I Heart Gelato

I have this insatiable addiction to gelato. I need a t-shirt that says "I Heart Gelato." It's amazing and habit forming. I knew I would like it when I first heard of it, and thought I'd tasted it in the states before my first trip to Italy. What was the big deal about it?

I knew nothing.

For those people who say they don't like gelato, there can only be two reasons for your opinion. The first is that you've never had REAL gelato, or you would never make such a blasphemous statement.


Option number two is that you frankly have no soul.

How can you not love gelato? Gelato compared to the best ice cream you can find in the states is like comparing whole milk to skim milk (gelato being the whole milk in this little analogy). It's one of the best inventions in food.

I can't remember the first flavor I ever got, but I remember I was in Florence Italy, strolling the fantastic streets among a crowd of tourists. It was silky, creamy, and unlike anything I'd ever tasted before. Within two blocks of walking my little cup was finished and licked clean.

A few blocks further and low and behold there was another gelateria. I turned to my travel companions and said, "it's a sign. We need more gelato."

While one of these companions laughed and said we were going to get along just fine the rest of the trip, our other companion thought it was strange as we'd just barely eaten some.

I honestly don't understand people like her. We Were in Italy eating the best ice cream in the world. We had a very limited time frame, there were tons of flavors that needed to be tasted, and the clock was ticking.



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My personal philosophy is that every time you see a gelateria it's a sign to stop and get a taste. It's only a minor detail to know that there is a gelateria on just about every corner. Plus you are buying it from streets that look like this.

Really?? And you are going to question why I stop for gelato often?

Granted, stopping every time you see a place is not always feasible for many reasons. But it's the principle behind it that matters!

With so many flavors to choose from the task of picking is very daunting. Don't be ashamed to take your time and think it through. You can also always ask to taste a flavor before you get it. The only problem with that - it doesn't really help to narrow down the selection.

Needless to say, my addiction to gelato began with that first trip and there was no going back. Nothing could ever compare. Fast forward a few years and a few more trips to Europe and I was in a European dry spell - meaning I just couldn't make a trip anytime in the near future. A friend of mine had given me a 1200 page Italian cook book and claimed it was the Italian Bible of cooking. I had skimmed through it, loved it, and then forgot about it. 2 years later I re-discovered it and started looking through recipes.

And then it happened.

I came to a section on desserts and ice creams. Low and behold there were recipes for IT - GELATO. My heart stopped and I froze where I was. Was this the REAL thing? The actual secret recipe I'd been dreaming of so I could have it every single day whenever I wanted regardless of the country I was in??? I didn't hesitate to call my friend who knew a thing or two about Italian cooking. She looked at her own copy of this 1200 page recipe book and looked through the dessert section.

She was silent.

I held my breath.

Yes, there was a good chance this was a real, true, gelato recipe. That was all I needed to hear. I barely had time to put on shoes as a flew out the door to Target, where I bought the last electric ice cream maker. 48 hours and 6 batches of gelato later I was swimming in my own little heaven. Was it as perfect as the Italian's make it? Of course not! I haven't spent a lifetime learning the tricks of it all.

But it was pretty darn good. In the 5 years since then, I've bought ice cream from a store less than a handful of times. I just can't go back. I'm tainted for life. Plus the more I make, the better I get at it. So far the most perfect batch I've made is fresh raspberry gelato. It only survived 48 hours. No, I didn't share.

Needless to say, with my recent trip to Italy my gelato obsession continued. The second stop after traveling for 30 hours was for a few scoops of my little heaven on earth. The first stop being pizza. Can you blame me?

After going through a post trip depression, a friend quickly perked me up by making me aware of the best event ever. And it happens to be coming to my town in May. I'm so there.

http://austin.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/04-15-14-gelato-world-tour-at-republic-square-park/