Day 138: Tomato Cocktail ♥

Not Your Mother's V-8.

Instead, this tomato cocktail is faintly sweet, almost fruity. It's frothy and refreshing. It's slightly puzzling, an enigma of scent and flavor and texture.

If you're working on Five-a-Day in Three-(Meals)-a-Day, this would be lovely at breakfast.

TOMATO COCKTAIL

Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 4 hours
Makes 3 cups


2 pounds cherry tomatoes (the tomato man reports they hold the most juice)
1 red pepper (optional)
1 leaf of fresh basil (optional)
Sugar (I used a tablespoon)
Salt (I used 1 teaspoon kosher salt)

Puree all the ingredients in a food processor until very smooth. Here the recipe and I diverged.

The Recipe: Pour the mixture into a sieve lined with cheesecloth and placed over a bowl, then bring the cheesecloth over top. Refrigerate overnight to drain. This will produce a "clear" and "pure and refreshing" sort of "chilled consomme" though "better as an alcohol-free apertif" or "palate cleanser" with a "surprising concentration of tomato flavor" and yielding a scant 2 cups.

My Version: Pour the mixture into a chinois (that I'm told isn't that but I don't yet know what else to call it), press liquid through the tiny holes into a bowl. Refrigerate the 3 cups of watermelon-colored liquid that comes through, saving what's left behind for, um, I'm not sure what yet. I have the sense that the liquid, with 3 tablespoons of corn syrup, would make an absolutely delicious tomato sorbet.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per 1/2 Cup: 44 Cal (9% from Fat, 11% from Protein, 80% from Carb); 1 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 10 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; 11 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 393 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol, Weight Watchers 0 points

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE
French Food at Home by Laura Calder, one of my top few cookbooks for two or three years now