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Berry Treasure: Celebrate Strawberry Season
June 20, 2012
You can buy strawberries year-round now in Canada, which is a good thing, especially when you have fussy kids requiring various food groups other than fries and cereal. But those big, admittedly beautiful ‘Frankenberries’ that travel long distances to our grocery stores don’t hold a candle to the fresh-off-the-plant, swollen-with-juices, bursting-with-flavour Canadian berries. A morning of picking is on the calendar of many Canadians in June, complete with stained hands (and mouths). If you’re not near a berry farm or farmers market, don’t despair, as local berries quickly make it to the supermarket shelves. If you can stop yourself from gobbling them up as they come, there are lots of things you can do in the kitchen with these ruby-red berries, in both sweet and savoury dishes. (Short aside: I learned from a little research that the berries we eat are not actually the fruit of the plant. They are the swelling of the plant’s stalk that follows pollination of the flowers. The tiny seeds that cover the berries are actually the real fruit. Quite amazing.) I’m enjoying berries in salads these days, where they pair nicely with Cheddar Cheese or Bocconcini, nuts and other things that can trick you into believing a salad is a meal. (Yes, I’m still dieting.) In the area where I live, local restaurants are celebrating strawberry season with a variety of tributes, ranging from traditional strawberry shortcake to cold soups like strawberry melon gazpacho to savoury dishes like chicken supreme with strawberries, figs and kale. So let your imagination run wild! For some quick ideas, you’ll find more than a dozen recipes combining strawberries and cheese at trestelle.ca. Here are three recommendations, all on the sweet side.
Strawberry Banana Ricotta Parfaits with Quick Almond Brittle: Creamy Tre Stelle® Ricotta pairs beautifully with strawberries. The almond brittle is way simpler than it sounds and adds an elegant touch.
Ricotta & Strawberry Stuffed French Toast: You can probably hold the syrup with these delicious sandwiches of baguette, Tre Stelle® Extra Smooth Ricotta Cheese and strawberry preserves. (In season, why not just cook down some strawberries with sugar for ultimate freshness.)
Fresh Strawberry & Mascarpone Squares: Like a cheesecake with a graham cracker crust. As one reviewer on trestelle.ca put it – “Absolutely divine.”
This entry was posted in Cheese and tagged bocconcini, cheddar, Cheese, Mascarpone, recipe, Ricotta, strawberries, Tre Stelle. Bookmark the permalink. ← It’s Dad’s Day – And Dad Loves Cheese Raise Some Cheese To Canada’s Birthday →