One of the great moments in life, for a typical Italian, is to share a passion with friends and family, happy as well as bitter. There are many great moments in my life that led to my love affair with Italian bitters. 

Amaro literally means “bitter.” It is a bittersweet, herbal liqueur that is traditionally enjoyed before dinner as an aperitivo, to stimulate the appetite, or more often, after a meal as a digestivo, to digest and calm the belly after possibly eating too much pasta!

Each amaro has its own history, but originally, they were bittersweet herbal tinctures created by medieval monks and pharmacists for their medicinal properties. Merchants, like Salvatore Averna, started commercializing them in the 1800s, and they have been an integral part of Italian gastronomic culture ever since. There are as many varieties of amaro as there are regions where they were created due to differences in the herbs and spices, roots and bark, fruits, nuts and berries that were available.

When I was a child, my mother served arriving female dinner guests Anisette while the men received the harder stuff like Fernet-Branca, Cynar or whiskey. I dipped my finger in Anisette and discovered that I liked the licorice flavor. We were not allowed to drink alcohol, but this was the prequel to many future “bitter” moments.

My journey exploring bitter drinks began in 2005 when visiting relatives in our hometown of Civitanova del Sannio. Upon our arrival, Zia Gigina offered us a few choices. I chose a biondo aperitivo, a non-alcoholic glowing orange bitter drink with vanilla-laced sweetness and herbal undertones that I absolutely loved.

At a festival in San Vito lo Capo in 2016, I tasted Vecchio Amaro del Capo, the very popular liquore d’erbe di Calabria. With its 29 ingredients featuring the bittersweet taste of oranges and infusions of orange blossoms, chamomile, licorice, peppermint, aniseed and more, it quickly became my favorite, and I had to bring a bottle back to the U.S.!

My go-to afternoon aperitivo on every trip I have made to Italy is the ubiquitous Spritz, typically made with Aperol. On my most recent visit, however, I discovered that I had been missing out on something special - Spritz made with Campari, that unmistakably bright red amaro more bitter than Aperol. My new favorite. Delizioso!

My love of bitters spurred me to try my hand at making my own Italian liqueurs, beginning first with limoncello, because it looked the simplest to make. There are lemon trees everywhere in my neighborhood in L.A. and everyone shares their harvest, so I had the best organic home-grown lemons for making liqueurs. Success! Loquat trees also grow in abundance here and I read that the seeds make a very good-tasting liqueur, in Italy called Nespolino. I found recipes using just the fruit, the fruit and seeds or the dried seeds only, some with and some without the skins. I made mine with just the dried seeds, skin on, a lemon peel and a vanilla bean pod and a sugar syrup to sweeten it. Surprisingly, it turned out to have a nutty-like almond aroma similar to amaretto. I will try again with next season’s loquats using orange peel and cinnamon. 

The alcohol content of any amaro can vary considerably depending on what base is used. When making liqueur, one can use neutral alcohol, brandy or vodka. The French vodka I use is 40% alcohol or 80 Proof. From my experience, Everclear, a 95% grain alcohol, because of its neutral profile, better “extracts” the substances from the fruits, herbs and spices that are infused, to give it a deeper taste and body.

Many of the Italian bitters like Grappa and Campari have two substances chinotto and cascarilla. If I can find chinotto oranges, harvested typically between April and May in California, with their bittersweet, herbal aroma, I can infuse a new more bitter flavor into my homemade liqueurs. Cascarilla is another plant in which the aromatic bark is used for flavoring in aperitivis. I read that it is liable to cause giddiness and symptoms of intoxication. That might explain why, when my sister Beatrice and I play Scopa and drink shots of Grappa, we end up getting goofy and laughing until our sides ache. Another great “bitter” moment!