Peach and White Wine Sagu de Vinho

I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.

I hope to see you there.

If you want Mexican or Latin inspired cuisine, this area has you covered regarding ingredients. Asian and Indian ingredients can be a lot harder to come by.

BUT, a new Indian supermarket opened here a few weeks ago. It makes me smile just to remind myself of my new shopping option.

I recently grabbed a basket and filled it  to the brim with every ingredient I’d been missing for the past 8 months or so. One thing I quickly came across were tapioca pearls, or sago or sagu. It’s one ingredient that crosses over into Brazilian cuisine. I first learned of sagu de vinho when we lived there. If you click on that link, it will take you to a very old post from 2009 that features my first time making it at home. 

It’s a tapioca dessert, but it reminds me much more of a jello dessert. It’s a bit sticky and chewy. What tops it off is that it’s traditionally cooked with red wine. There is something about the rich wine flavor with the sweetness from juice that makes it completely unique to anything I’ve had before. 

Since I’ve made traditional sagu de vinho before, I decided to go a little crazy. This time around I made it with fresh peach juice and white wine. I used a sauvignon blanc with crisp flavor that paired well with the peaches. 

The verdict — white wine sagu is as equally delicious as red wine sagu. 

As you’ll read in that old post, most recipes call for a couple cups of sugar. I found no need to use that when making it with red wine and grape juice. This version was just a little different. I limited the sugar, but I felt it did need a little sweetening up so I added a couple tablespoons of raw sugar. If your peaches are super ripe and sweet, the extra sugar boost may not be needed. I made the juice simply by sending a few white peaches through my juicer. 

I like to eat sagu just as it gets to room temperature. It’s good cold too, but my  homemade versions usually gets a bit sticky due to all the starch in the tapioca. Either way you eat it, this is a really fun summer dessert, and if you are serving it to guests, it’s likely one no one has had before. 

What you’ll need:

16 oz. fruity white wine (I used a Sauvignon Blanc)
10 oz. fresh white or yellow peach juice
6 oz. water
1/2 cup tapioca pearls
2 tablespoons raw sugar

How to make it:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 30 to 45 minutes, until the pearls become translucent and no longer white. Stir often and adjust the heat accordingly to keep the sagu from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Transfer to a heat-safe bowl, cool and serve.