Macedonia- Italian Fruit Salad

This was one of the great dessert recipes I taught for the college students I taught while they were on their study abroad programs.

We made a mixed fruit bowl, but it started as a simple way to finish a meal. Cut a piece of fruit into your wine glass and add a spoon or two of sugar. Top with wine. Mix well and then wait until the sugar dissolves and enjoy.

 

Alberta in the old upstairs part of the market would always give me HUGE bags of fruit at the end of the day for 5,000 lira, about 3 dollars.  Roberta has passed away, but her son has a stand downstairs with chocolates and some other specialties. The market tradition lives on.

 

Some sugar and a little white wine and voila– dessert for 10.

Dessert is usually not served at the end of an Italian family meal. Fruit is dessert, and a bowl of fruit is always present at every meal, even in restaurants!

With peaches in season, a favorite way to finish off a meal is to cut the peach into your wine glass—which in Italy is a tumbler—and then add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar and stir. Top off the fruit with wine, sit back, and chit-chat until the sugar has dissolved. Eat the fruit first (MANGI) and then the drink( BEVI), which is the wonderful wine cooler, at the end.

Traditionally, peaches are prepared with white wine and strawberries with red wine. Is this where Arrigo Cipriani of Harry’s Bar in Venice got the idea for the famous Bellini–peach juice with Prosecco wine?

In searching my Italian etymological dictionary, the reference to Macedonia (the country) in the name of this classic fruit salad is probably because that country is comprised of many different populations.

Summer Macedonia di Frutta

1 bottle of a good light white wine
Sugar
About 1 cup of fresh fruit in season per person:
Apricots
Peaches
Plums
Strawberries
Banana
Kiwi
Cantelope

Cut the pieces of fruit into bite-size pieces. Place in a large bowl and add about 1 cup of sugar. The sugar draws the juices out of the fruit and sweetens the wine, so don’t cut back. Stir the sugar into the fruit, encouraging the juices that will leave the fruit. Cover with white wine. Stir again. Let sit.

Serve the Macedonia chilled. For festive occasions, top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

BONUS! The wine will blend with the juices of the fruit to create a fabulous wine cooler!