You say gelato I say gelati

My love affair with gelato started on my first trip to Rome and a dish of banana gelato. I had ordered lemon but either the waiter was a little hard of hearing or my Italian wasn’t what it is today, but I ended up with banana. Prior to this my experience of  banana ice-cream was that hideous artificial yellow chemical enhanced iced confection that has never been next to a real banana let alone be made of any.  In one Italian mouthful my world changed, banana, and very little else, real banana.

There are so many variations of the ice cream gelato base recipe; you just need to go with one that works for your tastes. Cream, no cream, whole eggs, just yolks, and the amount of sugar can vary by the cup load.

Christmas was at our house a couple of years ago so for dessert I did a gelato bar. This gave me plenty of practice to find the base I liked, as well as experimental flavours, the highlight was meat lovers!

Lemon lime and bitters gelato

·         6 egg yolks

·         ½ cups sugar

·         3 cups of milk

·         ½ cup lemon lime and bitters butter

Method

·         In a heavy base saucepan add eggs, milk, sugar, and whisk.

·         Keep stirring over a low heat until the custard thickening enough to coat the back of a spoon.

·         Be careful not to overcook it or it will curdle.

·         Pass through a sieve and either chill on ice or in the fridge overnight.

·         Put into ice cream machine as per manufactures instructions

·         Add the lemon lime and bitters butter

·         And churn

Serve with blueberries or just as it is.

Lemon lime and bitters butter (say that 3 times drunk)

·         Juice of 2 lemons

·         Juice and zest of 1 lime

·         2 eggs

·         ½ cup sugar

·         100g chilled unsalted butter, chopped rough.

·         5-10 ml Angostura bitters (about 3-4 bottle shakes)

Method

·         Add all except the bitters to a saucepan and stir over a low-medium heat.

·         Once the curd is at the thickness required take it off the heat and add the bitters.

·         Cool before adding to ice-cream.

It can also be used for toast or as cake filling. I’m not sure how long it will last, it’s never survived overnight in my house