My second favorite cocktail and hands down the most complex and interesting of the three-ingredient cocktails is the Negroni. I had never heard of it (though it's apparently more than a hundred years old having jumped the pond from Italy) in the mid aughts when Tony Bourdain ordered one after an event at the 92nd St. Y.
I'd been moderating of panel composed of him, Eric Ripert and Gabrielle Hamilton, during which I asked a lot of questions, and yet I did not ask him at the restaurant after, "Dude, what's with the pink drink?" I sipped my martini quietly but made sure order a negroni next time around.
Indeed, it proved to be revelatory, what with bitter aromatic campari offset by the sweet vermouth and the heady gin. It has since found, of course, a regular rotation in the evening cocktail repertoire. (Traditionally, a negroni is equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari. I find this too sweet, and the Campari too strong so I like to dilute these two elixers with extra gin.)
A small gift relative to the greater gifts he brought to me with millions of others. It was we drank the last time I saw him. Gabrielle and her wife Ashley Merriman brought a big batch of Negroni's to his memorial, bless them.
Nearly two years gone and still the missing is too great to look at head on. So instead, I look today ti Tony's first book. I read Kitchen Confidential when it came out in 1999, when I was working with Thomas Keller who was kind of a Bourdain antithesis, with his precision, cleanliness, professionalism, and paradigm-shifiting food.
Curious about this Bourdain fellow, nevertheless, I picked up Bone In the Throat. I was only a few pages in, when I read a passage describing three cooks arguing about beurre blanc. Now this was how cooks talked to one another. When I read that passage I thought, this guy is the real deal.
I'm learning more and more how deep an imposter complex he had. He always told me he was happy to get as much out of this ride as possible before people wised up. But I didn't really know how deep it went. And he just grew and grew. Not one gram of an imposter in that whole lanky frame. How we could all use his intelligence and his big fat mouth right now.
This Friday Cocktail is dedicated to Bourdain and The Negroni.
The Negroni
Ingredients
- 2 ounces gin
- 1 ounce sweet vermouth
- 1 ounce Campari
- 1 orange twist
Instructions
- Combine the liquids in a glass, add ice and garnish with the orange twist.
- Now wasn't that easy?
My go to, love it with Aperol as well, though I’m sure it’s then called something else. Great story, thank-you. I’ll have one tonight!
My husband’s fave, next time he makes one I’ll try it. And raise a toast to Tony.
My friends Jen and Lois are hosting a Zoom cocktail hour every Friday. They've converted their basement into what looks like a 1950s party. Tonight they celebrated egg whites and made the VTR sour from Ruhlman's Twenty. Then I ordered it from Amazon, and now they're forcing me to make bread (like I have flour and yeast). But I'll try (without the good Dutch oven) because I'm going to Heinen's tomorrow to buy Lurpak - because if I'm going to gain all of the weight, it should be with good, European butter.
nice!
Try it with Tequila instead of Gin. Awesome. I had it in the islands. It’s called a Tegroni. Slice of orange instead of twist. It’s another level of happiness.
is there a name for this?
The Rosita!
I tried this--don't see the point (unless you have no whiskey or gin of course!)
I shall have to try the Negroni. You already turned my on to The Velvet Tango Roomm (now a mandatory stop when I am in Cleveland), so I am excited to see what they do with it.
Wrong recipe, 1 ounce gin, 1
ounce vermouth, 1 ounce campari, any other combination is not Negroni
Disagree. While I admit, write and say that a negroni is equal parts of each, altering the amounts of one of the ingredients does not alter its name, only its taste, and effects. Were you to change an ingredeint--say replacing gin with vodka--it necessitates a name change.
Agreed. A Negroni is one thing--it is what is stated above. Other iterations may be delightful, but they aren't a Negroni. The porportions are a key part of this cocktail.
**proportions
The Negroni is absolutely one of my favorite cocktails. I discovered it completely by accident at the spectacularly restored Streamliner Bar @ Union Station in L.A.. I have since tinkered with the recipe a bit as well replacing sweet vermouth with dry vermouth so as not to be quite so sweet (heresy right?). As far as I can ascertain any number of amari besides Campari can be used for the bitter component with my favorite being Cynar (the low proof version).
I had one every afternoon at a tiny Bar in Castello, Venezia for the entire 2nd half of January sadly likely to be our last trip abroad for the foreseeable future.
1 part each Vermouth, Good Gin & Cynar still works its magic for me & brings me 1/2 way across the world in with a single sip.
Thank you for sharing. I started trying these out when I saw Anthony drinking them and singing their praises.
I’ll have one more for him.