The Best Gelato Flavour
There are questions for which there is no sensible answer: which is the most beautiful Italian city, whether lunch should include primo and secondo, and which gelato flavour is the best.
The last, of course, is the most important.
Italy has an almost endless vocabulary of gelato, from the simplicity of fior di latte to the intensity of cioccolato fondente, from jewel-like amarena to the green, nutty richness of pistacchio di Bronte. And perhaps the reason it is so difficult to choose a favourite is that the right flavour depends entirely on the moment.
There are flavours for waking up, flavours for cooling down, flavours for walking through a hot city at four in the afternoon, and flavours that belong to the long, slow end of dinner.
Pistacchio is for when you want to indulge. Made with the prized pistachios of Bronte, grown on the volcanic slopes of Etna, it is dense, intensely nutty and luxurious—the sort of flavour that asks to be eaten slowly.
Nocciola, with its rich Piedmontese hazelnuts, is altogether softer and more comforting. It is the flavour for a rainy afternoon, for a cone eaten sitting on a bench, or, ideally, tucked into a warm, pillowy brioche. It has the reassuring quality of something familiar and wholesome.
Then there is stracciatella: smooth fior di latte interrupted by shards of dark chocolate. It is perhaps the most playful of the classics, offering two sensations at once—creamy and crisp, sweet and slightly bitter. The flavour was invented in Bergamo in 1961, and it remains wonderfully difficult to eat slowly.
For the middle of a hot summer afternoon, however, nothing beats limone. Sharp, cold and completely refreshing, sorbetto al limone has no need for cream or decoration. Its simplicity is its strength: the exact balance of sugar, water and citrus produces something that seems almost to erase the heat from your skin.
Caffè is another matter altogether. Made with concentrated espresso, it is dark, direct and invigorating—the gelato equivalent of a shot of coffee after lunch. It is particularly good when the day is not quite finished and you need a little help getting to the end of it. Perhaps an affogato is a good alternative if you prefer this.
And then there are the flavours for evening. Cioccolato fondente is deep, bitter and unapologetically intense, the sort of gelato that demands your full attention. Amarena, with its sweet cream base and ribbons of syrupy wild cherry, is a flavour that seems to polarise people but a fruit flavour in combination with a milky flavour often works well.
And then, of course, there is olive oil gelato.
Perhaps not the most obvious choice but good extra virgin olive oil brings something completely different to gelato: a gentle bitterness, a grassy freshness, a little peppery warmth and an extraordinary silkiness. It is not trying to be another pistacchio or nocciola. It belongs to different world of flavours, where sweetness is balanced by bitterness and where the quality of the ingredient matters enormously.
It is particularly good towards the end of a meal, perhaps with a little dark chocolate, fresh citrus or simply on its own, when you can appreciate the olive oil for what it is. It also works well in combination with a flavour as radical as dark chocolate with chilli.
We are fortunate to have a new gelateria in Siena that makes a wonderful olive oil ice cream (amongst many others) that we highly recommend. @livogelato if you are passing through, you must try it.
