Tonight Oisin Davis of Great Irish Beverages puts his spin on the Bellini featured in Mae West's 1937 film 'Everyday's A Holiday'...
He says 'The movie "Everyday's a Holiday" features that famous line, "You should get out of those wet clothes and into a dry Martini." That of course made me want to prepare and make a Martini for tonight's show, but then I remembered that we've already done dry Martinis a few times. Apparently Mae knocks back a few Bellinis in this movie too so -that made me think about creating a few of those bad boys.
The Bellini is actually a rare enough thing in cocktails in that we actually know who first created it. A fella by the name of Giuseppe Cipriani from Harry's Bar came up with it. The original contains peach puree and Prosecco and it's pink colour reminded him of painting by Giovanni Bellini, hence the name.
There are loads of variations of this drink and this one here has got some lovely fresh red currants and basil. It goes a little something like this....'
REDCURRANT & BASIL BELLINI
INGREDIENTS:
20 ml redcurrant syrup (make this by cooking redcurrants into sugar syrup)
3 basil leaves
1 glass of prosecco
METHOD:
Chill a flute glass. Place the syrup into a shaker with the basil and some ice. Seal and shake it for 15 seconds. Fine strain into the glass and then top up with prosecco. Stir and serve.
