u/bethanweston

Another dinner disguised as a martini apparently 😭 This time I wanted to do carbonara. I didn’t have guanciale, so we went pancetta instead, with a pepper vermouth and Parmesan crisp.

🍝 Pancetta fat-washed vodka
Around 50g pancetta
Around 150ml Hepple Wheat Vodka
Cook the pancetta until the fat has properly rendered, pour over the vodka and leave together before freezing overnight. Remove the solid fat the next day and strain through a coffee filter until clear.

🍝 Black pepper vermouth
Mixed peppercorns
Around 150ml dry vermouth
I honestly eyeballed this one. Added the peppercorns to a container, topped up with vermouth and left it in the fridge overnight before straining.

🍝 For the martini
60ml pancetta fat-washed vodka
50ml black pepper vermouth
Stir with plenty of ice until freezing cold and strain into a frozen glass.

🍝 Parmesan crisp
Finely grated Parmesan
Cracked black pepper
Spread the Parmesan onto a lined tray, add plenty of black pepper and bake for around 10 minutes until crisp. Leave to cool and use as the garnish.

Salty, silky, peppery and super savoury.

More weird savoury drinks here if anyone’s interested:
instagram.com/bethanweston

Recently went to New York as an English girl and had the BEST time drinking my way around some of the top cocktail bars 🫶 We’ve got some amazing bars in the UK too, but NYC was another level with the sheer amount of them in such a small place.

One I cannot stop thinking about is the Portobello Risotto, it’s the one on the right in the drinks photo, and I’ve attached the menu for context!

I’m a sucker for anything foamy anyway, but it had the most incredible truffley smell and was just SO good.

Now I really want to play around with mushroomy, umami flavours at home ✨ Has anyone tried any weird spirits, infusions or flavour combos that worked really well? Would love some ideas!

I also recently got this ridiculous hand-blown mushroom glass, so I feel like I’m now obliged to make something for it 🍄