March 23, 2012

GELATO, GELATO !


It seems all the world loves gelato. The first time you taste it, it's an epiphany. It's better than ice cream - intense flavor, ultra smooth, richly satisfying. Whenever I'm in Italy, I often make three stops a day at gelato stands and shops, already planning the next flavor to try as I'm finishing the last spoonful of the one in my hand. I still haven't tried them all because it's so hard not to choose my favorites when I stop ~ pistachio, limone, stracciatella and my ultimate favorite, fiore di latte - flower of milk. There is no better name for what has to be one of the most perfect expressions of milk transformed. 


Some recipes contain egg yolk and have a cooked custard to start, others simply use cream. I'd intended making gelato di limone, but then saw my fruit bowl full of blood oranges and changed course. The result of my indecision turned into a delicious batch of gelato. 
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Blood Orange and Lime Gelato

4 medium blood oranges
1 large navel orange
1 medium lime
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. heavy cream

Peel 4 strips of the navel orange and 6 strips of peel from the lime, avoiding as much of the white pith as possible. Place in a small saucepan. Roll the fruits around on the cutting board before cutting and juicing them. Squeeze as much juice from each fruit as you can through a strainer over a large bowl. Discard solids. Add strained juice to the saucepan, along with the sugar. Bring to a boil, then simmer 2 minutes. Allow the mixture to stand, off the heat, for five minutes. Strain juice into a bowl and cool completely in the fridge.
Once it's cold, start your ice cream maker spinning (be sure the freezer bowl has been well frozen). Add the cream to the juice and pour immediately into the ice cream maker. In 15-20 minutes, your gelato will be ready.
Transfer to a freezer container (if you haven't eaten it all).
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Aspenglow / Buttered Lips by Gayle Nabrotzky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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