If you like balsamic, you will likely love Balsamela!
When we opened the Deli back in 1982, balsamic vinegar was almost completely unheard of in the US. In fact, it was still barely known even in Italy outside its home region. While it’s been made for centuries, it was mostly exchanged in the form of gifts, dowries, and the like, and was never sold up until relatively modern times. Today, of course, it’s a culinary icon. Always exceptional in its hard-to-find, handcrafted, truly traditional state, but also every day in the form of more “modern” adaptations made for 21st-century consumers to serve on their salads for supper every evening.
Basically, Balsamela is a nicely aged, viscous, super-flavorful first cousin to traditional balsamic vinegar, aceto balsamico in Italian. The dense, syrupy vinegar has been traditional in Italy in the same regions that have become famous for making aceto balsamico—Modena, Reggio, and Emilia—for a few hundred years. Balsamela was made when, and/or where, there were no grapes; someone decided to try using apples—“mela” means apple in Italian. Is it good? Oh yeah! Seriously, sensationally excellent. If you try it, the odds are very high you’re gonna love it. It’s so delicious, so easy to use, and such a great addition to almost anything from heirloom tomatoes to a hot-off-the-grill T-bone steak!
The Balsamela we get comes from Andrea Bezzecchi, who makes some really marvelous vinegar in the region (check out his rose vinegar and red wine vinegar … both are excellent!) Andrea works with apples that come from farmer friends in the Alto Adige region, up in Italy’s northeast corner. They’re organic and biodynamic and very tasty. The fresh apples are pressed to make the must—organic apple juice that’s cooked down for many hours to concentrate it to a 50-60% reduction of its original volume. Already aged vinegar is then blended in. It plays the same role as a sourdough would in baking, introducing the bacteria needed to convert the raw material into something magical. Unlike balsamic, the Balsamela is aged in stainless or glass—wood would overwhelm its delicacy.
The end result is very much like a traditional balsamic vinegar, but in some ways, I actually like it better. Super dense, lovely, sweet but not too sweet (a bit less sweet than balsamic)-sour, tongue-tinglingly terrific. But since it doesn’t have all the wood aging on it … Balsamela is much more affordable.
It’s great on handmade cream cheese, goat cream cheese, or Detroit St. Brick cheese from the Creamery. Fantastic drizzled onto feta. Superb on scallops. Or salmon. Great on salads of all sorts. Choice on chicken salad. Andrea has been putting it on ribs—sounds really good to me! Add a few drops to a tomato sauce. It’d be great to add just a touch of sweet liveliness to cooked greens. In the regions of Reggio and Emilia, one of the best-known ways to use balsamic vinegar is to put a drop or two on an omelet, and Balsamela works well there too. It’s great on new potatoes. Put it on pancakes, or waffles. Pop a few drops onto fresh fruit. Oh yeah–it’s amazing on gelato. With the vanilla from the Creamery it would be killer! Or some sorbet. Seriously, I’m starting to believe (after experimenting for the last few weeks) that Balsamela is really good on everything.
