Hypnotized or somewhat like Pavlov’s dogs, embarrassingly, I am always making bowls of Macedonia (an Italian-style fresh fruit salad) for an after lunch and dinner dessert…. I didn’t realize how much of the stuff I was always making, until my friends suggested that “we should maybe just have some pieces of fresh fruit after dinner once in awhile.”
I realized my dilemma there; Macedonia, which is a fresh fruit salad, was the way we always ended dinner at my grandmother’s house when I was younger and my mother did the same.
Not that I am complaining, I love fresh fruit and because of my grandparents I am conditioned to always have fresh fruit after my meals…but it has become more than that is almost as I have been programmed to end a meal this way.
When dinner was over, nonna (grandma) would automatically get up from her seat and everyone knew she was going to the little cool wine cellar in back of the kitchen (the kitchen was under the house) and would come out with a bowl of freshly made macedonia, to the “oohs” and “ahhs” of everyone at the table, since it was much anticipated after a full meal. Something sweet but light and something that seemed to help digest the meal…made with whatever fruits were in season. It almost seems that being in Italy I am now conditioned to feel that my meal is not complete without a dish of fresh macedonia. Dinner was always filled with opera and singing and freshly made plates of pasta,artisan cheeses, freshly made breads, wine and well here in Italy meals are the same, and the feeling that they are not complete without the grand ending of a bowl of fresh macedonia.
In Italy the tradition is to end the everyday meals with fresh fruit and nuts, and that is a healthy habit, but the macedonia…I think I am hypnotized. Anyway, here is a recipe for a winter macedonia, see if it becomes one of your after dinner favorites. In the meantime, I am going to make the same for lunch today. I can’t help myself, macedonia obsessed it seems….
Macedonia
(from the winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards- The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays &Special Occasions)
*1 whole fresh lemon
*1 whole fresh pineapple
*1/2 lb of red grapes-washed
*2 fresh oranges
*2 bananas-peeled and sliced into 1″ thick slices
*4 fresh kiwi-peeled and sliced
*1 tablespoon sugar
Peel and cut fresh fruits into chunks. Place in bowl. Cut lemon in half and squeeze both halves over fresh cut fruit. Sprinkle with one tablespoon of sugar. Stir, let marinade covered in refrigerator for 1 hour. Serve with a sprig of fresh mint.
Hope to see you on Saturday May 8th at the Borders Store in Warrington, Pennsylvania.
Get more recipes in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking Holidays & Special Occasions
Coming up…a culinary truffle hunting trip to Italy in October 2010!
Nice fruity recipe for next summer.