Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Caprese Martini!

Or, how to turn a perfectly innocent salad into booze.

I mean, who doesn’t like tomatoes and basil in a nice balsamic vinaigrette? As a martini?

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender, and I’ve got an unusual little aperitivo on the menu to start your dinner party. This martini takes a full day of prep time, but the end result is easy to pull together. It’s a tasty, fiddly treat that isn’t for every day, but is a ton of fun to make. Let’s whip up a Caprese Martini. Here’s the recipe: 

Caprese Martini

1 oz tomato basil vodka (see below)

1 oz olive oil vodka (again)

½ oz Carpano dry vermouth

3 drops balsamic vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail vessel over ice. Stir until the outside of the vessel is cold. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with two cocktail tomatoes and a mozzarella pearl. 

Olive Oil Vodka

1 ½ cups Tito’s Vodka

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine olive oil and vodka in a sealable container. Shake well. Place in the freezer for 24 hours. Strain the vodka through a coffee filter into a glass container. Store in the refrigerator until use. 

Tomato-Basil Vodka

1 ½ cups Tito’s Vodka

10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved

8-10 fresh basil leaves

Combine tomatoes, basil, and vodka in a sealable container. Refrigerate for 24 hours. Strain the vodka through a fine strainer into a glass container. Store in the refrigerator until use. 

Yes, this is a completely bonkers cocktail that you need a full day to make. It’s not really an evening sipper. There’s more than enough vodka here to make 3-4 cocktails. Pouring this for guests on a late summer evening, accompanied by some crusty bread and olives, would make a great start to a dinner party. File this one away as an elaborate party drink.

“Culinary cocktails” have been a thing in mixology bars for a while now. Generally, they refer to drinks that are inspired by food. The core idea is really useful. I’ve got a book called “The Flavor Bible” that I lean on for inspiration when I need to come up with a unique cocktail. There aren’t any recipes in the book, just food pairings — flavors that go good together. Some are obvious, but a few surprises make all the difference. If you love baking, cooking, or eating, this one’s a keeper. 

This cocktail is not “inspired by” food, however. It’s a drink that tastes exactly like food. Tomato, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar — a caprese salad in a glass. I’ve served those kinds of drinks before; one Cleveland bar I worked at served a “stadium dog” cocktail. It didn’t taste like a hotdog, but it was close … disturbingly so. Not a best seller. I like this drink far better, mostly because I believe a cocktail should not taste like animal protein. Plus, it lets me show off infusion and fat-washing, techniques we’ve talked about in prior recipes. Let’s quickly run down those techniques as we talk ingredients:

Now this is a nice appetizer right here.

Tomato and basil vodka: Just about any vodka is fine for this project. I used Tito’s because it’s light and sweet and they’re good to dogs. I wasn’t too picky about my tomatoes or basil here, either. I picked out tasty but not too pretty tomatoes at the grocery store, and ripped a few leaves from my backyard basil plant. Take your time and let the vodka do its work. The ethanol is great at stripping flavor molecules from anything fragrant, given time. 

Olive oil vodka: Fat-washing a spirit is so cool. Butter, bacon fat, olive oil — once you know the secret, they’re all great cocktail ingredients. Oil itself doesn’t carry flavor; it’s the molecules suspended in an oil that make it taste good. Shaking up vodka and a tasty fat and letting it sit for a day makes the vodka taste great. The key here is to let the oiled vodka sit in the freezer while it works. The oil will rise to the top and solidify, making it easy to strain out. 

Carpano Dry Vermouth: A martini without vermouth simply isn’t a martini, and vermouth cooperates with all the flavors in the glass. A little goes a long way here; my standard vermouth to spirit ratio in a martini is 1:6. 

Balsamic vinegar: The balsamic brings up the olive flavor in the drink and nails the profile. Be very sparing. Three drops of balsamic is plenty. Too much and the balsamic overwhelms the drink. 

Garnish: The tomatoes are an absolute must. The scent of fresh tomato as you sip the drink really helps sell the “caprese salad” nature of the cocktail. Plus, you can dip the cocktail pick into your drink and eat the garnishes, which is fun. 

In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender — donate to Wonkette at the link below!  

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