My lovely friends Natalee and Alex hosted an Italian themed dinner party last night. They had brought back gorgeous delights from Tuscany from spicy chorizo, gammon to Tuscan wines.
We started the evening with an amazing sunny cocktail called 'The Ervy' created by Ervina. If you are thinking I could do with a punchy cocktail, then you'll love The Ervy.
The star ingredient is Limoncello liquer which is an Italian alcohol based on lemons. It is amazing added with champagne or as a digestive inbetween courses.
Ingredients
1 shot Limoncello
1/2 shot vodka
1/2 lime halved
1 teaspoon raw sugar (optional)
150ml pink apple lemonade
Methods
Add the Limoncello and vodka into a cocktail shaker. Squeeze juice of lime and add the lime quarters into the shaker. Next add the sugar if using and the lemonade. Shake. In a glass add ice and pour this delicious sunny party cocktail drink. Your guests will simply love it. We did!
For a healthy start we feasted on fruit such as grapes, strawberries and melon with Italian proscuitto. This is an excellent way of enjoying the summer's heat the healthy Italian way.
The Italian themed night would not have been the same without Prosecco! We love bubbles and we paired this with a gorgeous chorizo based quiche. We even threw in wild hibiscus for a sweet touch into the prosecco. It tasted like raspberries and was sourced from travels down under to Australia.
Limoncello was the perfect digestive on the rocks. I loved it's gorgeous beach worthy yellow. It was perfect under the sun and really was golden glamour for an Italian themed meal.
The meal was finally sealed with homemade pizza. The dough was prepped 48 hours in advance, rolled then topped with olive oil, fresh basil & rosemary. Variations of this pizza were toppings such as sliced bell peppers, mozarella, salami and a rich tomato paste.
The only way to survive an Italian themed evening is to eat a little bit of everything. Taste and savour each bite then concentrate on the stimulating conversation, not the food.
I believe gorgeous prawns served with ink squid pasta followed for the absolute final dish! Not surprisingly we were too stuffed for dessert which was crème brûlée. It must be tough leading the high life if you dined like this every night, but for us Italian lovers, this meal got us into the swing of glorious Italian themed dinner parties!
Have a fantastic week lovely readers. What do you serve for an Italian themed dinner party?
