Macerated strawberry salad recipe
My father has been making this recipe since I was a little girl. It was a seasonal treat that he saved for summer along with his famous lemon granita. What makes this salad is the combination of the slightly tart lemon juice, the sugary sweetness and flavour of the strawberries all marinating together. The result is this macerated strawberry salad that sits in a fresh, sour but sugary syrup. The latter was always the part I left last, savouring and sipping the sweet and sour strawberry lemon juice into little mouthfuls, like a soup.
Fresh torn mint leaves are also a lovely addition to the salad which you can mix through just before serving. Enjoy this macerated strawberry salad on its own, or on top of ice cream or gelato.
Macerated strawberry salad recipe
Serves two
250g strawberries, rinsed and dried
Juice of half a lemon
2 to 3 heaped teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Remove the strawberry tops, cut the strawberries into quarters and place in a small to medium sized serving bowl
Add the juice of the lemon, then add two teaspoons of the sugar followed by the lemon zest. Mix everything together well
At this point taste the salad, it should be mainly sweet but slightly sour. Depending on the lemons you use you may require a little more sugar, if so, then add the additional teaspoon of sugar here and mix together
Allow the salad to marinate for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.
Notes: This salad is best served as close to preparation as possible so that the strawberries don’t over marinate. If you’d like to make it ahead of time, cover the salad and allow it to rest in the fridge for no more than one hour. If you can find them, meyer lemons (which are juicy and sweet) are a wonderful lemon variety to use in this salad and are the ones we use from our tree at home.
