Sip Italy with Fine Choices - APERITIVO and DIGESTIVO Along with Recipes to Enjoy

While you are spending more time at home engaging in home cooking, treat yourself to a sumptuous Italian dinner and be sure to sip and savor an aperitivo as a starter and digestivo for a grand finish.

The word aperitivo, with Latin roots that mean to open or to begin, can be used to define the pre-dinner happy hour before a meal with a well mixed drink.

Digestivo, or digestif, can be used to describe the leisurely act of drinking after a meal. It can refer to any post-dinner beverage consumed to facilitate digestion, or simply because you enjoy it. Some delightful choices include Meletti or Montenegro Amaro, Strega Liqueur, Molinari Sambuca or Nocello Walnut Liqueur.

It's easy to elevate your at home dining experience. Start off with an enticing antipasto; prepare a pasta al dente with a light tomato or pesto sauce; indulge in a meat or fish dish; and finish your meal off with sorbet, fruit or a luscious dessert. You will find that kicking off your meal with an aperitivo and finishing with a digestif will be a wonderful experience.

Here are some of our favorite brands with some excellent cocktail recipes that are great meal openers.

Poli Rosso Vermouth - Gran Bassano Rosso is a vermouth whose remarkable aromatic structure is due to Merlot, a red wine from French grape variety cultivated since the end of the 19th century. Intense bouquet of spices and aromatic herbs. Sweet and full-bodied with spicy notes and a pleasant bitter finish. Visit: https://www.poligrappa.com/eng/liqueurs/vermouth-gran-bassano-rosso.

Gran Negroni
1.25 oz Gran Bassano Rosso
1.25 oz Campari
1.25 oz Gin
Slice of Orange

Strega - Strega is one of the oldest Italian liqueurs to be known worldwide. Today only two people know the original recipe that has been carefully handed down for generations from father to son. Liquore Strega is also defined a liquid sun ray, its characteristic golden color is given by the precious tincture of saffron added to the distillates together with the sugar syrup, in an operation called "blending". Visit: https://www.strega.it/en/.

Strega Mule

1.5 oz Strega
.5 oz fresh lime juice
5 oz Ginger Beer

2Nite Vodka - 2Nite Vodka ($17.99) is the first ultra-premium Italian vodka made from GMO free, organically grown, semolina wheat from Tuscany, and the purest glacial water from the Italian Alps. Perfect next, on the rocks, or paired with soda. Visit: http://2nitevodka.ch/.

2Nite Spritz

1.5 oz 2Nite Premium Dry Vodka
3 oz Aperol

1.5 oz fresh sweet 'n sour mix (1 part water: 1 part sugar: 1 part fresh lemon juice: 1 part fresh lime juice)
Top up with Prosecco

Photo Credits: Negroni image credit - POLI DISTILLERIE srl; Strega image credit - STREGA ALBERTI BENEVENTO S.P.A.

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