Ice Cream Recipes

This ice-cream is made only with a Sicilian wine that we can say is totally ‘virgin’, made with Grillo grapes having a yield of 30 quintals per hectare!
These grapes go to make a highly alcoholic and intensely structured wine, the main characteristics needed for the ageing process.
The wine chosen is De Bartoli's ‘Vecchio Samperi’, similar to a liqueur by virtue of its 17° proof rating obtained both in the field and in the cellar over a period of twenty years. With its totally original organoleptic properties, this ice-cream gives out the intenseness of the wine's fruity aromas and brings to mind the smells of the island it comes from.
The balanced flavour obtained with a combination of chestnuts (from the region of Cuneo in north-east Italy) and a mature country rum from Jamaica can be experienced with this ice-cream, which has required considerable efforts to obtain an equilibrium between milk fat and the sugar from the fruit and cane by-products to obtain a soft and silky product. "Clément" rum is used. This is obtained solely by distilling sugar cane juice, and leaves a "woody" aftertaste that extols the chestnut flavour.
The main difference compared with the non-alcoholic version is the sugar content, which is much lower here. Making up for the reduction in sugar are the properties of this quality rum, which confers silkiness and South American aromas, heightening the organoleptic qualities of the cocoa used. This ice-cream offers intense taste sensations.
This mix, with traditional Eastern aromas, offers strong yet fresh flavours thanks to the spicy presence of ginger root. The smell of cinnamon makes this still delicate ice-cream one of the most characteristic we have to offer.
In late autumn fresh, large and globular walnuts are available, having an intense flavour; these are blended with a "crema" low in fat and sugar to strike the right balance between the crema and the properties of the walnuts and dried figs. The latter sweeten the mix and add a vaguely spicy flavour. The result is full of eastern promise yet avoids any fatty sensations for one's taste buds.
It is a sumptuous and richly rewarding ice-cream.
Pistachios are called “fastuca” in Sicily, the best in the world and grown around Bronte, a sunburned town below Mount Etna, where winters can be quite rigid. The microclimate and the lava terrain favour the growth of a plant whose fruit is particularly sweet and has a rounded flavour.
With these pistachios we make an ice-cream with a Mediterranean feel to it, full of the promise of the south yet delicate and sweet.
Aromatisation with distillates is a delicate balancing act on account of technical implications and the effects it has on our taste buds.
We use ‘Laberdolive’ armagnac (1985) whose alcohol content and aromas are suitable for our ice-cream. The crema is in this case less sweet and low-fat.
The result is a feast in terms of flavour and fragrance!
We are now using 32-year-old ‘Tamnavulin’ whisky from the Speyside region of the eastern Highlands. This area is considered the ”golden triangle” for quality malts!
This whisky has a definite character, with a warm, fruity and velvety flavour. It is very elegant, with an aristocratic barley sugar base, and transmits all of its intensity to the "crema".
To make a sweet right for the king's table, sprinkle over this ice-cream an arbutus-berry honey (Sardinian only) sauce with just enough 32-year-old “Tamnavulin” whisky to form a dense and fragrant mix.

Liquorice, from the Greek word "glycyrrhiza", or sweet root, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Leguminosae family.
There are a number of liquorice varieties. In Italy the species offering the best characteristics is the “glabra”. The Calabrian variety is considered the best in the world because of its organoleptic properties and percentage differences in its active elements.
It is a medicinal plant well known in ancient China and quoted in the Pen Ts’ao, the ancient Chinese book of pharmacology .
Over 3,000 years ago Chinese physicians recommended its use, for both men and women, before the sexual act, in order to improve vitality, desire and ecstasy.
Known and used by the physicians of ancient Egypt, a perfectly eatable trace of root was found in the tomb of Tutankamon.
Calabrian “glabra” liquorice root is used to produce an unforgettable ice-cream thanks to its elegant intensity, persistence, roundness and subtle aftertaste of moss, tobacco and aniseed.

If you come from the direction of Florence and leave behind the final peaks of the Appennine hills in Tuscany and Emilia, moving into the plain going north, you will be able to go on a high-profile gastronomic tour, one of the stop-offs having to be Modena dei Malpighi, modern-day master producers of the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
Thanks to the ”Consorzio di Tutela tra Produttori” (Producers' Protection Consortium) specially formed to defend this extraordinary product, this type of vinegar only goes on sale after having got through a very rigorous quality control procedure, which is guaranteed by the numbered seal applied to each bottle.
And as a certain Francesco Agazzotti said (in a letter from Modena dated 2 March 1862), “The special qualities of balsamic vinegar are its acidy but pleasant and delicate flavour, to be served as a liqueur; its genuine and peculiar aroma which, breathed in through one's nostrils, revives and revitalises you; and its thickness and hoariness”.
This very mature vinegar is the nectar forming the base for a unique ice-cream, extraordinarily soft and rounded and with aftertastes of cherry and juniper.

Because of its extreme delicacy it is an ideal complement for sweet meats like venison and roebuck.

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