This is a review of Ices Italia, a new book crammed with recipes for home-made ice cream.
It’s one of the images most closely associated with Italy: a cone piled high with deliciously cool ice cream. Italians eat gelato everywhere – though somehow they never seem to get it on their clothes, even on a meltingly hot day.
If you’ve ever wanted to make your own ice cream, here’s your chance. Ices Italia (pub. Pavilion, RRP £20, click here) is a lovely new book that celebrates one of Italy’s most delicious foods. The author, Linda Tubby, has crammed it full of mouthwatering recipes for gelato. They sound so good they make you want to rush to the kitchen and start work.
The photography is striking – visual comfort food – and non fattening of course. Dieters could buy this book and just flick through the pages whenever they feel in need of a vicarious sweet fix. And while there are some incredibly indulgent recipes (like zuccotto, a confection of alcohol-soaked sponge filled with chocolate and hazelnut gelato) there are also plenty of low fat treats like sorbetto di lamponi (raspberry sorbet) and a striking scarlet sorbetto di melagrana (pomegranate sorbet).
You’ll also find some recipes for sophisticated and unusual desserts. There’s a granita di caffe espresso (coffee granita) which is made with a splash of Italian hazelnut liqueur and strong espresso - and can be served with a thick blob of double cream. There’s also a sorbetto di Vernaccia di San Gimignano (a heady sorbet made with Vernaccia di San Gimignano white wine); a sorbetto Bellini (the classic Harry’s bar Bellini cocktail turned into a sorbet), and a spongada di agrumi e zafferano (a citrus and saffron semifreddo).
There’s even a savoury dish – sorbetto di pesto alla Genovese, or pesto sorbet, which is a bright emerald green and can be eaten as part of an antipasti – just dip your bread sticks in it.
Children will of course love most of the ice creams, and Ices Italia also includes a recipe for ghiacciolo alla frutta, or ice lollies (popsicles). They’re water ices made with natural fruit juices, so make a great additive free treat.
Instructions are easy to follow and recipes can be made with or without an ice cream maker.
In Ices Italia, Linda Tubby also explores the history of this chilly treat. Some people say it was brought to Italy from China, by the Venetian explorer Marco Polo. Others that it came to Sicily before that, brought by the Arab traders who travelled and settled there (frozen ices were known in India and Persia long before Marco Polo’s time).
The Romans certainly made good use of snow and ice. Slaves had to bring ice down from the mountains to make iced drinks – the Emperor Nero Claudius loved chilled wine. Ever since then the Italians have been working to create the perfect gelato.
Click to see Linda Tubby's recipe for Red Rose Sorbet
