• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
LunaCafe

LunaCafe

Regional, seasonal food with original recipes by Susan S. Bradley

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Getting Started
    • About LunaCafe
    • About Susan S. Bradley
    • About James H. Bradley
  • Holiday
    • Christmas Cookies: Deck the Halls
    • Christmas Cookies: Silver Bells
    • Christmas Favorites: Silver Moon
    • Christmas Cookies: Starry Night
  • Fresh Primers
    • Apple Primer
    • Apple Cider Primer
    • Artichoke Primer
    • Blueberry Primer
    • Cherry Primer
    • Cranberry Primer
    • Lentil Primer
    • Pear Primer
    • Rhubarb Primer
    • Strawberry Primer
    • Winter Squash Primer
    • Cranberry Garnishes
    • Temperature Guide for Cooking
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Home/Desserts/Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce

Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce

Strawberries and tomatoes. Together. Take the leap.

I did a search on the web before I created this sauce, just to make sure it didn’t already exist. And low and behold, I did find one, but only one, adventurous food blogger who has traversed this wild terrain. The lovely Nicole of Baking Bites blog (@bakingbites) posted a Roasted Strawberry and Tomato Salsa, which I can’t wait to try.

The idea of pairing strawberries and tomatoes originally came to me while perusing one of my favorite culinary sites, FoodPairing, which features dozens of potentially harmonious and sometimes very odd sounding ingredient pairings. (Another great site for this type of exploration is Khymos. Or check out the most comprehensive book ever written on the topic: The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. It lists thousands of ingredient pairings favored by some of the world’s most acclaimed chefs.)

Remarkably, strawberries do have something in common with tomatoes. As the theory goes, if two different foods share one or more volatile molecules, they are highly likely to complement each other when eaten together. Very few noted chefs, however, have expounded on the potential harmony that exists between strawberries and tomatoes. An exception is Chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park restaurant in New York. In The Flavor Bible, he mentions a gazpacho that he created using 80 percent strawberries and 20 percent tomatoes. Garnished with Hawaiian blue prawns, diced strawberries, and cured pork, the dish sounds fabulous.

Spurred on by admiration for Daniel’s inspired gazpacho and watching way too many episodes of Food Network’s Chopped, with all those bizarre flavor combinations, I put aside the research part of this exploration and started putting together my mise-en-place in the OtherWorldly Kitchen. In my fantasy version of Chopped, I am competing against Bobby Flay and Mark LaPolla (@LifeByChocolate). We’re down to the wire. Two other world-class chefs, Tom Douglas and Ethan Stowell, have already been chopped. Sorry guys, good effort!

It’s the dessert course. We open the dreaded black basket. Gasp! We stare with astonishment at the contents: Parmesan, tomatoes, strawberries, and basil.

Here’s my dessert sauce. You will have to wait until the next post to see what I do with the Parmesan and basil. But trust me, it’s sensational. Bobby and Mark don’t stand a chance.

And yes, of course I intend to do a riff on that gazpacho. As soon as I can get my hands on local, ripe tomatoes.

 Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce

This refreshing and delicious desert sauce will surprise you. The tomatoes add a subtle savory (umami) element that is intriguing. See if your guests can detect the mystery ingredient.

1 pound (about 3 cups) fresh strawberries, stemmed (use frozen, thawed strawberries in a pinch)
¾ pound peeled, diced, ripe tomatoes with juice (use premium-quality canned tomatoes in a pinch)
½ cup sugar 
½ cup red currant or strawberry jelly
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, or more to taste

In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, liquefy the strawberries, tomatoes, and sugar. Reserve.

  1. Put the jelly into a small saucepan over medium heat and warm just to melt, whisking until smooth. (Or microwave to melt.)
  2. Add the jelly and lime juice to the strawberry-tomato sauce in the processor, and pulse to incorporate.
  3. Strain the sauce through a triple mesh chinoise into a storage container.  Adjust flavor balance with a little more lime juice if necessary.
  4. Chill thoroughly and serve cold.

Makes 2 cups.

Copyright 2010 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.

Written by:
Susan S. Bradley
Published on:
April 20, 2017

Categories: Desserts, Spring & Summer Desserts, Strawberries, TomatoesTags: dessert, dessert sauce, Spring Fever, Strawberries, tomatoes

About Susan S. Bradley

Intrepid cook, food writer, culinary instructor, creator of the LunaCafe blog, author of Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking, and former director of the Northwest Culinary Academy.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Leo Tat

    May 15, 2017 at 2:15 pm

    This is the first time I have encountered combining strawberry and tomato, as well as lime. I am curious to how it tastes now and will definitely give it a go. The only thing is I’m not sure what to pour it on – maybe I pour it on vanilla ice cream as a dessert.

