"Mosto Cotto"

 

Should I dig around for a pot of gold in the old shed?  It's been a wild week of weather in the northwest, including a rare tornado that touched down south of Seattle.  In town we've had a wet ride on the rain train, although a flash of sun between storms brought out this double rainbow yesterday. 

It was a rare, sweet day when I didn't have to go anywhere (and didn't) so John reaped the full benefits of a stay-at-home wife.  I made one of those falling apart pork roasts for supper that we only have in the fall or winter.

And that luscious, gooey-looking brown stuff is actually the by-product of cooking Mosto Cotto, or grape syrup.

This is just strained raisins and prunes that were simmered for hours in fresh grape juice...

I couldn't let the bumper crop of white Concord grapes go to waste, especially when they have finally reached the peak of deliciousness. 

The magic of simmering

Several hours transforms a pot of unappetizing, raw green juice into an incredibly rich, dark and condensed "syrup." Little bottles of imported Mosto Cotto are expensive in specialty food stores, but you can make a good approximation of the real thing at home. All it takes is time. Grape syrup is not for pancakes-- it's used in sauces, reductions or stingily drizzled on soft cheese or desserts. 

Here's the recipe from Sunset Magazine. (I doubled it.)

Grape Syrup

1 quart unsweetened white grape juice

2 tbs. brown sugar

1/4 cup each raisins and prunes

2 tbs. balsamic vinegar

Combine everything in a heavy wide pot.  Bring to a boil and cook until it's as thick as maple syrup, down to about 1 1/2 cups. This will take a couple of hours. Add balsamic vinegar and simmer another 10 minutes.  Cool and strain. It keeps for weeks the the fridge, or you can freeze little containers of the precious stuff to use all winter.

Bon Appetite!