Raspberry Belini

I learned recently that a Bellini was originally an Italian cocktail made with Prosecco and peach purée. Legend has it that it originated at Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. 🍑🍾 I should have known.  Venice is one of the coolest places that I've ever travelled to.  

The food and the drinks in Venice were just as amazing as I imagined they would be.  Linguini with clams, margherita pizza, fresh seafood platters and tiramisu - all of it - incredible.   

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Oh, and the Italian wine - not so bad either. 😅🍷

I'm just a little disappointed that didn't know about the infamous Harry's Bar belini before I went to Venice.  (The bar is still open, by the way - I checked. 😉). But now that I know that the birthplace of the belini is in Venice - I think I need to go back and make a stop at Harry's Bar.🥂. Until next time, Venice.  

A classic belini is made with peach puree and Prosecco and even though I live in the peach state - I've had terrible luck getting good peaches this summer.  So, I decided to swap the peaches out for raspberries and make a raspberry belini.  Trust me when I tell you that it was just as deliciously refreshing as it looked.  

Raspberry Belini
½ cup raspberry sauce 
1-2 teaspoon simply syrup
1 Tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 bottle rosé/pink champagne or sparkling wine
Fresh raspberries
Fresh mint leaves

Make raspberry puree by microwaving raspberries on high for 4 minutes.  Press through strainer. 

Stir lemon juice and simple syrup into the raspberry sauce. 

Spoon 1 T. raspberry mixture into each champagne glass.  

Fill glass with champagne.  

Garnish with fresh raspberries and mint.

The original recipe for this red belini wasn't very sweet.  Probably because I chose a dry champagne to pair with my tart fruit instead of a sweet sparkling wine.  This may have been the perfect combination for some people but I tend to like my drinks on the sweeter side so I added a teaspoon of simple syrup to my belini.  It was just enough to make my raspberry belini the perfect combination of sweet and sour. 

​Ciao!

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