June 26, 2012 Basil Gelato

 

I knew the minute I saw the picture of bright green Basil gelato on Saveur’s magazine’s blog this week that I would be pulling out my behemoth Il Gelateria and making it for Sunday’s dessert. Every summer I make an assortment of ice creams and sorbet with the herbs we grow in the garden. Lavender and anise hyssop have become standards as well as fruit and herb combinations like peach and cinnamon basil. The basil in our garden is flourishing and it’s good to cut it back periodically to slow it down from going to seed.

Gelato means frozen in Italian, and yes it is different from ice cream. Gelato is made with a larger proportion of milk to cream. By definition, ice cream can have a minimum of 10% fat while gelato is 5-7% fat.  Real gelato is churned at a slower speed than ice cream so less air is incorporated in gelato. Ice cream can contain as much as 50% air, gelato only 25-30% air.

I have a gelato, not an ice cream maker, a Gaggia Il Gelatiera that has served me well over the last twenty years. I originally purchased the machine for a catering job. The couple whose wedding I was catering requested white chocolate and espresso ice cream to accompany their wedding cake and I was happy to oblige. I knew I wouldn’t get very far with the frozen canister type or even the old-fashioned hand crank that is chilled with rock salt and large quantities of ice.  I was going to be making ice cream for one hundred people at an outdoor reception on a warm June day. My research sent me to the nearest Williams-Sonoma store which at that time was in Princeton, New Jersey to purchase an Il Gelateria. The Il Gelatiera is a self-refrigerating ice cream maker, meaning the refrigeration mechanism is built-in. You just plug it in, switch on the refrigeration unit, wait a few minutes until it cools down, add your chilled base and switch on the paddle. A batch, about one quart was ready in a half hour. But I could continue to make batch after batch, without having to refreeze a canister or crank for hours on end. Expensive, yes, twenty years ago it was a little less than five hundred dollars, so definitely an investment. The Il Gelatiera is not available for sale in the U.S. at this time. Amazon’s U.K. site offers an updated model with free shipping, in the U.K. that is, at about the same price I paid for mine. Today’s gold standard is most likely the Cuisinart ICE-50BC. At about half the price and one-third the weight, (my machine weighs 28.4 lbs!) it’s what I would most likely choose if I were buying an ice cream maker today.

Now to jump on my soap box. If you are going to take the time to make homemade ice cream or gelato, or any dairy based item (cheese, yogurt, even whipped cream)  avoid ultra pasteurized dairy products. Ultra pasteurization is a process that gives dairy an extended shelf life but can adversely affect the taste and texture of the product.

Basil Gelato

Recipe from Saveur Magazine

Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

• 2 c basil leaves
• 2 c whole milk
• 1 c heavy cream
• ¾ c sugar
• 1 T     lemon zest
• ¼t  salt
• 6 egg yolks

Directions

1. Combine basil, milk, cream, sugar, lemon zest, salt, and yolks in a blender and puree until smooth. Because of the size of my blender bowl, I averted possible disaster and did not put all the milk in, I whisked it in afterward.
2. Pour into a 2 quart saucepan and heat gently until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer, chill in the refrigerator.
3. Pour chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.
4. Serve garnished with fresh basil leaves.