Besides pasta and pizza, Italy’s most famous culinary export is gelato. The frozen treat originated thousands of years ago, but was perfected in Renaissance Italy. In the 16th century, the powerful Medici family of Florence sponsored a competition to find the most unique dessert, and a chef named Cosimo Ruggeri is said to have created one of the first gelatos.
In the late 17th century, a Sicilian chef named Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli brought his family’s gelato-making techniques to Paris, where he opened a café and later received a special license from King Louis XIV to sell gelato, among other luxury treats.
While the creamy, cold dessert was undeniably delicious and popular, it was many years before it would be widely available to the general public. Gelato’s main ingredients—particularly sugar—were too expensive to produce in mass, and keeping anything frozen was a labor-intensive process.
Centuries later, gelato crossed the pond and became a popular staple in the United States. In the 1950s, new manufacturing processes made gelato more accessible than ever. After losing its popularity to American ice cream, gelato is regaining attention in the culinary world.
The Difference Between Gelato and Ice Cream
Ice cream and gelato are both sweet, frozen desserts, but there are many differences between the two dishes. Firstly, gelato contains less fat and more sugar. Ice cream often contains egg yolk and a lower percentage of milk.
Gelato also goes through a different production process. While ice cream goes through aeration, gelato contains less air. This results in a denser, more flavorful product.
Gelato is also stored and served at a higher temperature than ice cream: a little above 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice cream can be stored in deep freeze and is best served at about 6 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Authentic gelato also tends to include expensive ingredients, and more of them, because the final product contains less air than ice cream. For this reason, gelato can be up to 50 percent more expensive than a similar variety of ice cream.
The Gelato-Making Process
The gelato-making process has changed over the years. The oldest variations of gelato were made by mixing ingredients like milk and rice with snow. In 16th-century Italy, renowned architect and chef Bernardo Buontalenti made a concoction of fruit, honey, milk, and egg yolks to create one of the first gelatos.
Now, gelato usually contains a combination of milk, sugar, cream, and flavorings like chocolate, vanilla, fruit, nuts, herbs, and spices—really, anything the chef can imagine.
Gelato makers use a variety of machinery and freezing processes. For example, gelato must be pasteurized to prevent harmful bacterial growth. A batch freezer blends the liquid gelato mixture and transforms the product into its solid form.
Without preservatives, gelato in its frozen state has a shelf life of less than 72 hours. For this reason, pre-made mixes must be stored in a maturation vat to prevent the batch from going bad before the final stage.
As artisans invent new production practices, these techniques can alter the texture and visual appearance of gelato. For example, traditional gelato had a grainy texture. After the advent of gelato machinery, today’s version is smooth.
Modern improvements have made gelato production more accessible and consistent. However, food critics agree that maintaining some original ingredients and techniques produces the best-tasting gelato.
For example, brightly colored gelato usually contains artificial flavors and additives. Gelato made with out-of-season produce can also indicate artificial ingredients. A display case filled with large, heaping mounds of gelato that do not melt may reflect a recipe that includes copious amounts of fat or emulsifiers to stabilize the mixture.
Ideally, gelato should melt when in contact with metal. Travelers can avoid overpriced, but lower quality gelato by looking for gelaterias that display their products in a bucket-like vat.
Iconic Gelato Destinations in Italy
Eating authentically made gelato is a travel experience in itself. Some of the oldest gelaterias are located throughout Italy.
The best of these gelato parlors can earn the coveted three-cone ranking from the Italian gourmet publication Gambero Rosso. Good gelato can be found in every major Italian city, though it must be said that Rome, Venice, and Florence have an abundance of overpriced shops focused more on luring tourists than the art of gelato making. Still, travelers can find authentic gelato even in these bustling cities—for example, Stefano Ferrara Gelato Lab of Rome received Gambero Rosso’s three-cone ranking and distinction for the best chocolate gelato in Italy.
Each region offers its own version of the famous treat. In Sicily, eggs are rarely part of the recipe. Venetian varieties are more likely to include herbs and spices, like saffron or rose flavoring. In Naples and Tuscany, fruit-based flavors are more popular.
Perhaps the most famous city when it comes to Italian gelato is Bologna in the Emilia Romagna region. Bologna is where the first gelato recipe was written and published. The city’s history of mechanical innovation also contributed to advances in gelato machinery and manufacturing.
A Global Phenomenon
While gelato is most closely associated with Italy, the dessert’s popularity has spread worldwide. Gelato is widely consumed in other European countries, such as Spain and Germany. Some of the largest markets for gelato include the United States, where more than 40 percent of the population eats gelato. Gelato consumption is also growing rapidly in Asia, especially in China and South Korea.
The most popular gelato flavors include pistachio, a staple of Southern Italy, as well as chocolate and stracciatella, which combines vanilla flavoring and chocolate pieces.
Conclusion
Gelato is a deceptively simple dessert with a rich and complex history. Today, there are more than 100,000 gelaterias serving up delicious scoops of gelato to consumers across the globe. However, the most authentic gelato experiences are almost always found in the dessert’s birthplace, Italy. No trip to the country is complete without sampling this iconic treat.