You might think that no recipe could live up to this title. It’s a reasonable presumption, but thank God, a wrong one. This is heaven on the plate: the wine-soused raspberries take on a stained glass, lucent red, their very raspberry-ness enhanced; the soft, translucently pale coral just-set jelly in which they sit has a heady, floral fragrance that could make a grateful eater weep.
from Nigella Lawson’s “Forever Summer” recipe book
1 bottle Chardonnay, choose a good fruity variety. I love to use “Milou” French Chardonnay at $15.99 per bottle
12oz (300g) raspberries
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
5 gelatine leaves
9oz (250g) caster sugar
8oz double/heavy cream, to serve
Place the wine and berries in a bowl and allow to steep for half an hour at least.
Strain the wine into a saucepan and keep the raspberries to one side. Heat the wine with vanilla pod until nearly boiling and leave to steep on one side for 15 minutes.
Soak the gelatine leaves – which you can find in the supermarket these days – in cold water for about 5 minutes.
Remove the vanilla pod and reheat the wine stirring the sugar in until it dissolves; allow to boil if you want to lose the alcohol.
Add a third of the hot wine to the wrung-out gelatine leaves in a measuring jug and stir to dissolve, then add this mixture back into the rest of the wine and stir well. Strain into a large jug.
Place the raspberries, equally, into 6 flattish, clear glass serving bowls, and pour the strained wine over the top.
Allow to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours, though a day would be fine if you want to make this well ahead, and take out of the fridge 40 minutes before serving.
Serve with some double cream in a pitcher, and let people pour this into the fragrant, tender, fruit-jewelled jelly as they eat.