It’s hard to overstate the glory of strawberries. Now that the first outdoor varieties are beginning to hit roadside stalls you can pretend that you waited for the real thing rather than having guiltily eaten a few early foreign punnets like the rest of us.
It is best to avoid buying them from supermarkets, as they tend to be more concerned with long life, perfect shape and colour, and so favour the least flavoursome varieties. If you can’t, it is worth paying the extra few pence for the premium lines. Strawberries shouldn’t last more than a day or two — and why would you want them to? Keep them away from the fridge, they’re all about gobbling without restraint.
Turn first to the most obvious: a simple bowlful, gritty with granulated sugar and drenched in double cream.
For tea, turn to the classic American dish, strawberry shortcake, which plays with our own tradition of scones and cream: macerate hulled, chopped strawberries (mashing about a quarter of them) in sugar for half an hour. Sandwich into scones with whipped or clotted cream and dust with icing sugar.
For Eton mess, prepare in the same way, then fold with broken meringue and softly whipped cream.
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Fool is good for very ripe strawberries: mash then fold into softly whipped cream, sweetening if necessary, and adding finely chopped mint for freshness.
To make a simple trifle, first drown sponge fingers in vin santo, Beaume de Venise or Cointreau. Scatter over a layer of strawberries. Beat a tub of mascarpone with an egg yolk and a little caster sugar to taste, whip the egg white and fold in carefully, then finish with toasted almond flakes or grated chocolate.
Strawberries are rarely improved by cooking, though a compote or jam is one way to store extra if necessary. Far better to turn into ice cream or, better still, milk ice: try blending 400g of strawberries, 250ml of milk, 100g of sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice for a wonderfully intense flavour, adding extra milk if you prefer it less concentrated, then churn in an ice-cream maker or freeze, stirring from time to time. If — and only if — you have top-notch balsamic vinegar, you can drizzle a little over the top.