Apericena: menus, ideas and recipes to organize an aperitif at your home!
The aperitif, halfway between an aperitif and a dinner, is becoming an increasingly fashionable trend. There are many places that organize aperitifs, enjoying great success both in the larger cities and in the smaller centers.
On the other hand, it is a fun and creative solution capable of maintaining all the liveliness and a certain disengagement typical of the aperitif, but with the advantage of filling you up as if it were a real dinner. The aperitif, with its rich and varied buffet, represents an excellent opportunity to meet with friends, drink one or more glasses and chat while enjoying delicacies and delicious recipes without the formality of a dinner.
But how to organize an aperitif at home? What menu to prepare? With our advice and suggestions (after, of course, having looked more closely at the meaning of this word), you too can organize a fantastic aperitif to spend a nice evening with friends!
Apericena: what is the meaning of this word?
The meaning of "apericena" is easily deduced from the name itself: it is a neologism formed by the words aperitif + dinner and indicates a meal that takes place during aperitif time, but as a substitute for dinner itself, because it is richer and more abundant of the classic aperitif.
The aperitif menu generally consists of a buffet with various types of savory and / or sweet snacks. young people. Born in Northern Italy, the apericena quickly spread to clubs all over Italy. Why not take it to your home too?
How to organize an aperitif at your home
The aperitif is the ideal solution if you want to spend a nice evening with friends without having to prepare a formal dinner, with the table set for each guest. With an aperitif you can limit yourself to preparing a buffet and invite a greater number of people than those who your table would have expected!
The ideal would be to be able to prepare a bar area to welcome guests, without chairs, in which to drink a first glass (perhaps a nice cocktail) and nibble on snacks, in this case strictly finger food. Then, in another area, you can arrange the actual buffet, in which you will have to provide a place for each guest (counting both the places on a sofa or armchair and the possible addition of chairs).
If your living room (or garden or terrace) has enough space, you could organize the buffet on different tables: on one side the area with cold dishes, on the other the one for hot dishes and finally a "last one for fruit and sweets. . If it is a more formal / elegant aperitif, avoid plastic cutlery and plates: they would be a fall in style!
Another very important rule for organizing an aperitif at your home is to present the dishes in the simplest and most ready-to-eat way: fruit, for example, must already be peeled and cut into small pieces, a sweet or savory cake already brought to the table divided into slices.
With an aperitif you end up saving on food compared to a traditional dinner.Then focus on high quality drinks, especially as regards the wine with which to accompany the buffet, possibly both white and red. At the entrance, instead, offer a welcome cocktail: you can focus on the classic Spritz, a Bloody Mary, a Cocktail monk ... Here are some ideas and some timeless cocktail recipes:
See also: All cocktails: the recipes of the timeless classics
Ideas and recipes for an aperitif with a buffet menu
A part of the menu of your aperitif can be made up, as we said, of finger food. These are small portions of food to be taken directly with your hands, excellent appetizers to accompany the welcome cocktail, waiting to move on to the actual buffet.
Prepare finger food that is not only good, but also choreographic. For example, the mini-portions arranged in small glasses are very elegant, in which you could put, for example, a ham and pistachio mousse, or a goat cheese with smoked salmon and almonds, or a quiver of broad beans, a tzatziki or a caprese with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Let your imagination run free!
Then can not miss the canapes: even in this case, there are many possible combinations. What do you think, for example, of a canapé with avocado and shrimp, or one with butter and anchovies, or with vitel tonnè? Also excellent are the rolls of bresaola with vegetables, small baskets of puff pastry with seafood salad inside, or even some savory puff pastries. Here is the recipe for you:
Inside the buffet, then, there will be the most disparate dishes. Generally, with the transition to wine, cold cuts of various kinds and cheese cannot be missing. for example, mix speck and apple wedges, cheddar and grape berries, asparagus wrapped in bacon. The same goes for cheeses: gorgonzola is excellent with dates, goat cheese with endive, feta with melon.
Free your imagination also with salads: fennel and pink grapefruit; rocket, pear, parmesan and walnuts; radicchio, hazelnuts and scamorza ... The more colorful and cheerful the better! To be served with excellent baked bruschetta. Here is the recipe for you:
Among the different vegetables that you can prepare, perhaps to be accompanied with small pizzas or homemade focaccia, there are mixed grilled or baked ones, those au gratin with cheese, spinach in a pan, roasted potatoes roasted in their skins and flavored with rosemary, or some excellent baked avocado:
Then there should be more substantial, hot and cold courses. For this second type, we advise you to prepare a pasta salad, or a nice couscous or, again, vegetable hummus with pinzimonio. Without forgetting the real protagonists of the aperitif: the savory pies!
Among the hot dishes, on the other hand, bet everything on a nice first course (for example, a risotto), or a second course (a roast with potatoes is always welcome)!
Finally, don't forget to set up a corner with sweets and fruit. A cake cut into slices will be fine, but it could be more elegant to prepare small spoon desserts in this case too, such as small glasses with tiramisu inside, or yogurt with honey or panna cotta or creme caramel or, even a chocolate mousse or some sorbet. And good appetite!
