Carrabba's Blackberry Sangria

Home reconstruction

The version people make at home is blackberries dropped into a jug of wine. After four hours it is wine with some fruit in it — pale, barely flavoured, and nothing like the deep purple thing that arrives at the table.

The fruit has to be cooked into a syrup first. Blackberry skin holds its colour and its flavour in cells that steeping in cold wine does not break open. Four minutes on the hob does.

What the syrup is doing

Heat ruptures the cell walls, which releases the anthocyanins — the pigment — and the acids and sugars behind the flavour. It also dissolves the sugar you are adding, which cold wine will not do properly.

You end up with a concentrated purple base that colours and flavours the whole jug immediately, instead of a slow leach that never quite gets there.

Strain the seeds out. Blackberry seeds are unpleasant in a drink and they do not soften.

Why white wine, not red

This is the thing that catches people. Traditional sangria is red, and a blackberry sangria sounds like it should be doubly so. But the colour is coming from the fruit, and a red wine base makes it muddy and heavy rather than vivid.

Use a dry white — pinot grigio is the obvious choice in an Italian-American restaurant. The wine's job here is acidity and structure. The fruit does the colour.

What you need

For the blackberry syrup

• 340 g blackberries, fresh or frozen
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 60 ml water

For the sangria

• 1 bottle (750 ml) dry white wine, chilled
• 120 ml brandy
• 60 ml triple sec
• 240 ml lemonade or soda water, to finish
• 1 lemon and 1 orange, sliced
• a handful of blackberries, to serve

Method

1. Blackberries, sugar and water into a small pan.
2. Simmer 4–5 minutes, pressing the fruit against the side of the pan as it softens, until the liquid is deep purple.
3. Strain through a sieve, pressing the pulp to get everything out. Discard the seeds and skins.
4. Cool the syrup completely. Warm syrup into cold wine cooks off the aromatics you paid for.
5. Combine the syrup, wine, brandy and triple sec in a jug with the citrus slices.
6. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.
7. Top with lemonade or soda and fresh blackberries as you serve, not before.

The soda goes in last

Add it to the jug at the start and it is flat before anyone drinks it. It is there for lift at the moment of serving.

The same applies to the fresh berries. Left in overnight they go grey and soft and sink.

Adjusting the sweetness

100 g of sugar in the syrup gives a sangria that reads fruity rather than sweet, which is about right for a restaurant version served with food. Blackberries vary a lot, so taste the syrup before it goes in — very tart fruit may want another tablespoon.

If the finished jug is too sweet, more wine rather than more water. Water dilutes the colour along with everything else.

Storing

Two days in the fridge, without the soda and fresh berries. The citrus slices turn bitter after about a day, so fish them out if it is going to sit.

The syrup on its own keeps two weeks refrigerated and is worth making double.