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Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar

Here’s a strawberry dessert that not only is delicious and intriguing but also can compete with plain fruit in lightness. Strawberries are sugared to juice them up a bit, then drizzled with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with a pinch of black pepper. The result is so elegant that you’ll find it in great restaurants from here to Emilia-Romagna, the home of balsamic vinegar. It’s an ideal dessert after a heavy meal. Serve, if you like, with a few crisp cookies or a slice of pound, sponge, or angel food cake. This will not hold for any length of time; you can sugar the berries an hour or two before you want to serve them, but no longer.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 quart strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced, or a mixture of several berries
1/4 cup sugar, or more to taste
1 teaspoon high-quality balsamic vinegar, or more to taste
About 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, torn or coarsely chopped (optional)

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Toss the berries with 1/4 cup sugar and let sit for 10 minutes or longer. Do not refrigerate.

    Step 2

    Sprinkle with the vinegar; toss gently, then taste and add more sugar or vinegar if necessary. Sprinkle with the pepper and the mint if using, toss again, and serve.

From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books. Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.
TagsFruit DessertDessertStrawberryBerryFruitDairy FreeGluten FreeNut FreeEasy5 Ingredients or FewerQuickNo-CookSummerCookbooks
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