[:it]How Italian is the American?[:]

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It's Italian, it's called American, it's made only with local products. All in all, this classic cocktail doesn't look bad in its "onomastic inconsistency", if we really wanted to define it that way.

As often happens with cocktails born in the last century, it is difficult to understand where the name of this drink comes from, which became so famous during the 1900s that it is now one of the most consumed in Italy and in the world.

Some say that this "exotic" name derives from the way the cocktail is served, which is offered in a low tumbler with ice, in the American way. Still others maintain that the name was coined in honor of Primo Carnera, an Italian boxer so well known in the United States that he was nicknamed "The American".

Whatever the real origin of the name, this cocktail is in itself a summa of two philosophies of Italian drinking, the two aperitifs par excellence which also represent the cities of origin: the Vermouth of Turin and the Campari of Milan.

Here is the recipe for making a perfect Americano:

3 cl Bitter Campari

3 cl Red Vermouth

soda

Lemon peel

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Place the ingredients in an "old fashioned" glass with ice cubes, shake, add the soda and garnish with lemon zest.

The lineage, in this case, is much simpler to discover than the origin of the name: the Americano is undoubtedly an evolution of the very famous Milano Torino cocktail, whose initials, not surprisingly, give the name to our guide. The recipe for Milano Torino, however, was slightly different and not only because the cocktail was strictly served neat:

3 cl Punt & Mes

3 cl Bitter Campari

Lemon peel

– 

Place the ingredients in a mixing glass, mix, transfer to a tall glass and garnish with lemon zest.

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