Everything's coming up roses: roses: rose' raspberry sorbet

Before we get into cooking, Annalena has something to say. She finally figured out a whole lot about her blog.

Someone take a guess: how many viewings of the blog have there been, since it began? Readly for this?

OVER 9000! Isn't that amazing. The most popular one: Annalena's braciole recipe.

Now, you wanna know how many comments there are?

UNDER 100.

WHERE ARE ALL OF YOU? C'mon folks, this is supposed to be an interactive blog, with people chatting back and forth. 100 out of 9000? GUYS.... Come on, make Annalena proud.

That means you, Sue. And you, Laura. And the rest of you who I know. I do take attendance you know...

Ok, to the discussion of what is going to be a three, or maybe four part series, on rose' and roses general. We start with rose', Annalena's favorite summertime drink.

Actually, Annalena likes rose' any time of year, but it somehow seems more "right" in these warm days. Usually, the alcohol content is lower, and when the food does not involve complex, heavy flavors (like tomato sauce), rose' goes well with food, if it's one of the drier rose's. Annalena really has no patience for the sweet ones.

There are some things that rose' goes naturally well with. What comes to mind immediately, are strawberries. Sliced strawberries in a glass of cold rose' is really one of those "out there" things that taste so good. Recently, I saw my friend David cut a glass of a heavy red wine with some rose', which is apparently somewhat traditional in parts of Spain (and new to me).

Well, with rose' on her mind, Annalena was looking for a dessert. NOT a rose' based dessert, but she found one anyway. And it's good.

I turn again to one of my inestimable sources, David Lebovitz' book on ice cream "The Perfect Scoop." You will recall that I wrote about his fig ice cream (which is really a gelato), a few days ago. Well, on the page right before the fig ice cream recipe, was one for this truly amazing sorbet. Three ingredients, very little equipment, and a quart of fat free pleasure follows. Let's make it.

Here are the ingredients: 2 cups of a dry rose' wine; 2/3 cup of sugar, and 3 clamshells of raspberries (you know the containers I mean: they hold a cup. Annalena thinks they are more like scallop shells, but who's to argue with tradition here?). David says that you can use frozen raspberries to make this, and I suppose you could. What I will say is that the complexity of the flavor that came out of this simple triad of ingredients is something that I do not think would come forward with frozen fruit. So, as raspberry season is at its first peak (there will be another one in the fall), make it now.

It ain't hard. Put the two cups of wine and the sugar in a pot and heat it, stirring, until the sugar melts. When that happens, take it off the heat, and add the raspberries.

Now let it cool. When it has, puree this in a food processor or blender. Then, strain it through a colander or sieve or something. I am not adverse to the seeds, but there was an awful lot of "crap" in my mix when it was finished, and I was glad that I strained it.

You will have nearly a quart of sorbet base. Chill it, and freeze it in your ice cream maker (one thing Annalena would like to know is if she has inspired any of you to buy an ice cream maker and make your own).

Given the high content of alcohol here (it doesn't cook off), this will never harden to a truly "hard" form, but it will get past slushy, to a texture that literally does melt in your mouth.

This is going on the plate with the fig ice cream, with a white peach rose' champagne sorbet (here's a test: if I get enough comments, I'll post the sorbet recipe . If not, nope), and a lovely rose geranium cake.

"Honey, everything's coming up roses." Yeah, I know you fellow TQs know that one. So, let's all sing together, in big, robust voices: FOR ME! FOR ME! FOR ME!