This Retro Italian-Inspired Dish From The '80s Was Pink Thanks To This Unique Flavor Combo

Ah, the 1980s! The decade of MTV, vivid neon colors, and aerobic exercise videos. (And also the looming threat of nuclear armageddon, along with a few other unpleasant events, but we're rhapsodizing nostalgically here.) During that time, the zeitgeist crackled with modernity. Consider "Miami Vice," the "Video Killed the Radio Star" music video, the art of Patrick Nagel, and ... strawberry risotto?

Risotto is typically flavored with savory ingredients, like mushrooms or saffron, but it can also be made with fruit, like strawberries, for a counterintuitive but nonetheless satisfying side dish. Despite its sweetness, it's not a dessert, including ingredients like onions, shallots, balsamic vinegar, white wine, vegetable stock, parmesan, or Grana Padano. Some cooks caution against using cream or other kinds of cheese, as they would mask the delicate fruity and acidic flavors. 

The result is a surprisingly balanced, as tasty eaten on its own as it is accompanying fish, shrimp, ossobuco, or some other regional Italian dish you need to try. And, as a bonus, the strawberries color the risotto a cheerful shade of pink. Totally radical, dudes! (That's how people talked in the '80s, right?)

So why was strawberry risotto so irresistible to diners in the 1980s (and the chefs who catered to them)? Well, as we said, the '80s valued a sense of modernity, including in cuisine. Novel flavor combinations and playful experimentation with high-class dishes were common in the halls of fine dining — recall "American Psycho," where Patrick Bateman would tuck into peanut butter soup with smoked duck or red snapper pizza. In Italy, chefs freed themselves from the restraints of tradition (which is kind of an Italian food myth to begin with) and began to play around with different flavors.

There was something in the air in Italy at the time that encouraged the popularity of strawberry risotto. Angelo Paracucchi of the restaurant Locanda dell'Angelo became famous in the 1970s for utilizing fruit in his savory dishes, while Gualtiero Marchesi became renowned for his risotti.  Strawberry risotto, then, combined the two trends, although neither chef invented it, and it spread pretty rapidly. 

Of course, not everything from the 1980s retained its popularity forever. (Just ask Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.) The fad ran its course, and now, most risotto you'll get is typically savory rather than fruity and sweet. But hey, there's an apparently insatiable nostalgia for the '80s these days, so why not bring it back? It's way better than the other 1980s food fads that should stay in the past.