Carmela Soprano's Strawberries in Asti Spumante and Anna Sultana's Fruit in Wine, Maltese Style

Last week we tried Carmela's Gelato Affogato.

This weekend is the anniversary of our immigrating to Canada.  So I thought we'd celebrate with a bottle of bubbly.  I also wanted another easy dessert from Entertaining with The Sopranos.  Hey, it's summer and even though the weather's been a bit off, I'm not in the mood to cook much.  

Carmela had the perfect recipe.  An easy fancy shmancy dessert for 2, Strawberries in Asti Spumante.   

The bottle, 750 milliliters, gave us wine for a toast, with plenty left for dessert.  Good thing I checked the recipe.  Along with the Asti Spumante I also needed to add a teaspoon of creme de cassis to each glass so the wine would look pink, then drop the 2 or 3 strawberries in each glass.
Okay... anniversaries only come once a year.

Ma would've laughed if she saw me placing perfectly good strawberries in a glass of Asti Spumante.  

I had my first ginger ale and red wine spritzer when I was about 4.  I grew up with fruit in wine.  But, there wasn't anything festive about it.  Ma often bought bags of marked down bruised fruit, like apples and peaches.  She would cut out the really nasty bits and slice what was left into cereal bowls.  She would then pour some wine over the fruit.  It was up to us if we wanted to sprinkle some sugar on top of the fruit.  

My Ma didn't think of wine as an alcoholic beverage.  She used it more as a cooking ingredient and flavoring agent.  There was always a 3 litre jug of red wine under the sink.  That was it.  Red wine.  Pop usually had a glass with his Sunday dinner.  

Carmela's Strawberries in Asti Spumante.  I'd make it again.  

Another recipe down.  Fifty-six more to go.