Fish, meat, and vegetables, even desserts: balsamic vinegar adds a touch of luxury to any dish.
With warm food, add the balsamic vinegar just a few seconds before the end of cooking to prevent its precious aroma vanishing in the air. The best idea is to drizzle it directly over the dish before serving.

With such a luxurious condiment, it’s also important to consider how it shouldn’t be used. There is a sort of etiquette for using Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from Reggio Emilia: a few simple rules to make sure you exploit and enjoy every single drop to the maximum.

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar should really be used straight from the bottle on salads or raw vegetables. It enhances the flavour of mayonnaise or sauces, enriches slivers of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and has the power to turn plain boiled fish or white meat into something sensational. It is a perfect match for fruit salads or vanilla ice cream and is superlative with chocolate. In marinades, it brings out the best in game and white meat, especially rabbit.

The Aragosta Label is the best choice for cooking: it should be added when the dish is practically ready to serve: this gives it plenty of time for its flavour to enhance the recipe without losing any of its extraordinary aroma and the opulent complexity of its bouquet. A few seconds are all it needs to add the finishing touch to escalopes, lamb kidneys, thinly sliced steaks or any type of liver.

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar has its own distinctive character and a flavour full of personality.

Like all culinary greats, such as caviar, truffles or foie gras, it should be given centre stage on the table. It does not suit layers and layers of contrasting flavours that would simply end up cancelling one another out, nullifying its rich perfume and the extraordinary taste of this marvellous condiment.

So, try not to waste it on hot or spicy food or in dishes that are already cooked in wine. Talking of spices, avoid using it with pepper, chilli pepper or star anise. On the other hand, it goes particularly well with vanilla, cinnamon and juniper berries.

Anything that is opulent or highly sophisticated gets a sour edge if it is put out on parade once too often. Likewise, Traditional Balsamic Vinegar should be used in small amounts, to enhance flavours but not to cover them.

It should be used as sparingly as a luxurious condiment truly deserves.
Just a few drops are all that's needed to transform a dish of plain vanilla ice cream into an exquisite and aromatic dessert or make plain boiled fish a meal fit for a king.

Enough is as good as a feast: food fans know this all too well and dispense carefully measured droplets of this elixir with almost ritual-like precision onto a piece of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese or a slice of Parma ham.