Recipe: Cara Devine’s Bespoke Bellini Is Perfect for Every Season

If Cara Devine’s first book Strong, Bitter and Sweet was a crash course in cocktail basics, her new one, Behind the Home Bar, is an essential guide to making those drinks your own.

“At every bar I’ve ever worked in, there are always two folders,” the expert bartender and Goodwater co-owner tells Broadsheet. “One is for cocktail recipes, the other is for prep recipes that show you how to make the ingredients for those final cocktails.

“The idea was to share some bartender’s secrets on how to prepare all those fruits, herbs and veggies to use in drinks and create something interesting and new.”

Like a good cocktail bar’s folder system, Behind the Home Bar is split into two sections. The first includes 25 recipes for syrups, cordials, bitters, shrubs and more, designed to elevate your home cocktail bar. The second part of the book features 20 cocktail recipes in which to deploy the recipes from part one.

The Bespoke Bellini encapsulates the spirit of the book. Prosecco is spiked with homemade pear and peach puree in this particular recipe, but Devine says the Bellini format – invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, in 1948 – is “ripe for switching up with seasonal fruit”.

“If you go to the market and find a tray of fruit for $10, you can grab that whole thing and make a syrup, a puree, then freeze some of it in ice cubes,” she says. “Nowadays people are into the whole idea of meal prepping. Why not apply that same thinking to cocktails?”

For a non-alcoholic option, swap out sparkling wine for dry ginger ale or club soda. If you’re making a large quantity at once, mix in a larger jug first and allow to settle before pouring into individual glasses.

Cara Devine’s Bespoke Bellini

Makes 1 serving (Approx. one standard drink)

Ingredients

45ml (1½oz) pear and chamomile puree (see below)
120ml (4oz) dry sparkling wine
Cubed ice
Dehydrated pear, to garnish (optional)

For the puree
500g (1lb 2oz) pears
100ml (3½oz) light-flavoured honey, to taste
100ml (3½oz) brewed chamomile tea
pinch salt
½ teaspoon ascorbic or citric acid (optional)

Method

Peel, core and chop pears roughly. If using fresh pears, wait until they’re properly ripe or poach them lightly beforehand so they’re soft enough to blend. If using tinned pears, look for ones in juice rather than syrup (or replace the sugar in the recipe with syrup from the tin to taste).

Meanwhile, brew the chamomile tea according to the packet instructions. Use either loose leaf or a teabag and remove just before blending.

Warm honey slightly so it’s pourable.

Add puree ingredients to a blender and blitz until smooth. The puree will be thicker than a syrup or a shrub but should still be pourable. You can add the tea in stages, if you like, to make sure you achieve the desired texture.

Add the puree to a glass and slowly pour in the sparkling wine. Stir to combine.

Add ice and garnish with dehydrated pear, if using.

This is an edited extract from Behind the Home Bar by Cara Devine, published by Hardie Grant Books. Available in stores nationally. Photography by Gareth Sobey.

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