Champagne risotto

For ➋
1 small stick of celery,  chopped
2 white of leeks, chopped*
75 g unsalted butter
35 cl champagne*
1 ts olive oil
60 cl chicken (or vegetable) stock
250 g carnaroli or arborio rice
35 g Parmigiano, grated
ground white pepper

Chop the celery and the white part of the leeks very finely.  Melt 50 g of the butter with the oil in a wide saucepan and cook gently until softened. In another saucepan, pour in 20 cl of the champagne and all of the chicken stock, and keep on a very low simmer nearby to your risotto.
When the vegetables are soft, tip in the rice and turn in the oil until slicked and glossy. Turn up the heat, pour in the remaining champagne and, stirring all the time, let it be bubblingly absorbed.
Turn down the heat slightly but not too low, and keep adding ladles of champagney stock, letting one ladleful be absorbed before adding the next, stirring all the while.
Once the rice is cooked (18-20 m), stop, even if you’ve got some stock left over. Equally, if the rice has absorbed all the stock and yet needs further cooking, add a little more, or if it’s just a very little more you think you need, boiling water will do.
Off the heat, beat in the remaining butter and the Parmigiano`; Season with a good grinding of white pepper if possible to keep it looking pure and unspeckled.

*Or a good prosecco. Or a good white wine.
*Or 4 big scallions.

Read the tip on making a quick risotto.

Red negroni

For ➊
4 cl gin
4 cl Campari
4 cl sweet (red) vermouth

In a mixing glass, add ingredients and cracked ice. Stir for at least 15 s.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Twist an orange peel and garnish.

The negroni was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni. Count Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water.
The 'negroni sbagliato' ("wrong negroni" in Italian) uses sparkling wine (e.g., prosecco) instead of gin.
Negroski is a recipe with vodka again as substitute for gin.
Cardinaloski is a negroski with some angostura drops.
Punt e Mes negroni instead replaces standard red vermouth with a specific, distinctively more bitter-tasting brand called Punt e Mes.
The cin cyn uses Cynar an artichoke based liquor, instead of Campari.
Pinkish negroni is made with pink wine (instead of gin).
A raultini is a variation using Aperol instead of Campari, giving its distinctive orange color, lighter alcohol content, and a bit of sweetness.
The most basic variation is served straight up in a martini glass with a splash of carbonated water floating on top of the alcohol mixture and a twist of lemon zest replacing the orange peel, known as the American version.
Other Italian versions substitute spumante brut or vodka for gin. A sparkling negroni is made with champagne or prosecco.

French 75

For ➊ cocktail
6 cl London dry gin or cognac or brandy
1 ts superfine sugar or 1.5 cl simple syrup
1.5 cl lemon juice
15 cl brut champagne or a good sparkling wine

Fill ½ a chilled shaker with cracked ice. Shake well. Then strain into a Collins glass half-full of cracked ice and top off with champagne.

Named after the 75-millimeter M1897, a light gun with a vicious rate of fire, the mainstay of the French field artillery in World War I. The drink was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris, later Harry's New York Bar, by barman Harry MacElhone. The French 75, or Soixante-quinze was popularized in America at the Stork Club in New York.
(Some stories claim it was invented for the fighter pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, made up of French and American aces. The story goes that they began toasting their fallen comrades with champagne but soon started to fortify the drink with something more potent. Lacking whiskey, the Americans opted for the more readily accessible Cognac. Others argue the drink was instead invented by the British who during World War I received a daily gin ration and began adding it to the locally available Champagne. This gin version is the recipe that first appeared in print, and is the best known French 75 recipe.)
The version with cognac with brandy or cognac yields a King's Peg, although often recipes for these omit the lemon and sugar.
You can use a champagne flute for esthetics.
Drawing by Jacques Tardi in 'Putain de guerre'.

Spritz (Italian light cocktail)

For ➊
3 parts  white wine, sparkling wine like prosecco or spumante preferred, cooled
2 parts  aperitivo like Aperol (or Campari for a more bitter taste), cooled
2 parts  selzer or soda water, cooled
a slice of orange (or lemon when using a strong aperitivo)
some ice

Pour the wine and the aperitivo in a tumbler or stemmed wine glass. Add sparkling water (from a syphon if available). Add some ice and a slice of orange.

Serve with small bites of Italian snacks.

When Austria reigned the North of Italy, they developed a habit of diluting the wine with water, called 'Spritzer'. Italians rethought the formula by adding a bitter aperitivo to (sparkling) white wine, and tipping it with a splash of sparkling water, hence the Austrian name 'Spritz' or 'injection'. The typical Venetian spritz has 3 equal parts of each ingredient, other recipes tend to use 40% of wine, and 30% each of water and aperitivo. When using a sparkling wine and a low alcoholic aperitivo like Aperol, you can omit the sparkling water or limit it to a splash, 6 cl wine, 4 cl Aperol, splash of soda, the classic recipe of Aperol since 1950.
Normally, a red/orange aperitivo is used, but it can be replaced by others, like Cynar, or even the  orange-based curaçao blue (resulting in a blue cocktail).