"If there's a mecca for balsamic vinegar it would be the city of Modena."
That's according to James Ryan, who's downtown St. Pete olive oil tasting room, Kalamazoo Olive Company, has received a limited quantity of a seasonal balsamic-like dressing that customers can add to their pantries. Produced by Modena, Italy's Acetum company, Saba Balsamic Vinegar, as Ryan describes in a news release, is thicker, richer and more complex than other sabas that consumers can get their hands on.
For the uninitiated, saba starts out as grape must — a medley of grape juice, stems, seeds and skin — just like balsamic. Balsamic's edgy older cousin, however, is easier to make than is familiar ancestor. To achieve the sweet syrup that is saba, all the grape must has to do is cook down to around a third of its original volume.
Ryan says Acetum distinguishes its saba, available through Kalamazoo in store or online for $15.95 per 6.7-ounce bottle, from the rest of the market's through a "prolonged cooking process that removes moisture and concentrates extract solids in the must."
A quick Google search yields a number of recipes that call for saba — arugula, grape and almond salad, roast pork loin, baked pears and fig-saba jam, to name a few.
"A good bottle of saba can have as much complexity in flavor as a good bottle of balsamic," the Kalamazoo owner said. "Its sweetness was praised by both the ancient Greeks and Romans."
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2017.