Should my old blog not be forgot…

Yes, friends, I'm squeaking in under the wire, after an absence of four months and one day, to get a year end drink posted for you all. I love you, I miss you, and I have been entirely too lax in posting here. What can I say? I frequently work late hours and sometimes it's either too difficult or I'm just to lazy to put up a new drink. Can you find it in your hearts to forgive me? Auld acquaintance and all that?

So, it's New Year's Eve. Tomorrow is 1/1/11. And it's nearly 50°F and foggy here. This is unseasonably warm for Wisconsin at the tail end of the year. And so I figured I could give you guys a drink tonight that's equally unseasonable.

This is usually a summer drink, but it's made with sparkling wine, which is rather apropos for tonight. However, usually it's not champagne but prosecco that goes into this one…

Sbagliato

1 oz Campari (I used some of my Luxardo Bitter instead)
1 oz sweet vermouth (Noilly Prat is my go-to)
4 oz prosecco (you'll want something light and fairly dry)

Stir the Campari/Bitter and sweet vermouth with a large block of ice, and gently top with the prosecco.

"Sbagliato" is an Italian word meaning "wrong" or "mistaken." In this case, it refers to the wrongness of this drink…it's a Negroni made with prosecco instead of gin. However, there's nothing mistaken about how good the drink is…the sweetly dry nature of the prosecco tempers the bitterness of the Campari and lets the botanical notes come out a little more. It's still not a sweet drink, as, say, a Bellini or Mimosa or Bucks Fizz would be, but it's refreshing in a bracing sort of way, like a tart lemonade would be. Rather at odds with what most Midwesterners like me expect the end of the year to be, but festively-colored enough to fit right in.

Happy New Year to you, my wonderful readers (well, except you. No, not you, that other one. You know who you are). I hope to get things back on track a bit more in 2011.