Passport & Plate - Rhubarb and Vanilla Bellini
Italy | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 3 photos
Ingredients
For the rhubarb puree:
250g forced rhubarb cut into 2.5cm / 1" long lengths
25g caster sugar
1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped into the sugar
50ml white wine
For each cocktail:
2 tbsp puree (made from mixture above)
Sparkling wine or Prosecco
Twist of orange peel
Quarter of an orange
caster sugar in a bowl wide enough to allow for the rim of a fluted glass
How to prepare this recipeFirstly prepare the rhubarb puree:
Mix the puree ingredients in an oven-proof dish and roast at 180C / 350F for 20 minutes or until the rhubarb is thoroughly soft and has produced a lovely syrupy juice.
Allow the mixture to cool and then push the contents through a fine sieve. It will make enough for approx. 6 cocktails.
To make the cocktail:
Rub the orange quarter around the rim of a fluted glass and then dip the rim into the bowl of caster sugar. Squeeze the rest of the orange into the bottom of the glass. Add 2 tbsp of the rhubarb puree and then top with Prosecco.
Drink and enjoy a bit of Italian summer in an English spring!
The story behind this recipeI can remember distinctly the Bellini that changed my opinion on fruity cocktails. It happened not in a sumptuous cafe in Venice, the home of this ingeniously simple yet effective aperitif, but whilst slumped on a cheap plastic chair on a patch of gravel that was the "terrace" of the only bar in an unknown town somewhere south of the Amalfi coast. We'd been swimming all day, not out of any virtuous pursuit of health, nor to off-set the sugary chocolate spread filled bomboloni - that despite the exotic name are basically a doughnut you can justify for breakfast. No, we had been swimming to escape the relentless heat and as the sun went down the heat refused to dissipate, turning instead into a humidity I thought impossible on the coast, assuming naively that we would be cooled by gentle sea breezes.
And so, to escape the heat and the walk back up the hill to our little villa we took refuge at the local bar. Neither of us fancied beer and so asked the cheerful waiter (who remained miraculously without even a sheen of perspiration while we dripped embarrassingly with salt from both sea and sweat) to bring us something refreshing by necessity, local by preference. He returned moments later with two flutes of amber sparkling liquid and explained that they were Bellini made from the over-ripe peaches in his mothers garden and the local sparkling wine.
My first sip was a revelation of how local flavours can so obviously impact a drink I had dismissed as a bland international standard. The peach puree was heady and honey-scented and the perfect foil for the sparkling wine that was slightly salty, no doubt from vines and soil battered by the sea winds I so longed for.
We drank them all evening, snacking on the stale nibbles the waiter kept leaving and forgetting the dinner we planned to make at home. As we staggered back up the hill I vowed to find something from my own garden to use for my very own local version to get us through the months until the next holiday.
