Green Tomato Martini
Updated Aug. 19, 2025
- Total Time
- 40 minutes, plus chilling
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes, plus chilling
- Cook Time
- 35 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Ice
- 2ounces London dry gin
- 1ounce green tomato water (see Tip)
- ½ ounce blanc vermouth
- ½ ounce dry vermouth
- Pickled green tomato or lemon twist, to finish if desired
Preparation
- Step 1
Freeze a martini or Nick and Nora glass for at least 15 minutes and up to an hour. (You can also fill the glass with ice and water, stir for 30 seconds, pour out the ice and water, and pour the finished drink into the now-chilled glass.)
- Step 2
In a cocktail shaker or mixing glass filled with ice, combine the gin, green tomato water, blanc vermouth and dry vermouth. Stir until very cold, about 30 seconds, then strain into the chilled cocktail glass. If serving with a pickled green tomato, thread a skewer through it, add to the glass and serve.
- To make the green tomato water, combine 1 pound coarsely chopped, very ripe heirloom green tomatoes and ½ teaspoon fine salt in a medium bowl. Set aside for 20 to 30 minutes, then transfer the tomatoes and any released juices to a blender or food processor and pulse until a purée forms. In a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth, strain mixture into a bowl overnight in the refrigerator. Do not stir or press on the solids. The next day, discard the solids. Tomato water will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
Private Notes
Comments
Absolutely do not “discard the solids.” An Italian Nonna (or a grandma of any other ethnicity) would consider that foolishly wasteful. Instead, make passato di pomodoro (tomato purée) by adding back tomato water to the solids, a little at a time, until you get the liquidness you want/need. For example, add tomato water until you have a tomato sauce consistency and use it in Marcella Hazan’s famous recipe. The result is the best pasta you can imagine.
I’ve been making tomato martinis for years, very similarly (though I do not use any vermouth other than the dry). I grate tomatoes for other uses and strain them through a sieve, saving the tomato water and then salting it to taste. Then I refrigerate for 24 hours or so until the salt has really infused the tomato water. I also make sure to keep a small jar of strained tomato water in the freezer all summer and add about half of any new batch to that jar. Voilà, fresh tomato martinis in winter!
@Jon C I have mad red tomato water and frozen it. Mine was still good after several months
Not sure what I did “wrong” - the recipe reads deliciously, the end result tasted like stomach acid.
If they are at all blushing to red, then you can ripen them in a paper bag or box. If they are all green and no longer on the plant then there is no way to ripen them. @rkinny
I made it with red tomatoes, sue me. Grated the tomato to speed up juicing time and reduce solids from the skin. Delicious!