It's summer, and fresh raspberries are at their peak. I can remember picking wild raspberries as a kid at my grandparents' cabin, and those raspberries seemed to taste a thousand times better than any raspberries I ate before. Even though fall is on its way, you can still find raspberries being sold at farmer's markets around the country.
A classic combination of flavor is raspberry with chocolate. Well, let's face it, most fruits are better with chocolate. But I can't think of a prettier way to dress up your sexy cake than with even sexier raspberry sauce. And after I make this sauce, I promise to never describe another food as "sexy" again.
Start out with a pint of sexy raspberries. You could use sexy frozen raspberries, too.
Hey. Gotta make it count while I can.
Just because I wanted to show it off, here's my canister of vanilla sugar.
... sexy vanilla sugar?
Okay, okay. I'll stop. For real this time.
Sprinkle the sugar over the berries.
Next, zest half a lemon.
Just a hint--it's much easier to zest a whole lemon. If your recipe calls for both zest and juice, like this one does, do the zest first and then cut the lemon for the juice.
Also, when zesting, be sure to zest only the yellow part. The inner white part of the rind, called the pith, is bitter.
Squeeze the juice from half a lemon. Be sure to check for seeds. And be sure not to squirt yourself in the eye.
Yumm.
Put your raspberries over medium heat and use your spatula, spoon, or old-school potato masher to crush your berries.
Let everything simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Make yourself a piece of toast with raspberry jam if you're craving jam now. I know I was.
Once your sauce has cooked thoroughly, it's time to strain out the seeds. Trust me. You don't want extra "crunchies" in your sauce.
Check out my pathetic little sieve. I used to have a big sieve that would have made quick work of this sauce--but "someone" stole it to strain leaves and grass out of The Kid's inflatable pool and hasn't bought me a replacement yet.
That's okay. Now I have a reason to visit a cooking store--new springform pan and new sieve!
Once you've forced out as much of the juice as you can, this is what you'll be left with. A big ball of pulp.
But you'll also have this. The sweet, sweet berry-goodness nectar.
Use it over ice cream, instead of syrup on pancakes, or ... you guessed it ... your Sexy, Silky Bittersweet Chocolate Cake!
Recipe: Raspberry Sauce
1 pint raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
zest from 1/2 a lemon
juice from 1/2 a lemon
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat at a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain seeds from sauce.
Serve!
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