Recipes

Blackberry Sangiovese Coulis

Coulis is simply the French word for a puréed fruit or vegetable sauce. Straining out the blackberry seeds makes the purée smooth. You can use this wine-and-berry sauce to garnish baked apples or drizzle over Italian pork sausages and polenta. For dessert, pair it with brownies, or simply serve it over vanilla ice cream and sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts.
Spend enough money to buy a wine you’d actually want to drink for the coulis, as it is also a versatile base for cocktails. Put a couple of tablespoons of coulis at the bottom of a champagne flute, add prosecco or sparkling wine, and raise a toast to the fruits of summer.

Ingredients

¾ cup Sangiovese, or other young, fruity red wine
6 Tbsp. sugar, or to taste
1 heaping pint basket of blackberries (approximately 3 cups)

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the wine and sugar to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Once sugar is dissolved, add the berries. Bring back to a simmer as quickly as possible (cooking the wine and berries too long will alter their flavor too much). Simmer, don’t boil, for 3 minutes. Take the saucepan off the heat and let the berries cool in the wine syrup.
Place berries and wine syrup in a blender and blend until the mixture is a smooth purée. Put a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and pour the berry mixture through. Use a soup ladle or a rubber spatula to push the sauce through the sieve. Discard remaining seeds.
If freezing the purée, put it into a small freezer bag or plastic container. Press excess air out of the bag. If using a container, lay plastic wrap directly on the purée before putting on the lid. This will reduce freezer burn.

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