Italian Gelato Is Getting Weird and Not Everyone Likes It
Artisans are using hyperlocal ingredients, centuries old techniques and wacky flavor combinations to push the frozen dessert’s limits.
At Cremeria Capolinea, there’s been an unprecedented focus on ingredient quality. Tiramisu gelato is made with coffee from quality Italian roasters Bugan Coffee Lab; the mascarpone is from the Alto Adige region.
Source: Cremeria Capolinea
Every day at 6 a.m., Alessandro Cesari begins producing small quantities of gelato at Sablé, his bijou shop under the portici of Via dei Mille in Bologna. On a balmy spring day, you may catch him moving between the counter and ice cream machine, folding ingredients such as morel mushrooms and sake into the gelato base before pouring the mixture into the 60-year-old cherry-red appliance.
Despite the traditional charm attached to them, most Italian gelato shops mix industrially refined ingredients into their scoops. Sablé is an exception. There are no thickeners, emulsifiers, glucose or other products often used to replicate quality year-round. “Here, each flavor can change slightly, reflecting the season, the vintage [of products like passito sweet wine] and the ingredient at that precise moment,” Cesari explains.