It is time for Sunday Slow Bakers. We are a group of bakers from Slow Travel who are baking and blogging together each Sunday. The group was organized by Krista and this is our eighth bake.

Today’s dessert is Strawberries in Chianti with Black Pepper Ricotta Cream from Dolce Italiano selected by Amy of Destination Anywhere. Perfect choice for June when local strawberries are at their peak. It was also great not to bake and to have a little lighter dessert. I passed on last week’s Ricotta Cheesecake.

Strawberries are late this year due to the unusual cold weather we have been having in June here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve renamed June to Junuary due to the cold. But fortunately I saw the first batch in my favorite local grocery store. These beauties are locally grown in the rich Skagit Valley just north of Seattle. The grower is the Sakuma Brothers. They have been local farmers for three generations and have been growing strawberries since 1948.

I picked out a nice basket and carefully carried them home. I didn’t want them bruised for the photo shoot.

The recipe is super easy. Wash and quarter the strawberries into a large bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and add a 1/2 cup Chianti wine and macerate for two hours. Meanwhile beat cream and sugar until forms soft peaks. Add ricotta cheese and cracked pepper. Serve as a parfait.

We really enjoyed it. I loved how different it tasted. Not extremely sweet. I did not crack the pepper but instead coarsely ground the pepper which gave it a milder flavor. In fact, G couldn’t tell it was pepper. He thought the spice was cinnamon. I’ll make this again.