Macedonia di frutta, or Italian fruit salad, is one of the most typical of summer desserts in Italy, often served (as I did tonight) with some lemon sorbet.A macedonia can be made with almost any combination of fruits in season. Tonight I mixed some strawberries that looked particularly good at the market with blueberries, pitted cherries, seedless red grapes and some mango, which nicely set off the dark colors of the other fruits. You cut up the larger fruits into bite-sized sections, then toss them together with sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Let the salad macerate for about 30-45 minutes in the fridge and there you have it! Serve by itself or over a scoop or two of sorbet. A marvellously refreshing way to end of meal.
NOTES: The combination of fruits, as I said, is endlessly variable, but it is pretty typical to include bananas and--especially in the Fall and Winter--apples or pears. In the summer, stone fruits, especially peaches, are a popular addition. Kiwi is also very popular, any time of year. (Did you know that Italy is now the world's largest producer of kiwi?)
The sugar and lemon treatment can be used, as well, with single fruits, especially all sorts of berries. It is particularly good (and popular in Italy) to treat fragoline di bosco, or wild strawberries, if you are lucky enough to find some. By the way, you will find that after you leave the salad to macerate for a while, the sugar melts and the sour taste of the lemon juice, by some magical alchemy, is replaced by fruits that taste more intensely of themselves and lovely 'syrup'. This treatment does wonders for the rather insipid fresh fruit one finds at the supermarket these days. And it sends really good, ripe fruits from the farmers market into celestial orbit!
For an extra fillip of flavor, you can add a bit of liquor before serving. Tonight, in fact, I added a splash of Cointreau to my macedonia. Very nice. If serving the fruit on its own, you can add add white or red wine as well. Red wine goes particularly well with strawberries made this way, and is called fragole al vino rosso.
