This time of year, we’re starting to see lots of fresh berries on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown. When I’m at home, I like to either enjoy them fresh or they are great are in a fresh berry pie. Actually, it’s pretty simple to make any kind of berry into a pie. Prepare the berries, by doing things like quartering them and hulling them, if necessary. I then take about two cups of berries, crush them and then add about a tablespoon of sugar, plus about a cup of corn starch, a little nutmeg, some vanilla, and heating them on low until they melt and start of thicken. Next, I’ll mix them with berries a little lemon juice, then pour it all into the pie shell and smooth out the top. If want to add a little gloss to the top, just brush some preserves of then same kind of berries across the top. Let it chill in the refrigerator for at least four hours.
On our San Francisco Food Tours, we tend to see everything to fresh berries to pastries made with those berries. One stop like to make it into a cold soup, which is perfect on a summer day. And, of course, with some fresh ice cream, berries are the perfect dessert.
