book review: spritz by talia baiocchi and leslie pariseau.

Is it weird that I enjoy reading / leafing through / collecting cocktail recipe books? Maybe it is a little, since I don't drink very much at all. But I've always been interested in looking through cocktail recipe books. I guess it makes me feel fancy? I have a few very vintage "Old Mr. Boston" cocktail recipe books I found by chance at a used bookstore one time, and I think that may be what got me hooked on them.

So, naturally, I was drawn to Spritz: Italy's Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes
by Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau. The physical book itself satisfies my old-cocktail-book-collecting little heart. It very much has the look and feel of a vintage drink recipe book. And what's inside is even better!

Spritz begins with a fun delve into the history of the spritz, basically a mixed drink consisting of some variation involving wine with sparkling / soda water and other ingredients. It's meant to be a low-alcohol beverage to be consumed at the beginning of the evening (if you're all fancy and care about which beverage you drink when). I really enjoyed the history lesson, which was breezy, informative, and enlightening--kind of like an Alton Brown treatment on the subject. And something about the idea of the spritz definitely calls out to me--could be the low-alcohol portion, or perhaps it's the self-indulgent idea of making a wine beverage fancier. Oh la la, am I right?

Then came the section of collected drink recipes, which covered more traditional spritzes to funkier twists. I decided to try my hand at a sort of combination of a couple of the recipes, based on what I had on hand at home: dry red wine, mandarin flavored soda water, pineapple juice, and lime juice. It was similar to the "Sangrita" recipe on page 120, and it was definitely tasty.

The last section of the book shares some related recipes for nibbles to go along with your fancy spritzes at your aperitivo table. Many sound quite yummy--I will have to try the ricotta, prosciutto, and fresh seasonal fruit crostini for a future movie night with my bestie. The fare in this book is right up her alley.

So, Spritz is definitely a winner for me! Want to know more? Check it out:

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**Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, all opinions are my own!