Vendredi soir. Cinq heures. The spritz for anyone who has quietly had enough of Aperol.
The Hugo comes from South Tyrol, up where Italy stops speaking Italian and starts speaking German. A bartender there built it around elderflower and mint in the mid-2000s, and it spread across Italy and Austria without ever quite crossing the ocean. There is no bitterness anywhere in it. Just something floral and cold and dangerously easy on a warm evening.
The salad comes from the opposite end of the country. Alps to Sicily in one sitting.
The Hugo Spritz
Ingredients
- 1 oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur
- 4 oz Prosecco
- 1 oz soda water
- Fresh mint sprig
- Lime wheel
- Ice
Method
- Put a sprig of mint in a large wine glass and add the St-Germain.
- Muddle once, gently, just enough to wake the mint up.
- Fill with ice.
- Top with Prosecco and soda water. Stir gently.
- Garnish with more mint and a lime wheel.
A note: one press on the mint, not five. Bruised mint turns grassy and the whole glass goes with it.
The Bite - Sicilian Orange Salad
Ingredients
- 3 oranges, peeled and sliced into rounds
- ½ fennel bulb, finely sliced
- ½ cup mixed pitted olives
- ½ shallot, finely sliced
- ¼ cup flat parsley leaves, chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp balsamic
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
Method
- Lay the orange rounds out on a large platter.
- Scatter over the fennel, olives, and shallot.
- Whisk the oil with both vinegars, then stir through the parsley and chilli.
- Dress the salad just before serving and toss gently.
A note: ten minutes and no cooking at all. Slice the fennel as thin as you have patience for; it is the difference between a salad and a pile.
The Dress
The Vivi in Cerulean Embroidery. Cotton in a blue that sits somewhere between an Alpine sky and a Sicilian one, with white cross-stitch worked by hand across the bodice and along the straps. High square neckline, smocked waist, sleeveless, pockets. A limited run, because embroidery done by hand does not scale.
Which makes it the one dress that can stand between the Alps and Sicily without picking a side. The mint and the elderflower belong to the north, the oranges and the chilli to the south, and the Vivi is perfectly happy to travel.
A drink, a bite, a dress. À vendredi.
