Bellini
Creamy peach purée and crisp Prosecco bubbles meet in one of Venice’s most elegant glasses.
Ingredients
- Prosecco, ice-cold100 ml
- Peach purée, fresh peach purée, passed through a fine sieve60 ml
- Peach, thin slice, for garnish (optional)1 slice
Method
- Briefly blanch the peaches in boiling water so the skins slip off easily.
- Remove the stones and dice the flesh.
- Blend the peach flesh into a perfectly smooth purée, then pass it through a fine sieve for a silky texture.
- Chill the purée for at least 30 minutes.
- Pour the chilled peach purée into a chilled champagne glass.
- Carefully add the ice-cold Prosecco down the side of the glass to preserve its bubbles.
- Stir gently with a bar spoon, garnish with a thin peach slice if you wish, and serve at once.
Credit Harry's Bar, Venice
About this drink
The Bellini was created in the late 1940s at Harry’s Bar in Venice by Giuseppe Cipriani, who named it after painter Giovanni Bellini because of the drink’s soft pink hue. It is built on white peaches, in season in Veneto during summer, pressed into a silky purée and lifted by chilled Prosecco. The simplicity is the point: two ingredients allowed to speak for themselves.
Questions and answers
Can you make a Bellini without fresh peaches?
Good bottled peach purée or nectar is a fine shortcut. Choose one without added sugar so you can control the sweetness yourself — fresh, ripe peaches give the most floral flavour, but are not essential.
Why should the peach purée be strained and chilled?
Straining removes fibres, so the drink is silky rather than grainy, and chilled purée means the Prosecco does not lose its fizz when the two meet. Warm purée in cold bubbles is a quick route to a flat drink.
Can you make the peach purée ahead?
Yes — the purée keeps for a couple of days in the fridge and makes serving much faster. Only combine it with Prosecco just before serving, otherwise the bubbles disappear along the way.