Globecooking recipe : Greek yogurt mousse with olive oil and strawberries (Greece)

When I looked at this recipe in my Greek-themed Kitchen Trotter box, I wasn't convinced that it would work - olives and olive oil really didn't seem to have their rightful place in a dessert recipe using strawberries and cream. It was actually very nice, although I'm not sure the olives and olive oil brought anything extra to the dish and I'd be inclined to leave them out next time. The pasteli (Greek sesame seed bars) do give it a lovely nutty topnote though so they can stay ! Basically it's a Greek-inspired twist on Eton Mess, perfect as a light summery dessert to round off a meal.

Greek yogurt mousse with olive oil and strawberries

ingredients :

500g strawberries

30g icing sugar

150g Greek yogurt

100g full-fat liquid crème fraîche or single cream

2tbsp marscapone

50g sugar

3tbsp (2 + 1) olive oil

1/2 a pasteli (sesame seed bar)

4 Kalamata olives + 100g sugar

1 meringue

Start off by chopping up the strawberries - cut half of them into quarters and the other half into slices in two separate bowls. (This is just to make it more visually appealing - you can chop them however you want really, especially if you're short on time !)

Sprinkle 15g of the icing sugar into each bowl and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Stir and reserve.

Beat the cream, sugar and marscapone with an electric whisk until it's thickened up and forms soft peaks. Gently fold in the yogurt and 1tbsp olive oil. Put in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Chop the pasteli into little cubes and reserve. Crush the meringue into small pieces too.

Put 100ml of water into a small saucepan with 100g sugar and bring to the boil. Toss in the olives and simmer for 10 minutes in the syrup. Remove from the syrup and chop into quarters.

Drain the juice from the plates of strawberries into a dish and add 2tbsp olive oil. Mix.

Spoon little piles of mousse into each bowl and arrange the strawberry quarters between the piles and the slices around the edge. Scatter olives, meringue pieces and pasteli pieces over each dish and drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of strawberry syrup over the top.

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