Emmy Award-winning chef Lidia Bastianich is primarily renowned for her Italian culinary prowess. She has tips and tricks for all kinds of Italian cooking, like whether or not you should add oil to pasta water to prevent the noodles from sticking together. In fact, she likes Italian food so much that she’s gone on record saying her last meal would be an Italian dish.
While Italian cooking is definitely Lidia Bastianich’s specialty, she’s got plenty of other ideas up her sleeve, like the perfect summer dessert. One of Lidia’s favorite refreshing treats is a combination of strawberries and balsamic vinegar. The sweetness of strawberries during the peak of their season combined with the acidity of the balsamic vinegar is simple yet delicious.
Lidia Bastianich isn’t the only celebrity chef to recommend this combination either; Ina Garten is also a big fan of this simple summer dessert. The best thing about this recipe is that it’s a no-bake dish with minimal preparation required, making it one of the best strawberry hacks that you’ll wish you’d known sooner.
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Making Strawberries With Balsamic Vinegar
top down view of strawberries with balsamic and mint – joanna wnuk/Shutterstock
Lidia Bastianich’s specific recipe for strawberries with balsamic vinegar requires several pints of fresh strawberries combined with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, superfine sugar, and fresh squeezed orange juice. The strawberries should be cut into pieces, which can be as big or small as you’d like, then tossed in a bowl with the other ingredients until fully coated. The mixture should then be allowed to chill for at least 20 minutes before being served with a mint sprig topping.
Of course, there are other recipes for strawberries with balsamic vinegar out there, all of which start with pints of strawberries and a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. The process of making the dessert is pretty much the same in all recipes, with just some minor adjustments in the ingredients used. Other variations include the use of lemon zest instead of orange juice, honey in addition to sugar, and fresh basil or ground black pepper as a topping rather than mint. The addition of ice cream or whipped cream on top of the mixture is also a popular addition.
Read the original article on Chowhound.