Balsamic Strawberries over Cornbread

Take me back to Saturday morning Shoney's and that strawberry cheesecake.

The ingredients:

• Cornbread

  • 1 c. all purpose flour

  • 1 c. cornmeal

  • 1/3 c. sugar

  • 1 tsp. salt

  • 1.5 tsp. baking powder

  • 1/3 c. melted butter

  • 1 large egg, beaten

  • 1 c. buttermilk

  • 1/3 c. honey or maple syrup

• Balsamic strawberries

  • 1 lb. strawberries, trimmed and hulled

  • 3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

  • 6 tbsp. sugar

  • 1 lemon, juiced

  • 1 tsp. black pepper

• 8 ounces mascarpone

  

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 400. Combine all cornbread ingredients and place into a 9-inch cast iron skillet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. As cornbread cooks (and cools), place strawberries, balsamic, sugar, lemon, and black pepper into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Lower to a simmer and allow to reduce for 40-60 minutes. Stir occasionally. Cut a slice open, generously apply mascarpone, top with strawberries, garnish with additional cracked black pepper.

The story:

Ok, so, this recipe came to be for two reasons. First off—my old roommate came and had dinner with me and my husband this week. A few years ago, he took us to this restaurant in Brooklyn called Frankie’s 457 and insisted we get the red wine prunes and mascarpone. Neither of us were particularly interested, but we were like, “Go off, diva. Let’s stay regular!” and just… ordered it. It’s, to this day, a top five dessert I’ve ever had. It’s so simple, but so complex, and it introduced me to mascarpone, which is such a game changer.

I didn’t want to try and recreate that because… why recreate something that’s already so brilliant? What I wanted to do was infuse a bit of my own memories into a newer one. On Saturdays, we used to go and have breakfast at a place called Shoney’s that had the most killer breakfast buffet. (The chicken nuggets were a star—if you know, you know). Shoney’s was an affordable place that felt like a nice meal, and if you wanted to game the system like my Uncle Terry and Aunt Suzie, you could show up at midnight, have a super later dinner, hang out and keep gnawing at the dregs of the dinner buffet, and then around 4am, they’d change it over to breakfast. Two meals, one check, six hours, and then you get a long ass nap? Consider me enlisted.

But what I always admired most was their dessert counter that you walked by when you came into the restaurant. While my parents were fixing their second plates, I would go and stare at the strawberry cheesecake in the front window. It was a signature Shoney’s dessert. We used to get one a year for my mom’s birthday because she was such a big fan. The issues with recreating it at home is (1) a proper cheesecake takes work, (2) my home of two grown men and two cats does not require a whole ass cheesecake, and (3) I wanted something that felt elevated that I could have with a cup of coffee. What resulted was this: cornbread, which is and should be a vehicle for anything you care about in life, balsamic strawberry compote that is both acidic and sweet and layered at the same time, and a sinful dollop of mascarpone to marry it all together.

Now I just need some nuggets.