When you find beautiful ingredients, you don't need to do much to make them seem special. While at the markets in Barcelona, in the grip of a sintilating mix of terror, stemming from my nearly absolute imcompetence with the spanish language, excitment at actually being in this situation, in this market, in this current position and fear, due to the fact that my situation was to do something I thought I had no idea how to do what was required of me in my new career.
But when the world presents you with an opportunity like this it brings you back and shows you why you are here, to see how beautful the world can be. These apline strawberries are some of the most fragile fruits I know of, a perfect example of how we need to respect our ingredients. Picking them with rough hands, packing them thoughtlessly, transporting them like and elephant in heels, or showing malice in the final preparation before eating, all result in the same outcome- 'good, but not great.'
I seperated mine into 2 batches. One batch was packed away carefully while the other was tossed with a little bit of icing sugar and sat in a seive over a bowl and wrapped. left over night in to fridge, they collapsed under the weight of their intensely delicious juice and released it into my anxious dish below. I pureed the sunken berries and passed them through a fine sieve.
Mascarpone lightly whipped is a wonderful change from whipped cream, and to compliment the deep, rosy sweetness of the berries I sweetened the cream with some vanilla and honey. Shaving the sable dough from the log instead of rolling it delivered me with refreshingly free form biscuits. a quick toss of the fresh berries in the macceration liquid and to the plate.
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