Recipe: Poached Baby Pumpkins with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar

Connoisseur Rolando Beramendi, the founder of Manicaretti, an importer of fine Italian foods, offers a recipe using authentic Balsamic vinegar, the precious "black liquid gold."

Poached Baby Pumpkins with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons Demerara sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 star anise pods
2 sprigs mint, plus chopped fresh mint leaves to finish
Juice of 1 lemon (reserve the juiced rinds)
Juice of 1 orange (reserve the juiced rinds)
8 whole Tellicherry black peppercorns
4 miniature pumpkins, pumpkins halved and seeded
Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena DOP, to finish

Instructions:

Bring a large pot of water to a simmer. Add the sugar, salt, star anise, mint sprigs, lemon and orange juice and the juiced rinds, and the peppercorns. 

Add the pumpkin bottoms and tops. Simmer gently so the pumpkin bottoms do not break, cooking just until the flesh is tender when pierced with a knife, 15 to 20 minutes for the bottoms and 10 for the tops. 

Drain and pat the pumpkin pieces dry. Place the pumpkin bottoms on four plates and drizzle generously with the balsamic vinegar. 

Sprinkle with fresh mint and top with the pumpkin tops.

Serve warm.

PAIRING: A lively Lambrusco from the hills of Modena.

       
Recipe from "Autentico: Cooking Italian, the Authentic Way" by Rolando Beramendi (St. Martin's Griffin), in Hardcover and eBook format, available via Amazon.

    
For more recipes from "Sunday Morning" visit the 2018 "Food Issue" Recipe Index