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Sweet, savoury and infused with tomato, meet our new favourite Martini.
About the cocktail
Yes, a Tomatini is exactly what it sounds like. It’s as if someone asked a perfumer to reinvent the Bloody Mary, and they delivered an elegant, sweet and sour tomato-infused Vodka Martini. If you’ve ever considered experimenting with infusing spirits, this is the place to start. Unlike the traditional Martini, the Tomatini isn’t a decades-old classic. In fact, it was created just over 10 years ago by Jimmy Barrat at the World Class bartending competition in 2012. If anyone tries to tell you that competition is the enemy of creativity, make them a Tomatini. It harnesses creative juices – literally. You might expect that a cocktail with a multitude of delicate, sweet, savoury and sour layers would be difficult to make. Ordinarily, you’d probably be right, but the Tomatini is dead simple, or at least, it’s simple once you’ve made your own tomato-infused vodka. You just need to plan a little ahead to give the vodka time to do its thing. See below for our easy tips. Our Tomatini deviates from the 2012 recipe to create a cocktail that’s understated, effective and more than a little bit sophisticated. The tomato-infused vodka gives sweet and sour, with a soft umami base note, the Champagne vinegar offers zing, and the dry vermouth brings everything into balance with its fine floral, citrusy herbaceousness. It doesn’t matter whether you say to-may-to or to-mah-to, it’s time to round up a few of these rousing red fruits (yes, they’re fruits) and make yourself a Tomatini.
Ingredients: tomato-infused vodka
2 ripe tomatoes
500mL vodka
Ingredients: Tomatini
60mL tomato-infused vodka (see method below) 15mL dry vermouth 2.5mL Champagne vinegar Glass: coupe or martini Garnish: quality olive oil
Method
To make the tomato-infused vodka, cut the tomatoes in half and score their skin
Place the tomatoes in a container in the freezer until they are frozen Take container out of the freezer and add 500mL of vodka to the frozen tomatoes, ideally fully submerging them Allow the tomatoes to thaw for about 3 hours, gently pressing the fruit every hour to ensure maximum contact with the vodka Strain the mix through a coffee filter, fine sieve or muslin cloth – this will require time as the process is slow. One way to speed it up is to set up multiple vessels and filters When the infusion has been fully strained, discard the tomatoes Store your tomato vodka in the fridge to retain the best flavour – this will keep for about 14 days To make the Tomatini, add all ingredients to a mixing glass with cubed ice Stir until chilled and diluted Carefully strain into a glass, and finish with a drizzle of quality olive oil on top
Dan’s top tips
The best tomatoes are aromatic and sweet. Think Roma, heirloom or cherry. A single Roma tomato is approximately 100g, and the infusion requires two tomatoes, so that’s 200g in total. If you opt for varieties of a different size, be sure to portion them to the same weight. Side note, if you have tomato vines and/or leaves, add them in with the fruit for extra flavour. Given the time required to freeze and then thaw the tomatoes, you may wish to speed up the filtering process. To do this, we highly recommend setting up multiple vessels and filters. If making the tomato-infused vodka sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry – once you’ve made it, you’ll have 500mL of this delicious elixir that will keep in the fridge for up to 14 days.
image credits: Shelley Horan (photographer), Bridget Wald (stylist), LSS (production).
