Mostarda is a typical product of Northern Italy, made by caramelizing fruit with sugar and mustard oil. Excellent for accompanying roasts, boiled meats and cheeses, the most famous mostarda recipe is the one from Cremona. But at home, you can make many different varieties of the recipe. For example, mostarda di mele with apples! Here’s how to make it:
Recipe for Mostarda di mele
Ingredients
2 lb of apples (not overripe), 3 lemons, 2 and a half oz. sugar, 10 drops of mustard oil
Method
Peel the apples and cut them into slices. Wash the lemons (preferably organic lemons) and cut one into thin slices. Separately, squeeze the juice from the other two lemons. Put the sliced apples in a bowl and pour sugar and lemon juice over them. Cover with plastic wrap and leave the apples to soak in the syrup for at least 24 hours.
The next day, remove the juice from the apples and pour it into a saucepan. Bring sauce to a boil and let cook for about 15 minutes. Pour sauce over the apples once again while still boiling. The same procedure should be repeated at least 4 times within the following 24 hours.
Now it’s time time to caramelize the mostarda di mele! Put both the apples and the syrup in a nonn-stick pot and bring to a boil. Then turn off the heat, let cool and add the mustard oil. Transfer the mostarda di mele into a clean, dry glass jar and keep cool.