Receta Summer Punch- My Best Recipe for Sangria
Beverages
1 Jun 2013
Summer is about to show its pretty little face. Here in Los Angeles we are drowning in sunshine. May Gray and June Gloom showed up in April this year. Sunny skies and the happy faces around me put me in the mood to pull out my favorite recipe for sangria. I don’t do that unless I have a serious summer bee in my bonnet.
My recipe for sangria is not really mine. I adapted it from Susan Spungen several summers ago. It’s hardly traditional. Purists might even prefer to call this a summer punch. But the word sangria is so associated with summer that the bee in my bonnet refuses to call this libation anything but sangria. I think this version is perfect for simple summer entertaining precisely because it’s so simple. It’s also light, refreshing and made with quality ingredients. I’ve seen many a recipe for sangria that call for any old wine boldly spiked with cheap brandy– evoking memories of Boone’s Farm. I like the this recipe for sangria because it features rosé wine and is fortified with the lighter touch of elderflower liqueur. Which adds a luxurious floral whiff– perfectly suited for summer (and the bees in my bonnet).
Traditionally sangria is a red wine punch originating in the south of Spain, where it’s often called zurra. It developed as a red wine punch because the conquering Romans believed that red grape varietals produced the best wine. Thus red grapes were planted wherever they would grow in the Roman Empire. Red wine sangria (named after blood) became the accepted version. These days red wine sangria in the heat of summer too often spells headache to me. You know the headache I mean– The Hangover Headache. But sangria does not have to be sickly sweetened and stretched out with cheap wine, these are modern times and our choices are far greater.
Ingredients
- 3 pound mixed stone-fruit such as plums, necatarines and peaches, divided
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 rosé (750-ml bottles)
- 1 ½ cup St. Germain
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 25 fresh cherries halved and pitted
- sparkling water as needed
Directions
Make the fruit purée: Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Using the tip of a paring knife, make 2 shallow 1″ cuts to form an X on the bottom of 1 pound of the mixed-fruit. Add fruit to water and cook just until skin begins to pucker at the X, about 30 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer fruit to a medium bowl of ice water; let cool. Using a paring knife and your fingers to peel the fruit. Halve, pit, and coarsely chop.
Place peeled, chopped fruit in a mini-processor or blender; add lemon juice. Purée until smooth. Transfer to a large pitcher.
Make the sangria: Add rosé and elderflower liqueur to fruit purée in pitcher; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Halve and pit the remaining mixed unpeeled stone-fruit. Then cut it into ½″ wedges. Add the cut mixed stone-fruit and the halved, pitted cherries to the pitcher. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
Fill glasses with ice; pour in sangria and fruit to fill glasses 2/3 full. Top with sparkling water. Stir and serve.
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