Summers in Italy can be intensely hot so cooking tends to avoid anything that needs to be cooked for a long time. While desserts eaten the rest of the year are often scrumptious baked treats and pastries, summer is the time for eating fresh, uncooked fruit. While simple fruit salads are popular, and scarcely a restaurant menu in the country would be without one, fruit is prepared in a variety of different ways.
Although fruit is full of natural sugars, certain types of fruit are lower in sugar than others, therefore making their glycemic load lighter. Diabetics and others suffering from insulin resistance try to eat foods low on the glycemic index, so the selection of fruit is important.
The family of stone fruits is some of nature’s lowest glycemic sweets. Stone fruits are those which have a pit, like peaches, plums, and nectarines. They are also summer fruit and widely eaten during Italian summer. Even lower on the glycemic index are berries, like strawberries and blueberries. These foods are delicious on their own, but sometimes it is nice to dress them up, like with the serving ideas below.
Strawberry-Amaretto-Ricotta Italian Treat
Ingredients:
- 15 ounces whole milk ricotta (one small container)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons Amaretto liquor
- 4 cups sliced fresh strawberries (about a one pound container)
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup crushed Amaretti cookies
- a few sprigs of fresh mint, chopped and a few leaves for garnish
Directions:
- Mix the ricotta, vanilla and sugar together in a bowl. Confectioner’s sugar gives this dish a smooth consistency and ensures the sweetness will spread evenly. The vanilla will turn the mixture a brownish-beige, but do not despair because the balsamic and Amaretto will also turn the mixture brown.
- Separately mix the strawberries, mint, Amaretto and vinegar. Do not use too much Amaretto or vinegar or the treat will become too watery.
- Place in a dish or bowl.
- Place ricotta mixture on the bottom, then the strawberry mixture and top with the crushed cookies and a mint garnish.
- Serve cold.
Diabetic Modification
This recipe can be modified to a lower fat and calorie version suitable for diabetics by substituting lowfat ricotta for the whole milk version and by using a sugar substitute instead of real sugar. Sugar substitutes blend very well with the ricotta. Since strawberries are naturally lower in sugar than most other fruits, as well as being high in fiber, they are one of the lowest glycemic fruits. The cookies can be completely eliminated and one tablespoon of almond extract can be substituted for the liquor. Low fat graham crackers can also be substituted for the Amaretti.
Stone Fruits in Wine
Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best. A peach sliced with the skin intact and soaked in a glass of red wine for an hour is intensely delicious. Diabetics should avoid drinking too much wine, but the wine soaked fruit itself is healthy and tasty. Nectarines can also be used, but their denser meat does not absorb the wine as well as the fleshier peach. Left to soak overnight the wine will also take on a refreshingly peachy flavor, almost like sangria.
Annabella Gualdoni - Annabella Gualdoni is a lawyer by education but works an educator and real estate professional. She has bought, sold, and renovated ...
