Fragole all’Aceto Balsamico

On a visit to the West Coast, I had agreed to prepare a menu for the food editor of a major California daily. The dessert was strawberries with balsamic vinegar. Unhappily, I had ignored my own principles and had committed myself to strawberries before seeing them, with the result that I had to make do with the only strawberries I could find, pale and unripe. When the editor saw them she said, “Forget about them. I am not fond of strawberries even when they are perfect. We can do without a