Prosecco – degustare

The Tomato Spritz

Read time: 5 min.

Chefs often enjoy trying new techniques and playing with ingredients, and yes – you could go as far as saying we like to make our life a little bit complicated. But the reality is, we are truly moved by the will of improving ourselves and producing something delicious.

I’ve used my chef’s training to play with hybrid between a classic Spritz and a bloody Mary using Prosecco DOC Rosé. It’s summer and we are right at the peek of tomato season so I couldn’t resist to use fresh tomatoes for this drink, blitz with a classic pairing of basil leaves and chili for the aromatic notes. It was tricky at first to strike a balance between bitterness, acidic and salty notes, but I found that a touch of brown sugar really helped.

Difficulty:

Easy

Preparation time:

5 minutes

Process:

INGREDIENTS

  • 40 ml of spicy tomato water
  • 25 ml of Aperol
  • 2 basil leaves
  • 75 ml of Prosecco DOC Rosé
  • Ice cubes
  • Brown sugar for the rim
  • 2 Fresh basil leaves to garnish

For the tomato water

  • 500 gr of ripe tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp of brown sugar
  • 1 chili
  • 20 basil leaves
  • The juice of half a lemon
  • A pinch of salt and black pepper

PROCEDURE

This recipe will make more tomato water than you need for 1 cocktail (that would be about 40 ml). Freeze it for future use or use it in a pasta or risotto.

Rinse and cut The tomatoes into chunks. Blitz them with all the other ingredients and let it drain in a fine sieve lined with a clean kitchen towel or paper for a couple of hours. Let gravity do the work and refrain to press it or the water will turn cloudy. (I actually use the pulp left for a tasty bruschetta, it’s already dress, only olive oil is missing).

Keep in mind, the dose of sugar can be adjusted if your tomatoes aren’t very ripe and need more.

Now let’s build the drink directly into the glass.

Lightly wet the rim of the glass and coat it with a little brown sugar. Add the ice cubes than pour in the tomato water and the Aperol. Now top up with the cold Prosecco DOC rosé and very gently stir once or twice. Garnish with basil leaves and enjoy it.

 

Recipe by Danilo Cortellini

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