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Fruit salad with wood fruits, flavoured with Juniper.

(Macedonia di piccoli frutti di bosco al ginepro)

A)
100 grams of strawberries
100 grams of raspberries
100 grams of bilberries
100 grams of blackberries

B)
1 mixture made of:
two small skins and the juice of 2 "oval" oranges (you can find them also in autumn)
two small skins and the juice of 2 lemons
two small skins and the juice of one grapefruit
two spoons of highly concentrate strawberry syrup
3 spoons of sugar
a small pinch of salt
6 fresh and ripe juniper berries
4-5 small leaves of fresh mint

Check the wood fruits by spreading them on the hand palm (remove the defective fruits), wash them and put them in a small glass bowl.
Mix very well all the ingredients mentioned at the above point B) and by using a very fine sieve pour this mixture upon the wood fruits.
Shake the tureen a little bit as the wood fruits can be bathe with the mixed syrup, put it in the refrigerator for about one hour and after serve it as a fresh and delicious dessert.

This recipe, particularly delicious, should be served very fresh without any change and it results very good also in September, when normally the weather in Tuscany is still mild. It results splendid with a "bed" of whipped cream, especially if September will be a rainy and cold month. If you want to use whipped cream in this case you have two alternatives: use only two spoons of sugar, instead of three, for the mixture at point B); or whip the cream using the minimum sugar. These devices are very important, otherwise this fruit salad will result too sweet and caramel-taste, instead of being an appetizing and lively dessert.

A Giuseppe Alessi recipe
Translated by Gianna Toni
Picture by Kee-Ho Casati