The Bicicletta is the easy aperitif to serve at your last-minute dinner party
If you have a bottle of white wine handy, you’re halfway to making this cool and casual sipper
A pre-dinner drink is a lovely touch when you’re hosting a dinner party, but if you’re thinking “who has time / didn’t you just say last minute / don’t you want me to brush my hair instead?” we say, we get it. White wine is a perfectly fine thing to offer guests as they settle in. But if you have a bottle of white wine handy, you’re halfway to making this cool and casual sipper. Smooth out that hair and make a recipe that instructs one to simply ‘slosh’ and ‘top up’? This is a case where we think we can have it all.
Bicicletta
By Kate Hawkings
A generous slug of Campari with white wine in a wine glass and perhaps a splash of soda water: the Bicicletta is a classic and very easy Italian aperitif with very good reason. Supposedly named in acknowledgement of the gentlemen who’d weave home on their bicycles after one too many at their local bar, it’s a nifty way of covering the shame of a dreary pinot grigio or other cheap white wine. Don’t drown it out with too much soda; just make sure the Campari and wine come straight from the fridge. Another store-cupboard aperitif that’s easy to get a taste for.
Ingredients
- Splash of Campari
- Dry white wine
- Soda water (optional)
- Lemon slice, to garnish
Preparation
Slosh the Campari to a wine glass and top up with chilled white wine. Add a splash of soda water if liked. Garnish with a slice of lemon.
Excerpted Aperitif by Kate Hawkings. Recipes Copyright © 2018. Excerpted by permission of Quadrille. All rights reserved.