A short history of ice-cream, a tasty experience every now and then

Italy is well known as ice-creams´ motherland and Italians and tourists can guarantee the high quality of it extensively and directly from my tongue. The first ice cream is as ancient as the Roman Empire and even more, in fact some similar concoction, a mix of snow and fruits, would have been popular then among then among Middle East countries.

Whereas the first ice-cream-like recipe comes from an ancient Roman Quinto Fabio Massimo, the Arabian who moved to Siciliy in the late 800d.C. used to produce the same iced food with a mix of cane sugar. That would have been the origin of the famous granita in the way it is nowadays known, as one of the most famous gastronomic Sicilian delicacies and a good alternative to the ice-cream on the warmest days.

The real ice-cream as we eat it today owes its birth to 2 men: Ruggeri, an unknown cook who prepared it for the wedding day of Caterina de´ Medici in Tuscany and Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, a Sicilian chef who made the ice cream a business and invented the first ice-cream machine. He opened the first ice-cream shop called Café Procope in Paris in 1686. Many Italian ice-cream shops are currently named the same or in a similar way to honor the tradition. However, the name Café given to the first ice-cream shop was assigned to it because of the wide range of intellectuals, philosophers and literary men crowding the Café at the time. The reputation attained as “The most famous European café” helped to spread the notoriety and production of ice-cream itself.

The prize for the most tasty ice-cream in the world is awarded every 2 years at the contest called Ice-Cream World Cup . Teams of 4 ice-cream master coming from different countries challenge each other to create ice-cream sculptures, cakes, impressive ice-cream wafers, ice- cream bowls supported by iced sculptures. This exhibition is evidence of the masters´ creativity and fantasy which much more often set apart the Italian style and promote handmade ice-cream internationally.

As for homemade ice-cream I would suggest a successful chocolate ice-cream recipe whose tastiness is spreading out between my expat Italian friends in Switzerland. I would propose you use organic products as I do and high quality Swiss chocolate world wide known and distributed like Lindt, these will extremely boost the final result. Then I recommend using an Italian chocolate as well, and propose Perugina, but it is not so broadly distributed. In case you find it by chance the best buy is the chocolate bar for confectionary (cioccolata per pasticceria) which is distinguishable beyond the name through its big chocolate chunks. Furthermore you would need an ice-cream machine, if you have the opportunity to buy an Italian one do not pass up the chance to buy a Symac product. My mother has been using the same Symac ice-cream machine for 20 years.

Ingredients:

1 yolk

5 spoons of sugar

200 grams fresh and full white cream

1 glass an half of full milk

200 grams dark chocolate Lindt 70%

Preparation:

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt it in a bain-marie (vessel containing hot water in which another pot is placed to heat its contents) or in the microwave. Pay attention not to burn it. Afterwards put all ingredients in a mixer. When you noticed that the white cream is whipped (the mixture stays liquid but it raises its volume) put everything in your ice-cream machine and wait till it is done. Once it is condensed put it in the refrigerator. Usually homemade ice-cream takes time to freeze and time to melt down. So remove it from the freezer 15 minutes before serving it.