Prickly Pear Sorbet with Wild Mint

La storia di questo piatto

Prickly pear and wild mint, two plants of the sun-scorched south, meet here in a spoonful of cold sweetness. It is a home-style sorbet, born of Sicilian summers rather than ancient recipe books, where the fico d'India grows by the roadside and mint thrives wherever there is a little shade.

Ingredienti

• 1000 g Ripe prickly pears (gross weight, about 500 g of clean pulp)
• 180 g Granulated sugar
• 200 ml Filtered water
• 50 ml Fresh lemon juice
• 20 leaves Fresh mint (wild mint, mentuccia)
• 8 leaves Small mint leaves for garnish

Preparazione

1. Chill the prickly pears in the refrigerator for an hour (or in cold water): when cold they peel more easily. Handle them with thick gloves or with a fork and knife, never with bare hands, nor with kitchen paper alone, which does not protect against the fine spines. Cut off both ends, score the skin lengthwise and peel it off, then rinse the pulp under cold water. Blend the pulp until smooth and pass it through a fine sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to retain the seeds. You should obtain about 450-500 g of purée.
2. Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan, add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Turn off the heat, add the 20 mint leaves (mentuccia) and cover. Leave to infuse until the syrup is lukewarm, about 30 minutes. Strain, discarding the leaves.
3. Combine the prickly pear purée with the strained mint syrup and mix until uniform. Add the lemon juice and stir again. Transfer the mixture to a container, cover it and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until about 4 °C: a well-chilled mixture churns better and has a finer texture.
4. Pour the cold mixture into the ice cream maker and churn for 20-25 minutes, until creamy and compact. Without an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a tray and freeze for about 2 hours, until semi-frozen. Transfer it to a food processor or blend with an immersion blender until smooth, then return it to the freezer for another 30 minutes.
5. Let the sorbet stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then scoop it into well-chilled bowls. Garnish with a fresh mint leaf and serve immediately, before it starts to melt. For the garnish use only mentuccia or spearmint: avoid pennyroyal (pulegium), which contains pulegone and is toxic.