Gelato!

Gelato makes my holiday go round. Part of the fun of travelling is letting yourself do things you wouldn't normally at home. I don't buy ice-creams on a day out in Sydney, it's not even something that really occurs to me to do but on holiday it is at the forefront of my mind at every city I go to.

To start with, that age old question; what is the difference between ice-cream and gelato? After some research-very little it turns out. Gelato is made with more milk and less cream making it- you guessed it – less creamy. It is churned slower which allows less air in and makes it a denser treat, and finally the last difference is the temperature that it is served at. Gelato is served much warmer than ice-cream and so is softer and smoother.

 

Now we have our facts out of the way, let’s talk flavours. I was one of those kids that would only ever eat chocolate flavoured anything. Milk, yogurt, ice-cream. It took me a long time to start branching out into ‘exotic flavours’ like rum and raisin and cookies and cream. These days I’m more adventurous. For instance in Valencia this year I tried a gelato labelled ‘anchoa’ with a little picture of a fish next to it. The serving lady warned me, she said ‘it is a fish’ with a worried look on her face and I told her knew and she handed me a tiny scoop of it. I almost spat it out onto the cobble stones but I held myself together whilst my friend just laughed at me. The taste was of anchovies that have been left to soak in curdled cream for a week. I think it was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted.

Fortunately that has been my only bad experience of gelato. Many have been the delightful ones. Whilst travelling though Italy in 2011 my friend and I agreed that there was nothing wrong with a gelato a day as long as it was different flavours each time. This was never going to be a problem in the country that has gelatarias displaying 100 different flavours (Il Gelato di Claudio Torce, V.le dell’Aeronautica 105, Roma). From that summer I remember rich berry flavours being our favourite. Taking care not to drip the deep reds onto our clothes for fear of stains but loving the colours it left on our lips.

 

 

This year I the only pact I made with myself was not to pay more than €3 for 2 scoops, a very easy pact to keep all over the continent. I tried dark and bitter chocolates, candy flavoured bananas, rockmelon, watermelon and honeydew, Nutella with caramel running through it like little flavour giving veins. Blackcurrant that was overrun by seeds, rum and raisin with raisins so soaked in the rum that they spat juice out at you when you bit into them. I had green apple which was equal parts sweet and tart and the famous (in Venice at least) Crema come una volta, a mix of eggs, fresh cream and lemon peel. A taste that is hard to describe but think of something a little like a creamy custard. Or visit a Grom gelataria to try it yourself.

Next time I think I want to branch into the flower flavoured that I have seen here and there. A little bit of lavender or cold rose on your tongue just sounds divine!  I will be steering well clear of beer or tomato flavoured gelato’s. I don’t need a second bad experience.

Here’s a recipe for a Hazelnut Gelato that you can try and make yourself.

Toast 1 ½ cups of hazelnuts in a moderate oven for 5 minutes. (Watch them carefully because they burn easily). Remove the skins by wrapping them in a tea towel and gently rubbing. Chop coarsely.

Beat 6 egg yolks and gradually stir in 1 ½ cups of caster sugar, beating until nicely mixed.  Heat 2 cups of full cream milk with 2 cups of cream until it is almost boiling then remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the egg and sugar mixture. In a bain-marie, cook the mixture gently until it thickens and coats a wooden spoon. Cool in the fridge. Whisk in 2 tablespoons Fra Angelico or Vanilla essence and 2 cups of cream.  Add the hazelnuts and the juice and zest of 1 lemon. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the machine’s instructions to finish this rich gelato off!