The Italians Are An Evil Lot

Having had the very, very good fortune to have been able to visit the country of Italy on not one, but two, occasions, I have come to the conclusion that Italians are little devilish imps with the ability to capture hearts and souls of unsuspecting visitors with one single temptation: gelato.

I won't even go into the pure heaven that is the food. From corner deli's to the fanciest of restaurants, a meal is cooked with centuries of knowledge about what food perfection is. I regularly stock my kitchen with arborio rice, the staple ingredient of risotto, and would never be without freshly grated parmesan. I cook with fresh tomatoes now and could not conceive of any pasta cooked beyond the al dente stage.

But beyond all the incredible architecture, beyond the gracious and politeness of the Italian people, beyond the heady aromas of jasmine and lemons, depending on where you are in Italy, is the gelato.

I am permanently addicted to gelato. The first time I visited Italy, I had never really eaten gelato. The second time, I think I may have eaten it every single day.

Gelato looks a lot like ice cream...at first. But, it is a totally different beastie. It contains unicorn dust and magic sprinkles, of that I am sure. In Italy, the gelato cases are like colorful belly dancers, luring you in to partake in the sultry dance of absolute hedonism in the form of almond toffee gelato, scraped from the iced metal bins in gentle curls of creamy flavor.

One of the in-country tours my sister and I took was to visit a region outside Florence that was famous for their gelatos. We learned how it was made in old Italy (which translates to the 1400s), and how it is made today. We learned all the vital differences between gelato and ice cream and why it has become so popular in other countries. We tasted fresh gelato, made right before our eyes, with ingredients used from the figs off the trees right outside the back door of the shop, fresh milk and organic sugar. I don't like figs and never have, probably from years of having Fig Newtons as my only "cookie" option – that or shortbread. "if you're going to eat a cookie, make it a healthy one," Mom used to say.

But, that day, the gelato was made with carefully measured ingredients, including figs and, of all things, lavender blossoms. As the tasting cups were filled, I honestly tried to say no, but peer pressure overtook me and I agreed to at least try it. Needless to say, several other strange brews of flavors were combined with the fresh gelato and I tasted every damn one of them.

It was amazing, nay I say, awesome. Kingdoms could be overthrown with just a single spoonful of that stuff. Gelato has half, if not over half, of the fat contained in ice cream but is creamier and more decadently taste-filled. There is more air whipped into the mixture, which makes for the creaminess, and the flavors are more prominent due to that fact as well – butterfat (which is present in ice cream - at least 10%) coats the palate and drowns out some of the flavoring. Gelato is usually made with freshly frozen seasonal fruits or fresh fruits, whereas ice creams, due to longer shelf life, use packaged fruits or fruit flavorings.

Now that I'm addicted, I'm buying anything that resembles gelato. Nothing compares with the gelato from Italy – at least not yet. Breyer's gelato comes close, but there is still that off taste on the back of your tongue after eating it that I never experienced from the fresh gelato of Italy. The good news is, I'm still young enough to make the trek back overseas. Bad news is, I can't afford it. Better news is, I hear tell that my sister has bought a gelato machine. And she lives right down the street.