Raspberry Coulis with Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar and Ice Cream

It seems to me that Raspberries were the "it" fruit of the 1980s; I recall them being used in recipes everywhere from condiments to garnishes to the highlight in a dessert. To some of us, this little forest fruit never went away, yet our Italian Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar is the most under-appreciated vinegar we have. This is unfortunate, because the fresh raspberry aroma is pronounced and the flavor sensational. Now that fresh raspberries are in season, I want to remedy that and will use raspberries in our serving suggestions both this week and next. 

I've experimented with pouring this vinegar directly onto fresh raspberries, and although pleasing, the experience is a bit austere. My next experiment was to pour the vinegar over vanilla ice cream. We don't often have ice cream in the house, however, duty calls, so we purchased Tillamook, which we love because they use real vanilla bean and more cream than is required by the US grade standard. The  richness of this ice cream proved to be a worthy foil for the acidity of the vinegar with a few fresh raspberries for garnish. Donald suggested taking this a step further and created a raspberry coulis to pour over the ice cream. We topped that with the Italian Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar, then added a few fresh raspberries for garnish. Success!

Here is the recipe for coulis. We hope you try it with the Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar!   

- Liz & Donald