Wednesday 25 June: A brief discourse on gelato

One of the most pleasant ways to deal with summer heat in Italy is to eat gelato. Gelato is usually translated as “ice cream,” although technically it’s ice milk, since it is made with whole milk rather than cream. It often has egg in it as an emulsifier, and is less dense than American ice cream. In Italy gelato is taken very seriously, and only the highest quality ingredients are used. It’s made fresh daily, and when you walk past a gelateria, you see it heaped in bins within glass-fronted counters. It is much better than most American ice cream, better even than la glace in France. And although I’ve had really good gelato in Florence and Venice, the best is in Rome.

Gelato comes in lots of flavors. The vanilla and chocolate are standards, but there are lots of variations. Cioccolato fondente is dark chocolate, very deep and intense, and one of my favorites. Bacio, named for the “kiss” candy you see all over Italy, is chocolate and hazelnut. And Gary’s favorite, stracciatella, has hot melted chocolate drizzled over the gelato and then stirred into it. The strings of chocolate harden and break up, and it’s sort of like chocolate chip, only better. There are tons of fruit flavors: fragole (strawberry), arancia (orange), ananas (pineapple), mela (apple), pera (pear), pesca (peach), and frutti di bosco (“fruit of the woods” meaning blackberry and raspberry) are all common. The best fruit flavor for a hot day is limone, which has an incredibly refreshing, almost astringent lemon flavor. You can also find fico (fig) and albicocca (apricot) sometimes. Nut flavors are also popular, including pistacchio, mandorla (almond), and nocciola (hazelnut). There are several subtle but delicious cream flavors, too. These include fiore di latte (“flower of milk,” a very delicate and delicious taste), crema (not cream, but egg custard), zabaione (custard with Marsala wine, quite rich and tasty), and caffè (coffee). You can also find some more unusual flavors too. Cannella (cinnamon) gelato is really good if you’re lucky enough to encounter it. Zuppa inglese (“English soup”) is named after the British dessert “trifle,” and has pieces of cookie or cake in it. Liquirizia is licorice, and maybe an acquired taste.

You can get gelato in cones or cups of many sizes. You can also have it on a sweet roll: the gelateria will have a bin of brioches wrapped in cellophane. They’ll split it for you and heap on the gelato. Italians think you’re crazy if you only order one flavor. I’ve seen people get as many as ten on one cone!

And remember the panna! Panna is cream, as in whipped cream. The best places, meaning the ones I go to, whip the cream by hand until it’s really stiff, and keep it in a big steel bowl on ice. Whether you have a cone or a cup, just say you want yours “con panna” and they’ll slap a big glob of whipped cream on top. The best thing is, panna is always free!

Although some desserts, like frozen cakes, may include gelato as an ingredient, gelato is seldom eaten as a dessert by Italians. Instead, it’s the perfect snack for the late afternoon or early evening stroll. Before and after dinner, the streets of Rome are filled with boys and girls, workers in uniforms, men and women in Prada, tourists, police, nuns, and priests walking with their friends, laughing and talking and eating gelato. When it’s hot out, there’s nothing better than a cono piccolo di limone, con panna!