5 of the tastiest Italian cocktails for this summer
We love Italians. For their pasta, risotto, wine and cheeses. But also because they can always find a good reason to enjoy an aperitivo. In Italy, you’ll find them in every bàcaro, but they’re very easy to make at home.
1. Bellini
Once you’ve tasted this heavenly, sensual summer drink, you’ll never forget it. It was invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice and consists of two simple ingredients: white peaches and prosecco. The peaches must be fresh, ripe and juicy, and the prosecco must be of good quality.
Ingredients
- 2 ripe white peaches, peeled and pitted
- 3.75 dl well-chilled prosecco
Method
Purée the peaches in a blender and chill the purée in the refrigerator. Divide the purée among champagne glasses or cocktail glasses, pour in the prosecco, stir and serve.
Variation: for a Bellini Rossini, replace the white peaches with a handful of strawberries.
2. Sicilian Sling
Sicily’s answer to the Singapore Sling, the cocktail invented in 1915 at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. At the time, women were not allowed to drink alcohol in public, so bartender Ngiam created a drink especially for them that looked like fruit punch but was packed with gin and other liqueurs. The slightly sweet Singapore Sling becomes surprisingly refreshing with the Sicilian twist.
Ingredients
- 50 ml Sicilian Sambuca
- 100 ml Fever-Tree Sicilian lemonade
- 25 ml lemon juice
- 50 ml orange juice
- grenadine (a splash)
- ice, at least 4 large cubes
- a slice of fresh lemon
Method
Fill a highball glass with ice and pour the Sambuca over it. Add the lemon juice and orange juice, then top up with the Fever-Tree Sicilian lemonade. Finish with a splash of grenadine and a slice of fresh lemon.
3. Espresso Martini
Barista meets bartender in this combination of two crowd favourites: coffee and alcohol. Story goes that in the late 1980s, at Fred’s Club in London, a young fashion model (Naomi Campbell?) asked for a drink ‘to wake me up and f*ck me up’. The Espresso Martini, a cocktail of vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso, did exactly that. An after-dinner drink with a double kick.
Ingredients
- 30 ml vodka
- 15 ml Galliano Ristretto (coffee liqueur)
- 40 ml freshly brewed (N)espresso
- 10 ml sugar syrup
- 3 coffee beans for garnish
Method
Chill a martini glass in the freezer. Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill it with ice cubes. Shake hard but briefly. Fine strain the Espresso Martini into the martini glass. Garnish with three coffee beans.
4. Negroni
There’s little wrong with a Campari and soda on a scorching hot day, but the Campari-vermouth-gin cocktail Negroni is even better. This bitter, bright-red aperitif relieves all kinds of work stress. Perfect for a long summer evening or as the start of a relaxed dinner. Special detail: in this trio, the artisanal vermouth and high-class gin come from the Netherlands.
Ingredients
- 30 ml Campari
- 30 ml Willems Wermoed (sweet red vermouth)
- 30 ml Vørding’s Gin
- 1 orange wedge (with peel, without seeds)
Method
Fill a tumbler with ice, stir and leave for 2 minutes. Pour off any excess water. Add the vermouth, Campari and gin to the glass and stir. Garnish with an orange wedge.
5. Sgroppino con prosecco
There are all kinds of sgroppini these days, but a sgroppino was originally simply lemon sorbet topped with grappa, served as a digestif after a meal. Sgroppino comes from sgroppare, sciogliere il nodo, meaning ‘to untie the knot’ or ‘to aid digestion’. It’s a delicious way to finish a meal, but we also drink it simply as an aperitivo, just as we still drink our cappuccino after eleven in the morning. But never tell an Italian that.
Ingredients
- 1 scoop lemon sorbet
- 1 tbsp grappa or vodka, chilled
- prosecco, chilled
Method
Place a generous scoop of sorbet in a glass, add the grappa or vodka and top up with prosecco.
NB: the quantities indicated in the recipes above are always for 1 cocktail. For multiple cocktails, you’ll need to adjust the quantities accordingly.
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