottom half of the focaccia. Top with a handful of watercress, then fold two ounces of thinly sliced mortadella across the cress.

APERITIVO