MRS L'S BALSAMIC DRESSING

Farmers’ markets are great aren’t they? A resplendent two fingers up at Tescos whichever way you look at them. Our local one in Reading isn’t a patch on the French markets of course, not enough stalls and it only happens twice a month, but we have at last been given some hope that there is an alternative to the money-grabbing, community-killing, cheaply-convenient bastards who decimate a small town in one not-so-easy-to-get-to monstrosity of a warehouse they call a “super market”. There’s nothing “market” about them at all, well, not in the traditional sense.

I went to the Reading Farmers’ Market a few years ago and spent a fortune on some artisan balsamic dressing thinking it would entice me to eat more boring salads if I drenched lettuce in the stuff. Well, that worked - and I drenched just about everything else in it too. It was far too expensive to buy every couple of weeks and I was getting hooked, so I had a look at the ingredients and thought I’d give a go at making it myself. A few trials and errors later, there was my balsamic dressing ready for the pouring. All the family have requested gallons of the stuff so on that basis I guess it’s OK.


250 ml balsamic vinegar
125-150g sugar – or to taste

1 tbsp dried onion - optional
½ tsp mustard powder – optional
½ tsp dried herbs, eg, rosemary - optional
1-2 tsp honey to taste – optional


Put the vinegar and sugar into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Add whichever other ingredients you want for flavouring (except the honey), if any, then bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer until the liquid has thickened slightly. Test a drop on a cold saucer – when you can run your finger through it and it leaves a path, it’s ready. If you want the dressing a little thinner, don’t boil it for so long.

You can add honey at this stage to taste although it’s perfectly OK without.

You’ll need to remove the onion and herbs so I strain it through muslin, wait until it cools a bit, then pour into bottles and label. It can be used at once.