A neighbor waved me over to his back porch about an hour before the Super Bowl started last Sunday; it was a near blissful 63 and a bright enough afternoon to almost fool you into thinking Spring might be just around the corner.
He was nursing a pork shoulder on the smoker to, from my vantage point, near perfection and offered a glass of what almost appeared to be wine over ice with an orange twist as I walked up.
He said something along the lines of “Everybody’s drinking Negroni Punch here tonight” and then blathered on as to how the Panthers were going to kick the Broncos’ ass over the next several hours.
Football talk tends to send me into a dream-filled stupor which almost always leads me to a vision of a much thinner, fitter and more tanned version of myself adroitly casting to hungry permit and tarpon just off a busy nude beach in either Belize or Cuba.
Smiling sociably, there’s no way my neighbor could realize I was mentally fly casting and flexing before a bevy of admiring and well-tanned beauties on said beach; I recall mention of quarterback ratings, season records, Manning’s sore foot and Lady Gaga drifting by like lazy tarpon working up the shoreline.
The Negroni Punch however, kept interrupting my fantasy, with the bitter Italian cocktail anchor Campari (some have called it a “violently red, bittered-up, 48-proof vermouth) adding a layer of interest that complemented the gin delightfully.
Doing a bit of research on the Negroni, there’s a strong argument out there that suggests the ratio should be two parts gin to one of Campari to one of vermouth. And there’s a crowd that suggests you should only use vermouth rosso (red).
You can experiment to suit your tastes, though start here next time you need to serve cocktails to a crowd.
1 bottle gin of your choice
1 bottle Campari
1 bottle sweet vermouthGarnish with orange or lemon twist
Mix the contents of all three equally sized bottles in a large pitcher; refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Serve in a cold glass (some insist on a chilled martini glass) with an orange or lemon twist.
Enjoy.
