There are whole aisles devoted to it in French supermarkets. So, what is it? Well, it’s like an extra course at lunch or dinner. It can be the whole evening’s entertainment if hosting friends who eat a big lunch. We were once invited for apero at 7pm and we didn’t get home till 11pm.
Aperitif, you might think, is a glass of something old-fashioned when your auntie’s over and your Mum is showing off. Well, it’s kinda like that. You can make it whatever you want. Your Auntie can have a sherry, Graham his pastis, Elie his whisky and Etiennette her Suze. The alternative is a bottle or two of something fizzy, with or without cassis to make Kir. I rather favour this last approach as it gets everyone served at the same time.
The nibbles are the thing that sets this apart from the dish of peanuts left over from Christmas and the salt-and-vinegar crisps that never look good on the coffee table. Apero is an event!
I have noticed that each of our French friends has a different approach. Maria loves the tins of spicy Spanish seafood and serves that with some bread and stuffed olives. Georgette favours baked pastry bites of tomato and goats cheese, with a platter of smoked salmon. Jo has his own almond trees so produces the most delicious roasted and salted nuts with, perhaps, a little plate of spicy dry sausage. Not a Hoola Hoop in sight!
It’s quite acceptable to bring out the shop-bought spreads, savoury biscuits, individually wrapped cheeses, as long as it’s not those foil-covered triangular ones in a round box! People will appreciate the presentation, which is where you need to put the effort.
Be warned! It’s easy to over-cater and over-eat. If you are making an evening of it, and you and your guests have all eaten well during the day and are therefore not expecting a formal meal, then people will expect a greater number of dishes, or a greater volume of the few that you are presenting. If, on the other hand, it’s pre-meal tit-bits then don’t present too much. People will be polite and munch away, only to be embarrassed by not doing justice to the main event, the meal.
This Bacon and Olive Cake is quite heavy, so you don’t need much. Cut it into fingers and eat sitting in the sun (if you can). A plate of salami, some cherry tomatoes and some little biscuits topped with cheese, and you’re set for an authentic Apero.
Bacon and Olive Aperitif Cake
1½ cups flour
1½ tsps baking powder
½ tsp ground pepper
3 x eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup plus 1 Tbsp butter, melted
⅔ cup olives black, stoned and chopped
4 ounces lardons, fried
1 cup Gruyere or Cheddar cheese, grated
Pinch of salt
½ tsp herbes de Provence
Heat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC.
Butter and flour a loaf tin.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, and stir the in pepper.
Beat the eggs into the flour.
Beat in the melted butter.
Stir in the remaining ingredients to distribute evenly.
Spoon the batter into the tin and bake for 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool slightly. Remove from tin.
Slice and serve with other Apero nibbles
Recipe by Chrissie Walker © 2018