Raspberry Sauce

A three-ingredient dessert sauce that depends almost entirely on the quality of the preserved fruit. The whole technique is in the three-minute boil.

• Preserved raspberriesMost likely raspberries put up in sugar, whether canned in syrup or as a thicker preserve; the small quantity, two tablespoons to a cup of sugar, suggests something concentrated. A seedless raspberry preserve or thawed frozen berries with their juice will stand in; with a very sweet jam you may want less sugar in the syrup.
• The three-minute boilOne cup sugar to half a cup water boiled for about three minutes will reduce to a light syrup, though how far it goes depends on the pan and the heat; the recipe names no temperature or stage. Boil it much longer and it thickens toward a candy syrup; stop too soon and it stays thin on the plate.
• Add the fruit off the heatAdding the fruit -- the recipe does not say whether the berries go in on or off the heat; stirring them into the syrup once it is off the boil will preserve more of their shape and colour.
• YieldRoughly a cup, enough for four to six servings poured over ice cream or a frozen pudding.
• SeedsRaspberry seeds are noticeable in a smooth frozen dessert. Press the finished sauce through a fine sieve if the texture matters to you; you will lose perhaps a tablespoon of volume.
• Serving temperatureServe cool but not cold. Straight from the refrigerator the syrup thickens and sits in a lump on the ice cream rather than running.
• KeepingRefrigerated in a covered jar it holds a week or more, being essentially sugar syrup. Crystals may form on the surface if the syrup was boiled hard or disturbed as it cooled; a teaspoon of water stirred in over low heat will dissolve them.