The best dinner parties have plenty of prosecco to go around. The sparkling white wine is a cheap enough choice not to break the bank but has a hint of luxury as it feels like more than just regular white wine.
Though there are cheap proseccos out there, the general rule is that the cheaper the prosecco, the worse it tastes. So, if you want a tasteful drink, then the chances are that you have spent too much money on your prosecco for the leftovers to be poured down the drain.
Instead, get the most out of your money and use your spare prosecco for something a little more creative.
5 Things to do with Leftover Prosecco
Because prosecco is just a fizzy white wine, there are plenty of ways to use leftover prosecco in the kitchen. For example:
1) Boozy Ice Cream
What is a better weekend treat than ice cream? Boozy ice cream! Pairing various alcohols with ice cream is a familiar idea, though there has been an emergence of more experimental boozy ice cream flavours in recent years.
Making ice cream at home is a lot easier than most think. You don’t even need an ice cream maker! Here is a quick method to follow for making prosecco ice cream:
- Whip It Up
Pour double cream into a large bowl and whip the cream until it has just started to thicken. - Sprinkle Some Sweetness
To elevate the natural flavour of prosecco, add a few tablespoons of sugar to the cream. Then continue to whip until the cream is wonderfully thick, forming stiff peaks. - Add Milk
Add half as much milk as the cream to the whipped double cream. Use a spatula to fold the milk into the cream. - Add Booze!
Pour the same amount of prosecco into the cream mixture as milk, folding the ingredients together again. - Freeze
Pour the mixture into a freezable, air-tight container and leave to freeze for several hours until you have perfectly creamy ice cream.
Why not go the full mile and add a couple of chopped strawberries to your prosecco ice cream?
Strawberries are often paired and served with prosecco because of how well their natural sweetness works with that of prosecco. Using strawberries with prosecco to make boozy ice cream only makes sense.
2) Prosecco-Flavoured Butter Sauce
In a similar fashion to champagne, the fizzy sweetness of prosecco makes it the ideal base for a sauce intended for fish dishes (yes, you can cook with prosecco).
Butter sauce or white wine sauce are two of the most commonly used sauces to pair with an array of seafood. Making your own prosecco-flavoured butter sauce is like combining white wine sauce and butter sauce to create the ultimate seafood dish sauce.
But how do you make a prosecco butter sauce?
Start making the butter sauce as you typically would by heating butter in a saucepan and cooking off some white onion. Then add in your prosecco and cook it at a simmer until the sauce has reduced and become slightly thicker.
This means that the alcohol has cooked out of the prosecco, which is what you want as a sauce with a high alcohol content will be too sharp and bitter.
Continue making the sauce by adding cream and your seasoning of choice. Reduce the butter sauce again until it reaches the perfect thickness.
3) White Wine Substitute
The above prosecco-flavoured butter sauce is an excellent way of bringing together two types of fish sauces.
However, if you want a more universal use for your leftover prosecco that goes beyond seafood, you can use prosecco as a substitute for white wine in almost any recipe.
Prosecco, even dry prosecco, does tend to be sweeter than most other white wines, so keep this in mind when you plan to replace the wine with prosecco. Otherwise, you can use the prosecco in a range of white wine sauces and stews.
4) Surprise Ice Cubes
Though many of these spare prosecco ideas can work fine when your prosecco has run out of bubbles, the best way to use flat prosecco is to freeze it.
More specifically, to make ice cubes out of it.
The lack of bubbles will not affect the final result. If anything, the flatness of the prosecco will make the ice cubes freeze better.
There are two ways that you can make surprise prosecco ice cubes depending on how alcoholic you would like the ice cubes to be.
You can pour the prosecco directly into the ice cube tray, filling each mould all the way to the top. Or you can fill the ice cube moulds with 50% prosecco and 50% water to help dilute the prosecco’s taste.
Allow a few hours for the prosecco ice cubes to freeze. Then you can add the ice cubes to your cocktail of choice to add a little something extra to the drink.
5) Prosecco Soaked Fruit
Whether you like fruit-topped pancakes in the morning or enjoy an after-dinner summer fruit salad, sometimes having the same fruit on repeat can be tedious. So why not use your leftover prosecco to add a little more flavour to the fruit?
Soaked fruit usually brings forth ideas of rum-soaked raisins or brandy-soaked citrus. However, sweet prosecco can pair perfectly well with sweeter fruits such as berries or citrus fruits to create a lighter-soaked fruit dish.
Pour your prosecco into a bowl and add in the fruit, then leave the fruit to soak for an hour or so. For softer fruits such as blueberries, avoid leaving them to soak for more than 2 hours, though sturdier fruits such as apples can be soaked for much longer.
Most prosecco is on the sweeter side, but if you only have dry prosecco to hand, add a little sugar to the drink before soaking your fruit. Otherwise, the fruit may turn bitter, and its natural flavours will unpleasantly clash with the dryness of the prosecco.
Leftover Prosecco FAQs
Do you still have questions about what to do with leftover prosecco? Then these FAQs might help you out:
Yes, sort of. You will need to add a low-alcohol liquid to the prosecco to help it to freeze, such as lemonade, tonic water or even plain water. Once mixed, you can then freeze it in an ice cube tray.
Like prosecco, leftover champagne can be used to make sauces, can be soaked into fruit or turned into adult ice cubes.
Acacia may be a freelance writer by day, but they are a food fanatic by night. They are always trying out new recipes or finding different ways to elevate classical dishes. But their biggest culinary aim is to educate others on the basics of the kitchen so that they too can enjoy delicious food.
