The Tomatini Cocktail Gives The Classic Bloody Mary A Run For Its Money

For too long, tomatoes have been left out of the world of cocktails. Sure, there's the Bloody Mary and its variations, like the Bloody Bulldog and the Bloody Caesar; there's also the michelada, another cocktail that relies on tomato juice, paired with crisp Mexican lager. But outside of these brunch-time drink staples, the tomato has been woefully underrepresented on cocktail menus. If you're a tomato lover seeking sweet (and savory) justice, there's another drink you need to know: The tomatini.

A tomatini takes a bit of a different approach to combining tomato juice with booze and seasonings but it's easy to shake up a pitcher (arguably easier, depending on how intricate your Bloody Marys are) since it only requires a handful of ingredients: A tomato, vodka, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. It calls for muddled and strained fresh tomatoes rather than tomato juice, so you get a drink that tastes fresher and is also lighter to sip.

Savory, food-inspired cocktails are enjoying a moment of popularity right now, so it's a great time to grab a couple of ingredients from your kitchen and introduce them to your bar cart. The tomatini is a great way to showcase fresh produce and impress your houseguests (or, you know, just yourself, that's fine, too).

Essentially, a tomatini is muddled tomato combined with liquor and some flavoring ingredients, shaken with ice, and strained into a glass. Straining excludes the fruit's pulp and seeds from the glass, so you get a clear liquid with a more-or-less homogeneous consistency. As far as what type of tomato to use, some bartenders recommend cherry tomatoes and others prefer larger ones, so just pick whichever you like best, preferably the freshest, ripest tomatoes you can find.

Tomatini recipes typically call for white balsamic vinegar to add a touch of delicate acidity that won't overpower the flavor of the tomatoes. Tomatoes and balsamic vinegar are, of course, a classic combination and make the drink a little reminiscent of a caprese salad. A touch of a sweetener such as honey or simple syrup can be added to accentuate the fruit's natural, subtle sweetness, as well as a squeeze of lemon for some extra zing and brightness.

Garnish matters here: The last step, once the drink has been poured into a glass, is to sprinkle some black pepper into it. This puts the overall flavor experience securely on the savory side, and the mild spiciness rounds out the tomatini's sweet, tangy umami notes. To give it visual appeal, top off your tomatini with a cherry tomato or three. You can score one and perch it on the rim of the glass, or you can spear several onto cocktail picks like you would olives in a martini.

What makes the tomatini great is not only is it delicious and very of the moment, but making a tomatini is practically foolproof because the recipe uses just a handful of common ingredients to create a multi-layered, complex flavor experience. And despite its simplicity, a tomatini, with its delicate pinkish-red colors, comes out looking like an expensive drink at a trendy cocktail bar. 

The basic tomatini recipe is almost as versatile as the tomato itself, making it a great template to play around with. You can switch out the vodka for another spirit (ideally a clear one, so you still get that pretty pinkish-red color), such as an herbaceous gin or a roasty, smoky mezcal. If black pepper is a little too aggressive for you, you can try white pepper or crushed pink peppercorns instead. You could use fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, or rosemary as a garnish, or muddle them with the tomatoes.

You don't have to reflexively reach for a cherry tomato to garnish a tomatini, either. If you want to add some more notes of flavor and switch up the drink's appearance,  olives, homemade pickled onions, and a classic lemon twist would all work well here. If you want to get foodie-inspired, plop in a couple of mozzarella pearls instead of cherry tomatoes for a garnish — it'll be like an appetizer in a glass. This could be another great reason to let tomatinis serve as your next tomato-inspired brunch cocktail.