Tomato Grappatini Modifications

Today I got a whole flat of delicious, organic heirloom tomatoes. Since I had just posted it, Melanie and I set on the tomato grappatini recipe with a vengeance. I think I have it perfected, except for the color. I will get a bottle of Rosso Antiqua and see if that works. I also want to try sweet vermouth, but there is only so much experimenting with potent grappa cocktails one can do in a day. I basically develop cocktail recipes in a progressive fashion: I start with the simplest thing and add as I sip. Therefore, when I get to the end of one cocktail, I stop, which is about a good limit on a hot day (unless we are talking gin and tonic. We aren’t talking gin and tonic, are we?).

I basically made a raw tomato and basil juice, as described in the earlier recipe, but I was out of coffee filters ( I rarely drink drip coffee), so I used cheesecloth, which did not quite filter it to clear. So I had what looked like pink grapefruit juice. Fine. I can work with that. So I put one shot of it in the shaker with one shot of grappa and a dash of extra dry vermouth and stirred. It tasted pretty good, but needed acidity, so I added some freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice. Just about there, so I did the olive oil finish. Yum (but not the best looking, I admit). The color was not attractive, so I added a couple of dashes of angostura bitters. Excellent for the flavor, and helped with the color. Further experimentation did not yield happy results, although nothing as to make it undrinkable. Swell. Tomorrow I will experiment with sweet vermouth and rue flavor instead of basil. Full report later.

Right now I am making arista on a wood fire, which will be served with the gazpacho I made as a result of having a lot of tomato pulp around.