This recipe came about in a somewhat convoluted manner. I couldn't decide how I wanted to serve some fresh strawberries -- macerated with sugar and balsamic and topped with whipped mascarpone cream or macerated with sugar and topped with sabayon. I decided to see if I could combine the ideas and make a reduced balsamic sabayon. Long story short, the answer was no. The final result was more like a curd in texture and just a bit too vinegary in flavor. Like many kitchen mishaps, it gave me another idea: could I make a strawberry-balsamic curd? This time I was met with success. I sort of combined the recipes for Strawberry Purée and Sauce and Lemon Curd from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible (which coincidentally are consecutive recipes in the book). The result was purely delicious -- reminiscent of lemon curd, but with a bright strawberry flavor kissed with the tang of balsamic. <br /> <br />(Note: you'll have some leftover egg whites, so consider using the curd, fresh macerated strawberries, and lightly sweetened whipped cream to make Schaum Torte, a German version of pavlovas.) <br />

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