Tasto Balsamic Pearls

These pearls have practically limitless uses in the kitchen: try them on smoked salmon, beef carpaccio or a fresh fish tartare. They add a surprising hint of acidity to meat or fish dishes and truly come alive when paired with ice cream. Balsamic vinegar of Modena IGP is converted by spherification into a delicious cascade of small pearls, used as a sophisticated garnish for a variety of popular dishes. Spherification is a molecular gastronomy technique consisting in the controlled jellification of a fluid (in this case, balsamic vinegar), to which sodium alginate (derived from brown algae) is added before it is submerged in a bath. The result of this process is the formation of tiny gel spheres with a liquid center.