Fragole all’aceto balsamico (Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar)

Name: Fragole all’aceto balsamico (Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar)
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 500 g/1 lb. strawberries; 2-3 Tbs. superfine caster sugar; A drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon juice; Balsamic vinegar (q.b.)

Frank29 April 2016dessert/dolci, Emilia-Romagna41 Comments

As I’ve written about before, dessert in our house tends to be nothing but a piece of fruit. But once in a while, I like to jazz things up a bit. And, truth be told, even if they usually look appetizing, most fruit in these times of industrial agriculture needs help in the flavor department. Strawberries are a case in point. A juicy, sweet, ruby red ripe strawberry is a miracle of nature. The ones you’re likely to find in the typical supermarket, however plump and ripe they may look on the shelf, turn out to be underripe and almost tasteless when you bite into them. It’s a story reminiscent of what’s happened to the tomato.

One easy and effective way to coax some flavor out of mediocre fruits is to macerate them. In this classic dessert from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar, the usual Italian method for macerating fruit in sugar and lemon juice, which we’ve seen in our post on Italian Fruit Salad, is taken up a notch in the simplest but most exquisite way: with a drizzle of fine balsamic vinegar. It’ll turn even the most insipid supermarket strawberries into something worth eating, good strawberries into something remarkable. And if you’re lucky enough to have access to wild strawberries—fragoline di bosco in Italian—you’re in for a superb treat.

If you’ve never tasted real balsamic vinegar, it will be a revelation

If you’ve never real tasted balsamic vinegar, it will be a revelation—syrupy, glossy and deep brown in color, with rich and complex, almost smokey sweet and sour flavor, balsamic vinegar is unlike any vinegar you’ve ever tasted before. Sadly, it has been a victim of its own success. Balsamic vinegar became so popular after it was introduced into the US and elsewhere in the late 1970s that pretty soon cheap imitations appeared. What most people know as “balsamic vinegar” today is not the real thing at all. And there was a point—was it back in the 1980s?—that balsamic vinegar got drizzled on just about every restaurant dish from appetizer to dessert, as a lazy way to signal “refinement” to customers. Allergic as I am to food as fashion, that turned me off to balsamic vinegar for years.

More recently I’ve begun to reconsider. After all, aceto balsamico tradizionale has been around for nearly a thousand years. The fact it became a fad, then faded, tells us nothing, really, about its true merits. The very best traditionally made balsamic vinegar can be prohibitively expensive, but there are decent, middle-range brands that are affordable for every day cooking. You just need to take some care about what you’re buying. See the Notes below for background.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

500g/1 lb. strawberries
2-3 Tbs. superfine caster sugar
A drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Balsamic vinegar, q.b.

Directions

Trim the strawberries of their tops. If they are large, cut them into halves or, if they are very large, into quarters. If they are fairly small, you can leave them whole.

Place the strawberries in a mixing bowl and toss them with the sugar and a drizzle of lemon juice, just enough to moisten them. Let them macerate for about 20-30 minutes, or until the sugar has completely melted and the strawberries have darken a bit in color and taken on a pretty sheen.

Arrange the strawberries in serving bowls and drizzle the Balsamic vinegar over them. Serve immediately.

Notes on Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Depending on the ripeness and quality of your strawberries, you may want to macerate them longer than indicated in the recipe above. Some recipes call for several hours of maceration—the less ripe and more insipid the strawberries you’re working with, the longer the maceration should be. There is a trade-off, however, as the strawberries soften as they macerate. Strawberries that are already ripe will practically turn to mush if they are left too long. Many recipes for Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar, by the way, will tell you to actually macerate the strawberries in the vinegar itself, rather than lemon juice. I’ve tried this method, too, and do like it. The resulting dish has even richer flavor than the one we’ve featured here, but is not quite as pretty, since the strawberries will darken quite a bit—good eating, but not quite as bloggable. Finally, some recipes call for a dollop of whipped cream on top of your Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar. That’s what I call gilding the lily.

The long story of balsamic vinegar

Balsamic vinegar has been around for a very long time. There are references to it going back to 1046, when a bottle of the precious elixir was presented to Holy Roman Emperor Henry III as he passed through Modena on his way to his coronation. It is produced in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, more specifically in the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

I do like this balsamic vinegar from Fattoria Estense, aged 12 years, which I picked up at Williams-Sonoma. It set me back $30 for a small 250g bottle.

The true balsamic vinegar, aceto balsamico tradizionale, carries a DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) designation, which guarantees its quality, production, and place of origin. It is made by reducing pressed Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes into a syrupy must, called mosto cotto in Italian; the grape must is then aged a minimum of 12 years—the best are aged 25 years or more—in successively small wooden barrels, which gives it its dark color and complex flavor profile. Traditional balsamic vinegar is very expensive. Even the least costly small bottle I could find online is priced at $160, and the best can cost up to $200 an ounce.

Much more affordable is the factory-made aceto balsamico di Modena, still quite expensive compared with ordinary vinegars, but affordable. It carries a IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) designation, which certifies its place of origin only. You will find an enormous range of price and quality among brands in this class of balsamic vinegar. Some can be aged as little 2 months, but others are aged for years like the traditional variety. Look for the term invecchiato on the label, which means it has been aged at least three years. For most of us, this is the practical choice. But I’d avoid the least expensive brands, which are aged only minimally and mix grape must with regular vinegar; these ersatz balsamics are darkened with caramel coloring and thickened artificially with guar gum or cornstarch.

Balsamic vinegars have also inspired other spin-offs, including condimento balsamico (a kind of middle ground between the traditional and industrial versions of the produce) as well as a vast myriad of imitations and related products—including balsamic ketchup (!?) I haven’t tried any of these, so can’t really recommend them one way or another. Personally, though, I’d keep it simple and stick with an aceto balsamico tradizionale or a good quality aceto balsamico di Modena.

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