Strawberry & Lemon Verbena Fool

This absolutely delicious summer dessert recipe is from Sophie Grigson's book 'Herbs'. I had the pleasure of watching her make it at the Herb Society President's Day back in 2007, its now a firm favourite on the puds menu in our house, next year I'll have to experiment using very low fat fromage frais and quark instead of the mascarpone cheese.

Serves 3- 4

A small handful of lemon verbena leaves
45g (1½oz) Sugar Cubes
340g (12oz) Ripe Strawberries (hulled)
250g (9oz) Mascarpone Cheese
Few springs of lemon verbena for decoration.

Method - Put the lemon verbena leaves into a mortar or strong bowl, with the sugar cubes. Pound with a pestle or the end of a rolling pin, until the sugar is crushed, and the lemon verbena leaves have disintegrated, colouring the sugar a beautiful green.

Now crush the strawberries with a fork (a food processor is too harsh). Gradually work the crushed strawberries into the mascarpone cheese, with enough of the verbena sugar to sweeten to taste. Spoon into individual dishes or glasses and serve topped with a spring of lemon verbena and a strawberry fan.

Note: A point worth noting if you make the above recipe, or use lemon verbena in any culinary dish, is the leaf is rather coarse. When I ground the herb with the sugar in the above recipe, it left little 'strands' of verbena but these can be removed before adding to your strawberry and mascarpone mixture. It wouldn't be much of a bother if the strands are left in, but chopping the lemon verbena leaves before you grind them with the sugar helps to make the strands shorter and makes grinding them to nothing easier.