Nettle and Quince

The secret, not so surprisingly, is butter.

This gooseberry sauce is closely linked to one of my favourite cakes, which I have yet to record here. It is a simple five-ingredient-recipe almond cake, from Imen McDonnell’s excellent book Farmette. I have made this cake more times than I can recall, I love it, and I think it truly soars served alongside very tart fruit. Often I have accompanied it with rhubarb compote, which pairs very well, but a couple of years ago in June, during their blink-of-an-eye season, I decided gooseberries.

Which is how the almond cake led me to the luscious secret of gooseberry sauce — butter.

The idea comes from the Riverford Farm Cookbook that I picked up by happenstance nearly ten years ago as a memory from a trip to Devon. It is still a book I turn to for easy inspiration with fruit and vegetables. I leant on the recipe for ‘Gooseberry Sauce for Oily Fish or Pork’ which is barely sweetened and delectably tart. It goes so well with the sweet almond cake.

Gooseberry sauce idea from the Riverford Farm Cookbook

400g gooseberries
2 Tbsps butter
2 Tbsps sugar

Wash and top and tail the gooseberries.

Place the gooseberries, knob of butter, and sugar in a smallish saucepan and cook over medium to low heat until the gooseberries have burst, to be somewhere between a sauce and a compote.

Let cool before serving, ideally with almond cake.

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