Berries with Maple-Sweetened Mascarpone

I blame this one on Christina.

 

See, before this post the only person I had ever heard of using mascarpone for non-special occasions was Giada de Laurentiis and let’s face it – homegirl uses the stuff in EVERY recipe. I just didn’t think it felt attainable. It felt too far above my head.

 

And then Christina went and made the most amazing summery dessert on the planet and I’ve been using mascarpone on the down-low ever since. (Just Googled down-low to see if it was really hyphenated, and I’m sad to say that it’s not really and if I was really cool I’d just abbreviate the dang thing already and say DL. Bless it.)

Something I’m really wanting to work on is simplifying life in all aspects, you know, in case you didn’t gather that desire from this post. The way I see it the simplification starts with the most basic of things, our food. Tossing the things we don’t need, creating opportunities to eat more of the things we do.

 

Now I’m all about chocolate – you’ll see that in a couple of weeks with a ridiculously amazing cake I’ve got coming up – but when the earth is offering up sweet fresh berries that need not-a-single-thing to taste like dessert? Well, I’m going to go ahead and capitalize on that!

 

If you don’t have maple syrup you can sub honey instead – just as delicious. If you don’t want to use the vanilla, no biggie – it’s still delicious. The best thing you can do? Is use good ingredients. Don’t make this if berries aren’t in season. If you’re reading this in the Fall you could definitely drizzle this goodness over apples, and dare I say it would be great with sweet potatoes too? Yes, yes I dare.

 

Y’all enjoy!

BERRIES WITH MAPLE-SWEETENED MASCARPONE

Inspired by Christina’s Grilled Stone Fruit with Almond Mascarpone Dip

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 pints fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
• 1 pint fresh blueberries, washed and dried
• 8 ounces mascarpone cheese
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• splash of vanilla extract (optional)

Directions:

1. Toss the berries together in a large serving bowl OR divide among 4 serving plates.
2. Whisk together the mascarpone, maple syrup, and vanilla extract (if using).
3. Serve the berries with the mascarpone drizzled on top.
4. This also makes a fantastic fruit dip for other seasonal fresh fruit!
5. Enjoy!