Aperitivo Hour at Home: Italian Spritz Kit with Prosecco and Bitters
From pizza and pasta to gelato and tiramisu, we have a lot to be grateful for towards Italy.
And much like they say that you should eat like an Italian, the same can be said about Italians and how they back-up after a hard day at work. Italians have, evidently, mastered the art of their tradition of aperitivo hour.
This is a pre-dinner ritual of unwinding with your loved ones, with some snacks and light alcohol.
The Basics
This tradition dates back to the Roman Empire; Romans were famed for consuming gustatio, an appetiser along with wine sweetened with honey. In fact, the custom gets its name from the Latin word aperitivos which translates to “to open” in English, and refers to the opening of your stomach with appetisers. These drinks and snacks were supposed to whet your appetite before dinner.
However, what we have come to know as aperitivo in recent years began in the late 1786 Turin, with Antonio Carpano’s Vermouth. The tradition blew up in the 1950s and 60s as the cities witnessed mass migration from neighbouring areas. Houses were small, so people preferred to hang out at the bars that began cropping up in these residential neighbourhoods. Further, since drinking on an empty stomach was frowned upon, a lot of upper-class women poured into these cafes that would serve food, cocktails and a sisterhood of aperitivo drinkers.
A Low-Alcohol Option
In recent years, the drink has gained significant popularity outside of Italy, as a low-alcohol cocktail option. The primary ingredients used for an aperitivo are vermouth and bitters, which have a lower content of ABV when compared to other spirits.
Further, they also are diluted with soda water.
How can you celebrate this tradition in your own home?
To usher in the spirit of Italian ‘happy hour’ in the comfort of your own home, invest in an Italian spritz kit. Here’s a checklist of items you can go through for your kit:
Prosecco: a light, sparkling wine that is used as the base for all aperitivo cocktails.
Bitters: Consider Aperol, Campari and similar liqueurs that are used in after-dinner digestifs.
Soda water: the drink gets its lift and fizz from soda water
Orange slices: To garnish the drink.
Aperitivo At Home
This is how you make yourself an aperitivo at home:
The first step is to fill a glass of wine with ice cubes, followed by three part of prosecco, two parts of bitters and one part of soda water.
Garnish the drink with an orange slice.
As has been discussed before, aperitivo is incomplete without a spread of small bites, so you also need to prepare a snack tray.
Some suggestions for your snack tray are – mini sandwiches, focaccia slices, bruschetta or crostini bites, a mix of almonds, pistachios, walnuts and green olives, or the humble salted potato chips.
A non-negotiable part of this social custom is meeting and talking to people. So make sure to drop a call to your girlfriends.
Many countries around the world consider leisure to be an intrinsic part of their social fabric. The Swedish ‘fika’—the tradition of taking a step back from our busy lives and instead taking a coffee and snack break in the early evenings—is yet another example of savouring the little moments in life with friends, food and a little beverage.
