GELATO DI CREMA

Gelato could not be missing from Pellegrino Artusi's fine collection of recipes. In fact, a whole chapter of Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891) is devoted to icecreams, sorbets and granitas.

Until the nineteenth century, freezing and storing icecream had been a time-consuming business with moderate results. Artusi's creations, however, were easy to prepare -mainly thanks to a couple of new inventions. Nancy Maria Donaldson's hand-cranked 'icecream freezer' was now available in Europe and strongly recommended by Artusi, himself a businessman and fond of innovation. Also, basic refrigerators (or iceboxes) were perfected, enabling housewives to store frozen delights for longer periods of time.

 

 

Nancy Maria Donaldson (1794-1890)

 

The American icecream freezer

 

Icecream had been popular in Europe for more than 400 years but the 'queen of ices' in the second half of the nineteenth century was famously A. B. Marshall, who enriched all of her recipes with vast amounts of spice and liquor.

Italian gelati were much more balanced in comparison. A champion of healthy eating, Artusi prepared his icecreams with as little fat as possible -using milk rather than cream, and very little sugar.  His 'cream' ice was basically a milk custard. His 'water' ice had more in common with granita because he didn't use egg whites at all. (Of course, you'd need to churn the mixture by hand several times in Ms. Donaldson's icecream maker to avoid crystallization.) Also, he never overloaded recipes with flavor: tiny amounts of exotic or ripe Mediterranean fruits sufficed.

Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well features a wide variety of recipes, with just a small percentage based on 'luxury' ingredients: 1) basic recipes, such as 'ice cream mold' (pezzo in gelo) and custard ice cream (gelato di crema), 2) 'water ices' including lemon, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach, sour cherry, orange, and redcurrant sorbets, 3) 'cream ices' with added egg yolks for richness, like banana or chocolate gelato, 4) gourmet recipes using macaroons, pistachios, candied fruit, nougat, and chestnuts, 5) Italian specialties: 'Roman punch', caffè latte icecream and spumone with tea (spumone was a version of Neapolitan icecream, popular among immigrants). Despite its frequent use in local cuisines, ricotta was not featured on Artusi's list of ingredients. He did offer, however, a version of 'cream ice' with almond milk.

GELATO DI CREMA

This is exactly Pellegrino Artusi's custard icecream (recipe 759), which is also featured as crema (recipe 685) under 'cakes and spoon desserts'. The icecream version is not flavored with vanilla in the book: suggested alternatives were coriander seeds, roasted coffee beans, or crushed almonds.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

1lt whole milk

200g caster sugar

8 yolks

a vanilla pod+seeds

M e t h o d

Whisk the sugar and yolks, gradually adding the milk. Place in a saucepan and heat gently until the mixture bubbles. Add the vanilla, mix well, and set aside to cool. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours, then prepare in your icecream maker as usual.

V a r i a t i o n s

Make the custard with ricotta (pictured above) or half almond milk half double cream.