The Genuis of Aperitivo

Aperitivo is one of the simplest and most genius things in Italy. After work, typically from 7-9 pm, Italians love to stop at an outdoor table at a local bar for a glass of wine or a nice spritz and some snacks before they have dinner. It’s a great way to unwind and cool off from the heat of the day. It’s also unbelievably cheap! You pay for the drinks and usually a small table service fee of a couple euros (common instead of tipping) and they bring the snacks out for free. Each place has their own version of snacks, but you can typically expect to find a small bowl of potato chips, nuts, and some olives. The best places feature the amazing triangle tramezzini sandwiches, that give English tea sandwiches a run for their money. I’m not sure why, but aperitivo hasn’t really caught on with tourists. I’m thinking that it’s due to our American perception that dinner should be eaten between 6-7 pm. So while all of the American tourists are eating at restaurants during aperitivo time, they are missing out on the appetizer of all appetizer courses. Honestly, this is completely fine by me because it means having a more authentic Italian experience, which is becoming more difficult to find.

Colorado has been having a heat wave this July. Last Friday was 100+ degrees! I don’t know about you, but when it gets super hot, I kind of lose my appetite. The idea of trying to eat out somewhere on a super hot patio, just didn’t seem appealing. I was off last Friday and since that is normally our regular “date night” I wanted to make a special dinner instead of eating out. So, because it was hot I immediately decided that I would make gelato. That recipe will be in a separate post, and since it is generally frowned upon to only eat gelato for dinner (even though that is exactly what we ended up doing on Saturday night), I decided to just have heavy aperitivo in lieu of a dinner.

Scott has relentlessly teased me over the years for taking pictures of food while on vacation. I always incorporate these pictures in our travel books because they are a fabulous way to remind you of those wonderful meals and moments. They also serve as a great source of inspiration when you are trying to recreate a meal at home. I love the idea of recreating meals that we’ve had while traveling because I think it is the easiest way to transport yourself when you can’t actually travel (thanks COVID). So, all it took was a quick scroll through my phone to find photographic inspiration of what I wanted to create- aperitivo from Bar Frattina in Rome.

I decided to make two types of tramezzini sandwiches- tuna and artichoke, with Castlevetrano olives, Marcona almonds, chips, a quick salami and olive pizza, and pistachio gelato. The pizza is not part of aperitivo, but it was my way of making this meal a little more substantial than just appetizers. Of course, it wouldn’t be aperitivo without a nice cocktail, so I picked up ingredients for Scott (my resident mixologist) to make Aperol Spritz (recipe under separate post).

Tramezzini

Recipe courtesy of Emily Cooper

Prep Time: 10 min

Level: Easy

Serves: 2 servings

Ingredients

8 slices of small loaf thinly sliced white bread (you can also use a regular sized loaf of bread or Texas toast)

4 Tablespoons mayonaise

Small jar of artichoke hearts

Small jar of Italian tuna packed in olive oil

Slices of deli thin mozzarella or provolone cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the tuna tramezzini-

Drain most of the oil off the tuna and combine with 2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste, and any other herbs you normally like to use. I like a dash of celery salt and lots of pepper.

Spread tuna mixture onto two slices of bread and top with a plain slice of bread. Cut all the crust off the bread and slice diagonally into two triangles.

For the artichoke tramezzini-

Spread 2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise across two slices of bread. Salt and pepper to taste.

Pull about six artichoke hearts out of the jar and allow excess moisture to drain. Roughly chop the stems of the artichoke hearts and separate the leaves into bite sized pieces.

Arrange the artichokes on top of the mayonnaise. Add sliced mozzarella or provolone (optional). Cut all the crust off the bread and slice diagonally into two triangles.

For the snacks-

Use your favorite classic potato chips.

Any variety of olives, I prefer the meaty Castelvetrano or Cerignola. Olives are traditionally served with individually wrapped toothpicks or tiny plastic picks for sanitary sharing.

Choice of nuts- salted and roasted peanuts, mix nuts, or my favorite Marcona almonds. I’ve actually been able to find Marcona almonds in my local King Soopers in the Murray’s Cheese section. If you’ve never had these, I highly recommend them. They’re actually from Spain, but they are a wonderful treat.

For the pizza-

I know this is not real pizza by any sense of the word, but I needed a quick fix. I’ll share my authentic wood fired pizza recipe in another post, as it takes 24 hours alone just to make the dough.

Ingredients

1 Boboli Thin Pizza Crust

1 container of Alouette Garlic and Herbs Soft Spreadable Cheese

1 package of Genoa Salami

Castelvetrano olives

Directions

Place pre-made crust on pizza pan and spread an even layer of the Alouette cheese in lieu of sauce. Leave a one inch border for the crust of the pizza.

Slice salami pieces in half or in quarters and arrange on the surface of the pizza. You can also roll each slice of salami into a cigar shape and then cut 5-6 slices. You can unfurl these or leave them curled up. I like to leave these curled up on top of the pizza as they tend to get a little crispier and add an extra dimension of texture.

Cut olives in half and sprinkle over the top of the pizza.

Follow the baking directions on the Boboli package.

Emily’s Notes: The nice thing about aperitivo is that it can be whatever set of snacks you want. There are many variations of tramezzini- salami and cheese, spinach and cheese, I’ve even had one that was artichoke hearts and hot dogs (the artichoke version is probably my favorite, but I don’t recommend them with hot dogs). Same thing goes for the chips, nuts, and olives- customize these with your favorites. Obviously, the “pizza” can be topped with anything you like. The pistachio gelato recipe can be found under the menu heading of Recipes>Desserts and the Aperol Spritz recipe can be found under Recipes>Cocktails.

-emily