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Christmas
Traditions
It’s that wonderful time of year! Vincenzo’s wishes you an amazing holiday season making memories with your family and friends. We love the holiday season because it also means great food and awesome beverages to enjoy.
Our family celebrates a lot of Italian traditions during the holiday season, but we also thought we would introduce some other European traditional foods from other regions such as Spain.
We’ve just covered a small portion of the diverse foods, we can’t cover everything, so make sure read our blog post for more details and then go online to delve into these great cultural traditions.
VIEW GIFT BASKETS
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A cupola shaped Italian sweet bread originally from Milan, these delicious Christmas cakes are traditionally filled with candied orange, citron, lemon zest and raisins. In some regions of Italy, they are served with crema la mascarpone – a cream made with eggs, mascarpone, and a sweet liquor.
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Panettone get their amazing flavour because of their proofing process. The proofing takes several days and involves curing the dough, which is acidic, and like the process for making sourdough. This gives the cake it’s fluffy texture. There are many variations available including plain and chocolate and can be served with sweet hot beverages or sweet wine such as Asti or Moscato d’Asti.
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TORRONE
Spanish Turron or Italian Torrone is the name for a southwester European nougat. It is usually made from honey, sugar, and egg whites, with toasted almonds or other nuts. The nougat is shaped into a round cake or a rectangular tablet and is often consumed as a traditional holiday dessert in Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
The final product can either be hard and crunchy or soft and chewy, but usually with the same ingredients. Italian Torrone is different from the Spanish version because it contains a lower ratio of nuts in the confection. They still range in texture from hard (duro) to soft and chewy (morbido) and in flavour (various citrus flavours, vanilla, etc. are added to the nougat).
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Sidra, Polvorones, & More
Check out our latest blog post for even more information about these amazing traditional desserts as well Sidra and Polvorones.
A lot of people have chosen to go the non-alcoholic route, and over the last year the number of non-alcoholic drinks has skyrocketed. You’ve probably heard of non-alcoholic beers, but now you can also get non-alcoholic scotch, whiskey, and gin.
Here is a recipe for a great non-alcoholic drink.
The Keep Sober Cocktail
Ingredients
4 ounces of high-quality Tonic Water (like Fever Tree)
1-ounce non-alcoholic gin (or skip the gin and add an extra ounce of tonic water)
¾ ounce bitter lemon syrup
1 tsp grenadine
3 full droppers of orange bitters
Instructions
Step one – in a highball glass, add lemon syrup, grenadine, and orange bitters. Secondly, fill the glass with ice and then top it with tonic water and non-alcoholic gin (optional). Give the cocktail a brief stir (you don’t want to melt the ice). Finally, garnish your creation with a lemon wheel and a cherry (optional).
Come by Vincenzo’s to pick-up high-quality tonics and bitters to take your cocktails to the next level!
HOLIDAY SEASON HOURS
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