Say It With Me: AGRODOLCE!

Sweet and sour is a favorite flavoring combination in my recipe repertoire. And while most folks associate sweet and sour with Chinese cuisine, it's actually a common flavoring in many other cuisines. And so we demonstrate that with the classic Italian style of sweet and sour, known as Agrodolce, pronounced aw-grow-DOLE-chay.

While we taped this episode, some of the crew were surprised to see me pairing fish and fruit, but it's a classic technique, for example Possion Veronique (sole with white grapes). And I've used other berries with salmon before, notable strawberries.

Sweet and sour in Italian dishes is actually not that unusual. The Italians have sweet and sour sausage, sweet and sour meatballs, chicken, and other sauces, particularly from the Parma area that include pine nuts as an additional flavoring agent.

You'll also find sweet and sour in other European cuisines, especially Eastern European foods like the Polish "halushki," or stuffed cabbage. In Eastern European Jewish cuisine, sweet and sour was employed, especially for Sabbath dishes using vinegar to help preserve the food, with the addition of honey or sugar to counteract the sourness of the vinegar.

The bottom line here is that I highly recommend that you add "agrodolce" to your recipe repertoire; experiment with it; most of all, enjoy it. This recipe came to my attention last summer when it was featured in the New York Times in the Dining section. Here's this week's Kitchen Guy episode, featuring Salmon with Agrodolce Blueberries.




 RECIPE:

 6 4-ounce filets Atlantic salmon
2 shallots, peeled and sliced very thin
1-1/2 cups white wine
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cinnamon sticks
1-1/3 cups blueberries
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp honey
sea salt to taste
vegetable oil for greasing baking sheet.

Season fish well with the sea salt and set it aside at room temperature while you make the sauce.

Preheat the oven to 400 and lightly grease a baking sheet large enough to hold all of the fish.

Simmer together shallots, wine, wine vinegar, thyme, cinnamon sticks and a pinch of salt in a saucepan over medium low heat until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Add the blueberries, butter and honey and cook until the berries soften and begin to release their juices and the sauce turns pink - another 2 to 4 minutes.

Place the salmon on baking sheet and spoon the berry mixture over the fish and season with freshly ground black pepper.

Bake until the salmon is cooked to desired doneness -- 8 to 10 minutes for medium rare. About 12 minutes for medium.