The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato Sorbetto
Bold, Fresh Flavors to Make at HomeBy F.W. Pearce & Danilo Zecchin
New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2010
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This book seemed fun as the calendar turns toward spring and warmer weather. It is not really a fancy cuisine book or anything like that; instead, it’s just a simple, get-to-the-point book about making gelato (or sorbetto) for yourself at home. (If you would rather someone else make your gelato for you, stop by Park Central Branch and ask us where to go. There are at least two downtown locations selling this Italian frozen dessert. We can point you on your way.)
The key thing about gelato is not that gelato is difficult. It’s not that gelato is even necessarily Italian: gelato has been so enthusiastically Americanized in the past decade that this book offers 26 recipe-packed pages of “American Favorites,” to go along with even more recipes for “Italian Classics” and “Basics.” You can literally gelato your way around the planet with this book.
Actually, gelato is different from ice cream, but not too different. Quoting Messrs. Pearce and Zecchin: “Gelato contains less fat and less air than ice cream, which allows the flavor of its ingredients to come through.” (p. 13) Gelato pretty much always contains egg yolks; ice cream doesn’t have to.
The minute this book arrived on shelf here at
Park Central Branch, one of our staff (me) had a whale of a time testing it out at home. Equipment included: saucepan, whisk, measuring cups, kitchen thermometer, coffee grinder, and a super-cheap ice-cream maker found at a local big-box store. Ingredients, apart from flavorings, included milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar.
It turns out this was all I needed to create Plain Gelato Base (p. 22), which is the custard foundation of gelato. In Italy, Plain Gelato Base is called gelato di crema and often frozen and served as-is. Or you can add flavorings like vanilla, hazelnut or coffee.
The cookbook authors listed out simple-to-follow instructions on how to mix and cook the perfect Plain Gelato Base. After 20 or 30 minutes’ work on the base, I proceeded to choose an “Italian Classic” gelato flavoring to try. I was completely seduced by Pistachio Gelato (p. 47), but I had no pistachios in the house and no desire to make special purchases. What I did have: some leftover almonds rolled in cocoa powder. So I followed the directions in every other aspect, but swapped chocolatey almonds for pistachios.
This worked out just fine. After a few hours of custard-chilling, I ground up my almonds and threw in some almond extract, then ran the custard/flavoring mix through my cheapo ice-cream maker. I let it ripen in the freezer all afternoon. Ta-da... gelato! Easier (and more quickly!) said than done, but not excruciatingly difficult at all.
It made for a nifty special dessert, as the family task for the night was to throw a little thank-you dinner for a friend. Yay special treats and hospitality!
We give this book: four gelato scoops out of a possible five. (Who could eat that much? That’s right: me.)
If you like this, love this: The Vegan Scoop: 150 Recipes for Dairy-Free Ice Cream that Tastes Better than the “Real” Thing by Wheeler Del Torro. Keep following this blog; we plan to review it later this summer.
Fans of Lifetime's Project Runway will find lots to love in this book by the increasingly iconic Tim Gunn, he of the catchphrase "Make it Work!"
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