Our limited edition festive cocktails have gone down a storm at Bottega and Cicchetti.

Now you can wow at home, by mixing up this festive treat, based on a classic.

Ingredients
• 3 cranberries
• orange wedge
• 2 oz Rye whiskey
• 1 oz cranberry syrup – simmer cranberries in sugar and water, refrigerate overnight, drain and use the liquid for your cranberry syrup
• 2 dashes bitters
• Sugar
• Ice

Method
1. If desired, rim glass with sugar.
2. Muddle the cranberries and orange wedge in a glass.
3. Add rye and cranberry syrup
4. Top with bitters and stir
5. Add ice

Enjoy!

Our cocktail wizards have created a tall and refreshing taste of summer for you.

Fumo’s Queen’s Kiss mixes Chase Rhubarb vodka with notes of ginger, apple and lime, poured into a tall glass over ice.

Call in and try it or have a go at home, we reckon it would be great one to enjoy in the garden.

40ml Chase Rhubarb

10ml King’s Ginger

15ml Lime Juice

50ml apple juice

Sprig of fresh rosemary

Top with ginger ale

Mix in a cocktail shaker, pour over ice and enjoy

This month’s dish is Risotto primavera with Scamorza – light, Summery and bursting with seasonal flavours:

Ingredients to serve four to five

• 500g carnaroli or arborio rice;
• 2 large shallots; 2 cloves garlic;
• 3 bunches of fresh asparagus;
• 3 handfuls of fresh peas;
• Vegetable stock;
• A knob of butter;
• Handful of grated Parmesan;
• 1 scamorza or some smoked cheddar or goat’s cheese;
• Fresh herbs – basil and flat-leaf parsley
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method
Peel and blanch the asparagus in boiling water. Reserve the blanched tips for later.

In the same water, cook all the asparagus trimmings, blend and pass through a fine sieve.

Use the remaining stock to cook your rice.

Sweat the chopped garlic and shallot in the butter without letting it colour.

Add the rice, salt and pepper and toast for three minutes, coating each grain.

Add the blended asparagus and the peas and a splash of dry white wine. Allow the wine to evaporate.

Cover the rice with the hot stock used to cook your vegetables.

Keep adding stock a ladle at a time until the risotto is cooked (the rice grains are translucent when cooked through) – approx 15 – 20 minutes depending on the rice.

Remove the pan from the heat, add a knob of butter and grated Parmesan whilst stirring continuously.

Garnish with asparagus tips and shaved scamorza. Serve with a fresh mixed salad and Italian bread.

Proud of your creation? Why not tweet a photograph of your Risotto primavera with Scamorza to @SanCarlo_Group

Available as an Easter special from Good Friday through to Easter Monday at Fumo and Cicchetti restaurants, our spring lamb cooked in hay celebrates the flavours of the new season. Delicious and healthy, roasting in hay gives the lamb a delightful smokiness whilst fresh rosemary and thyme add an aromatic touch.

Why not try our recipe at home?

Serves 2 people

Ingredients

Rack of lamb cut into 4 thick sections

A few handfuls of hay

200ml white wine

40 ml olive oil extra virgin

A few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme

5g juniper berries

5g fennel seed

20g crushed garlic with the skin left on

5 bay leaves

1 tea spoon bicarbonate of soda

salt and pepper to season

5g black pepper

Method

Place all ingredients (except hay) together in a bowl and mix

Remove and place in a dish, layer by layer, with hay between each layer

Place in the fridge to marinade for 24 hours

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees

Remove the lamb and hay from the bowl, leaving the liquid behind

Place the lamb in a roasting pan with a small amount of hay on top and underneath the lamb heat on the hob until the hay begins to smoke

Cover with a lid or foil

Place in the oven

Cook at 200 degrees for 10-12 minutes to suit your taste

Remove from the oven, drizzle with a little olive oil and chopped parsley and serve with mash, celeriac or potato gratin and green beans.

Our cocktail this month brings a little sunshine to an often grey and dreary January. The English Sunset has a tropical base with tea and ginger bringing a warming finish. It’s so good you won’t mind it being alcohol free…maybe just this once.

Ingredients

Orange juice

Pineapple juice

Ginger syrup

English breakfast tea

Top with ginger ale

Float with grenadine syrup.

Fumo’s cocktail of the month is a deliciously festive creation. Flavours of cinnamon, cloves and cardamom infuse this hot and smooth punch, perfect for a seasonal family gathering.

Ingredients

20 ml El Dorado 8

15 ml Creme de Figue

50 ml Ruby port

Dried cinnamon, 
cloves
and cardamom.

Method

Pour all the ingredients in a tea pot and heat.

Leave to infuse for a few minutes, pour and enjoy this spicy and smooth hot cocktail

This delightful summer cocktail has a Bombay Sapphire gin base with notes of watermelon, pink grapefruit, lemon and sugar syrup and is topped with an edible flower. Refreshing and pretty as a picture, it’s the perfect early evening summer cocktail. 

Here’s our recipe if you’d like to try at home, or pop into Fumo in Birmingham where we’ll be glad to serve you one right up.

Ingredients

50 ml bombay gin

30 ml sugar syrup

15 ml Fresh pink grapefruit juice

25 ml Fresh watermelon juice

10 ml yuzu citrus

20 ml Fresh lemon juice

Egg white

This month our Executive Chef Filippo Pagani brings you a very simple authentic Italian dish, rich and delicious. Onions have never tasted so good.

Spaghetti Cipolla is available on the new seasonal specials menu at our Cicchetti restaurants in Manchester and London Piccadilly and Covent Garden where it’s made with some very special Italian ingredients. Here we’ve shown you how to make a simpler version with readily available ingredients. Enjoy!

Ingredients to serve 4

4 Large white onions

80ml Olive oil

4g Bay leaf

200ml Prosecco

10g Salt and pepper

4 litre vegetable stock

320g Spaghetti

250g Chives

90g Butter

180g Castelmagno or Parmesan Cheese

Method:

Finely chop the onions and lightly fry with the bay leaves in a little olive oil until golden in colour.

Reduce the heat to a low level and add the Prosecco. Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook the onion on a very low heat for 24 hours, adding small amounts of water as needed.  You can cook for 8 hours and leave overnight and then cook again the following day if preferred.  Or, you can cook for just two hours but the flavour will be less intense.

Cook the spaghetti, drain and leave to the side.  Fry the chives and add the onion, spaghetti, butter and cheese. Stir thoroughly.

This is the simplest, and tastiest, of dishes. Of course the hardest element is the time and patience with the onions, but we can assure you it’s worth it.

Sprinkle with Parmesan and enjoy with a fresh green herb salad.

Every month, our Fumo restaurant and bars will bring you the best in seasonal cocktails for you to try at home. Here you’ll find our recipe for a great cocktail and a photo to show you how it should look, enjoy!

July, a time for garden gatherings, bbq’s and summer fun. Whatever the weather, with flavours of Sicilian blood orange and peach, our San Carlo Fumo Perfect Punch is the perfect taste of summer, if you’d rather we made it for you, pop in to Fumo in Birmingham.

Fumo’s Perfect Punch ingredients:

40ml Angostura 1919

10ml Solerno

15ml Cream de peach

Half fresh peach

60 ml Syrah (red wine)

Method:

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a glass over ice. Garnish with fresh peach slices and mint leaves.

www.sancarlofumo.co.uk