I'm a sucker for any kind of food or drink mentioned in a book, especially if it has a glamorous ring like "negroni." Did anyone else want to try the cocktail that Mrs. Stone and Paolo drank? I found this lovely recipe that calls for burnt orange. My real question, though, relates to a piece of dialog between Mrs. Stone and the contessa. The contessa is warning Mrs. Stone that Paolo is going to try to touch her heart with a sob story about a priest and a friend's lost money. Mrs. Stone says "I may be touched, but not for ten million lire! You see, Americans aren't as romantic as their motion pictures ..."
"What a pity they aren't," said the contessa sincerely.
I like how Williams added the "sincerely" here, like we couldn't just assume that she expressed herself sincerely. He had to point out that it was a genuine feeling, not meaningless small talk. The sentiment sort of endeared her to me. Did you have any reaction to it?
Original Negroni Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 oz gin
- 1 oz Campari
- 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
Combine all ingredients in an ice filled shaker. Shake until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a burnt orange. To make a burnt orange, cut about a 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch peel off a ripe navel orange. Be sure to get just the skin and as little of the pith as possible. Holding the orange peel between thumb and index fingers with skin facing out, hold a lit match over the glass and with the orange peel about an inch away from the flame squeeze the peel quickly and firmly between your fingers. When done correctly, a burst of flame will come from the oils being released from the peel leaving an aroma and adding a note of orange to the cocktail. Simply drop the twist in the drink.
This Italian concoction was invented in the early 1900s. Mixed with gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, it was named after Camillo Negroni in Florence who always ordered the same cocktail. Today Negroni is often consumed as a pre-dinner cocktail to stimulate the appetite for dinner. Aperitif is a European invention and it came to America in the early 1900s. Campari is also an Italian product, invented by Gaspare Campari in the early 1800s. http://www.cocktailtimes.com/gin/negroni.shtml
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Excellent, drinks with fire! And those orange oils are really flammable too.
ReplyDeleteI’ll have to try this drink since I’m not very familiar with Campari.
Williams packed a lot in there with quite an economy of words. It is remarkable how much and for how long world perceptions of Americans have been dominated by pop culture. The contessa isn’t honest, she doesn’t like Americans, but she sincerely likes American movies. We had no prior reason to suspect that she had any romantic susceptibilities left after her hardened life.
Campari is one of those things that I haven't developed a taste for.
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