Recipes By Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinksi
1 recipe found
Black-Sugar-Glazed Medjool Dates With Pecorino and Walnuts
In 2010, I gave Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, a husband-and-wife team of San Francisco chefs, a 19th-century recipe for simple chocolate caramels made with molasses and vanilla and asked them to use it as inspiration for an entirely new dish. Two days after sending them the candy recipe, I received one back for Black-Sugar-Glazed Medjool Dates With Pecorino and Walnuts, a remarkably good dish that can be served either as a tapa, a cheese course or a sweet-savory dessert. “We started thinking about molasses, because that was the strongest flavor in the caramel recipe,” Brioza explained. Anise and fennel flavors came to mind next, as did Scandinavian licorice: “You know, they’re molassesy and black, chewy and gummy,” he continued. “We thought of vinegar as a way to balance that out. We thought, well, dates could take on the texture we’re really looking for in that kind of candy. The pecorino came in to play a role because the dates were too sweet. And then the walnuts — kind of a no-brainer,” to balance the dish and give it texture.