Italian Lifestyle

Peach bellini recipe: how to make Italy’s favorite bubbly cocktail

Peach bellini recipe: how to make a real bellini cocktail and the interesting story of this beloved Italian bubbly drink

Peach bellini is the original bellini cocktail.

First created in Venice in the 1940s, it is a refreshing, elegant, delicate prosecco based cocktail and it is a popular Italian cocktail usually offered as a pre-dinner drink or a celebratory toast.

Making bellini is easy however, you may find hard to get the right ingredients to make the real thing so, in this peach bellini recipe, we also give some acceptable variations.

Ingredients for original peach bellini cocktail and must-have gear

The ingredients to make peach bellini as intended by its creator are:

  • 1 part puree of white peaches from Verona, well ripe
  • 2 parts Italian spumante brut or prosecco, chilled

There are two key secrets to the perfect peach bellini. First and foremost, the peaches must be ripe and sweet, ideally with while pulp.

The second secret is the dosage peach/ bubbly: the prosecco must always be double the quantity or the peaces or the result will be too sweet and the texture too heavy.

In terms of cocktail making gear, you need:

  • A strainer (any type, you don’t need a special cocktail strainer if you don’t have one
  • A tea spoon or muddler
  • A champagne flute

How to make peach bellini

Peel the peaches, chop them to small pieces and put them in a strainer.

Put the strainer on a small cup and use your tea spoon on muddler to mash the peach pulp into a puree.

Get your flute, use the spoon to put in one part of peach puree and then add 2 parts of chilled prosecco.

If you want to add a slice of peach to decorate the glass, I recommend you get a second peach, wash it and slice it delicately, keeping the skin on for the best effect.

Serve immediately.

What sparkly wine is best for a peach bellini cocktail?

When making a peach bellini you can use:

Italian spumante – ‘spumante’ is a word used to define a category of wines from different regions and grapes, characterized by bubbles and a cock that ‘pops’ when first open.

Prosecco – Italian sparking wine from the North east of Italy, maybe the most popular drink for toasts in Italy. Prosecco is a DOC product and it is made with specific types of grapes and is subject to strict labeling rules

Champagne – a wonderful alternative for your peach bellini, which in this case you will call ‘Bellini Royal’

Can you use peach juice to make peach bellini?

If you do not have white peaches from Verona (seriously, who does?) you can use some alternatives.

The best one is to find a different variety of white peaches or fresh peach in general: usually, whatever is local to you usually works well.

The second option is to get a high quality, artisan peach nectar, fresh or bottled

Industrial peach nectar is not ideal but can still make a nice bellini, however, the cheapest peach juices from the supermarket usually don’t.

In that case, you may want to consider alternatives such as plain prosecco or a rossini, which is a bellini made with strawberries instead of peaches.

The interesting story of the bellini cocktail

The Bellini cocktails has an interesting stories that taps into two Italian excellencies: food and art.

In 1948, the city of Venice was getting ready to welcome the opening of an exhibition of paintings by Bellini, a famous Italian painter from the 1400s.

To make the occasion, Giuseppe Cipriani, owner of the famous Venetian Harry’s Bar, was given the task and honor to create a drink to serve at the opening.

To create a connection between the drink and the occasion Cipriani took inspiration for the delicate colors of the mantels in Bellini’s paintings and came up with a drink with a color to match!

The success was instantaneous and the peach bellini is still now one of the most beloved Italian cocktails for openings and celebrations.

peach bellini glasses

Peach Bellini Recipe

Yield: 1
Prep Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 1 minute

easy to make, delicious recipe to make peach bellini, one of Italy's most beloved cocktails. This is a prosecco based cocktail made with chilled prosecco and fresh peach pulp and it is perfect for celebrations, toasts and pre-dinner drinks. This is a wonderful cocktails for the festive season and the summer alike, thanks to its delicate flavor, refreshing chilled prosecco and the cheer only bubbles can bring!

Ingredients

  • 1 part White peach pulp
  • 2 parts prosecco or champagne
  • One extra slice of white peach for garnish, optional

Instructions

Peel the peach, chop it into small pieces and put them in a strainer.

Put the strainer on a small cup and use your tea spoon on muddler to mash the peach pulp into a puree.

Get your flute, use the spoon to put in one part of peach puree and then add 2 parts of chilled prosecco.

If you want to add a slice of peach to decorate the glass, I recommend you get a second peach, wash it and slice it delicately, keeping the skin on for the best effect.

Serve immediately.

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Marta Correale is an Italian mama of two. Born and raised in Rome, Marta has a passion for travel and especially enjoys showing off Italy to her kids, who are growing up to love it as much as she does! A classics graduate, teacher of Italian as a second language and family travel blogger, Marta launched Mama Loves Italy as a way to inspire, support and help curious visitors to make the most of a trip to Italy and learn about Italian culture on the way.

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