    • Susan S. Bradley

      June 6, 2017 at 10:09 am

      Leo, thanks for the comment. Yes, it’s a dessert sauce. Perfect for ice cream, custard. or even a souffle.

  2. Linh B

    May 7, 2017 at 5:35 am

    It looks super fresh to me! I’m gonna make it tomorrow and let you know the result! Thanks for this recipe <3

    • Susan S. Bradley

      June 6, 2017 at 10:10 am

      Hope you like it Linh, thanks! 🙂

  3. Soma

    April 21, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    I would not think of combining tomato and strawberry! But it looks and sounds delicious.
    .-= Soma´s last blog ..Hakka Noodles =-.

  4. k

    April 10, 2010 at 5:51 am

    well, so what would you put this on?

    • sms bradley

      April 10, 2010 at 9:46 am

      K, use this sauce anywhere you would use a more traditional strawberry sauce: over ice cream, as an accompaniment to panna cotta or custard, with cake, as a base for Italian soda, ice cream or sorbet, and so forth. I think it is especially apropos for desserts that include goat cheese, cream cheese, or Parmesan and fresh herbs, for instance, Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Strawberry-Tomato Sauce & Basil Syrup.

  5. bobbinis-kitchen.com

    April 9, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    Nice colors!
    Wouldn’t dare to mix strawberries with tomatoes.
    Interesting mixture.
    .-= bobbinis-kitchen.com´s last blog ..Gigot of lamb with orzo =-.

    • sms bradley

      April 10, 2010 at 9:50 am

      Bobbinis Kitchen, give it a go. You will be pleasantly surprised. 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. Kicky Tomato Strawberry Gazpacho says:
    February 1, 2015 at 1:32 pm

    […] I’m intriqued with the tomato-strawberry flavor pairing. Earlier, I experimented with a Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce to accompany Heavenly Parmesan Sour Cream Pound Cake. It was a surprise hit. Hopefully, there will […]

  2. Fresh Primer: Strawberries says:
    February 1, 2015 at 10:48 am

    […] Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce […]

  3. Fresh Strawberry Roundup says:
    February 1, 2015 at 10:45 am

    […] Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce […]

  4. Florida Tomatoes All Day Long says:
    March 28, 2012 at 6:27 am

    […] Fresh Strawberry-Tomato Dessert Sauce (Luna Cafe) Tags: breakfast, Cooking, dessert, dinner, lunch, recipe, the florida chef, tomato […]

  5. Monday Musing – Tomatoes for Dessert says:
    March 26, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    […] Strawberry Tomato Dessert Sauce – Granted, just about everything with strawberries is tasty. […]

Primary Sidebar

Susan S. Bradley

Intrepid cook, food writer, culinary instructor, creator of the LunaCafe blog, author of Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking, and former director of the Northwest Culinary Academy. Read More…

Find Recipes By Category

Recent Adventures

Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake

Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake is a simple, earthy cake in the Clafouti …

Continue Reading about Fresh Apricot Ginger Peasant Cake

Mulled Apple Cider with Winter Spices

Mulled Apple Cider with Warm Winter Spices, Cayenne & Hibiscus

Have you ever wondered what “mulled” actually means? As in Mulled Apple Cider? I always assumed …

Continue Reading about Mulled Apple Cider with Warm Winter Spices, Cayenne & Hibiscus

Apple Pandowdy (Juicy Caramel, Upside-Down, Broken Crust Skillet Pie)

Apple Pandowdy (Juicy Caramel, Upside-Down, Broken Crust Skillet Pie)

Okay first things first. What's a pandowdy? Or is it pan dowdy? And does "dowdy" mean what I …

Continue Reading about Apple Pandowdy (Juicy Caramel, Upside-Down, Broken Crust Skillet Pie)

Blueberry Lavender Limeade

After I created Fresh Blueberry Lime Sauce earlier this summer, I devoted myself to spooning it over …

Continue Reading about Blueberry Lavender Limeade

Search our site

Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates and to hear about our latest adventures!

We won't sell your email or send you spam.

Explore more

Footer

The LunaCafe

Copyright 2014-2021 | Susan S. Bradley. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2023 · Navigation Pro by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

  • Block Examples