Bellini
Recently, there was some discussion about the Bellini on a spanish-language mailing list I read. I realized that although I know the recipe, I had never actually tried one, and proceeded to correct this shameful situation.
The Bellini is one of these rare classic drinks where the origin is well-known and undisputed. It dates back to 1948, when Giuseppe Cipriani of the world-famous Harry’s Bar in Venice decided to combine the puree of white peaches with the italian sparkling wine Prosecco. The new drink was named after Giovanni Bellini, a 15th-century venetian artist whose paintings were being exhibited somewhere nearby at the time. Incidentally, Harry’s Bar also invented Carpaccio. Not many establishments can claim to have both a world-famous drink and a world-famous dish to their name.
So since peaches are in season from June to September, now’s the time to start mixing them up. The reason I had never bothered with this drink was a combination of not having any champagne around the house, and not having any peach purée either, but by coincidence I had some champagne at home when I read the discussion mentioned above. The peach purée was now the only missing ingredient.
I decided to see how difficult it is to make peach purée before trying to buy some, and I found that Darcy over at The Art of Drink had talked about this very thing back in 2005. The method just involves peaches and a couple of spoonfuls of sugar per peach in a blender at high speed. It’s as easy as it sounds, and a few minutes later I had the purée.
I should point out a couple of details for the purists out there.
First, although I’ve been talking about champagne, the actual wine used should be prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy made with a different method to the champagne method. Now, I’ve never even bought a bottle of prosecco, so there’s no chance of having that around. What I actually used was Cava, the spanish sparkling wine.
Second, the recipe specifies white peach purée. The original recipe mentions that the variety of peach used should be the italian pesca bianca, a whiteish peach that reddens near the stalk and has a white flesh. I can’t find anything similar in Spain, so I used regular peaches.
Recipe:
2 oz. White peach purée
4 oz. Prosecco (substitute Champagne if unavailable)
Pour the purée into a champagne flute and slowly add the bubbly, stirring carefully so as not to spill anything.
Notes:
Like I mention above, I didn’t actually use the original ingredients, substituting normal peaches for the white peaches, and using cava instead of prosecco. The result was not bad, although of similar-styled drinks I prefer the Mimosa, for example. Next time I’m in Venice, I’ll try it properly made…
Rating:
- Ok, but not really worth the trouble unless its a special occasion.