We start with beautiful, floral, fragrant, succulent, juicy fruit. We taste it. Then we look to accent it with a vegetable. We partner strawberries with fresh beans. We add an element of crunch: toasted nuts, grilled bread, dried olive shortbread. We add an element of richness: olive oil, nut oil, buttermilk, soft ricotta. We add acidity: vinegar, verjus, sour strawberry syrup. We punctuate the compilation with herbs: tarragon, rosemary, chives. We add further supporting elements: pickled onions, shaved jalapenos, preserved lemons. We finish the dish with coarse salt and perhaps a ground spice: smoked coriander, grains of paradise, toasted mahleb. The model works. It develops fruit into a cohesive dish. The more we explore and expand on the variables, the more deliciousness we discover.
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