Strawberry soup and Mosto Cotto

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Francesco Mazzei's strawberry soup recipe produces a wonderful Summer dessert, infused with thai basil and Szechuan pepper and served with heavenly vanilla mascarpone. Mosto cotto is used in a similar way to balsamic vinegar, and is made from syrupy grape juice.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Strawberry soup

  • 500g of strawberries, plus extra for garnish
  • 1 pinch of Szechuan pepper
  • 1 tbsp of sugar
  • 1/2 lemon, Amalfi, zest only
  • 5g of Thai basil, fresh, leaves only

Mosto Cotto

  • 10ml of mosto cotto
  • 10ml of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch of salt

Mascarpone

  • 100g of mascarpone
  • 3/4 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
  • 1 tsp icing sugar

Equipment

  • Blender

Method

1
To emulsify the Mosto Cotto, add to a bowl along with the olive oil and salt and whisk vigorously until the ingredients come together. Set aside until required
  • 10ml of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 10ml of mosto cotto
2
Wash and hull the strawberries, then slice in half. Combine the pepper, white sugar, lemon zest and basil leaves in a bowl. Mix through the strawberries and leave to marinate for 2 hours in the fridge
3
After 2 hours, remove the basil leaves and blitz the strawberry mix in a blender until very smooth. Set aside in the fridge
4
Meanwhile, make the sweetened mascarpone. Mix the mascarpone cream, the seeds from the vanilla and icing sugar in a bowl
5
To serve, gently pour the strawberry soup into 4 bowls and finish with quenelles of mascarpone and a drizzle of the Mosto Cotto emulsion. Garnish with strawberry slices and edible flower petals before serving
First published in 2015

Francesco Mazzei reminds us why we fell in love with Italian food in the first place, conjuring soulful dishes that put flavour first.

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