Weekend Cooking...Lemons Gelato

You will forgive me if I reuse this photo, won't you? I really like it. I snapped it on my trip to the Amafi coast..Sorrento included..a few weeks ago.
And if you don't know it, Sorrento is known for it's lemons, like those giant ones you see in that picture. Yes, those are regular sized bottles and those are very large lemons.

One use of those very large lemons is to make Limoncello, the delightful lemon liqueur Sorrento is known for.

"Traditionally, it is made from the zest of Femminello St. Teresa lemons, that are also known as Sorrento lemons. Lemon zest, or peels without the pith, are steeped in grain alcohol until the oil is released. The resulting yellow liquid is then mixed with simple syrup."

I actually saw recipes for making your own limoncello, involving vodka, but that seemed a little over the top.
But I was determined to post a Weekend Cooking tied into my Wordless Wednesday post ..have you checked out my photos yet. If not, I can wait a minute while you do...go ahead..
So, if not limoncello, then what?
Well, what else is Italy known for? Gelato!
So, I wondered, how is gelato different than American Ice Cream? It seems to come down to butterfat..more milk, less cream, no eggs...and air..less air in Italian, more in American. Supposedly, gelato machines move the product much slower and whip a lot less air into the final frozen delite.

Off to consult my ice cream bible, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. If I could not make an authentic gelato, I would make do with another lemon product. And it seems I had at least four choices. I could make a granita...shaved ice covered with a fruit liquid or a sorbet...sugar, water, lemon juice frozen in an ice cream machine or a sherbet...milk, sugar and lemon juice, again frozen in the machine...or "Super Lemon Ice Cream".
 I went with the ice cream because who can turn down something called "Super"?

It is a simple recipe.

Lemon Ice Cream
(From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

zest of 2 lemons

1/2 C sugar 

1/2 C lemon juice 

2 C half and half 

pinch of salt

Put the lemon zest and sugar into the bowl of a food processor and process until the lemon zest is very fine. 
Add the lemon juice and process until the sugar is dissolved. 
Stir in the cream and salt and chill for at least one hour. 
Pour the ice cream base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers instructions.

Oddly, I think I actually came much closed to my intended gelato, low air % result than I had intended.
I have not used my ice cream maker in awhile but I had left the canister in the freezer. When I turned the freezer as low as it would go in anticipation of a power outage back during Super Storm Sandy. And forget to put it back to normal again again.
It was very, very frozen.
So, as the ice cream churned around, it froze rather hard rather quickly and just did not get as 'whipped' as it usually would have. I think.

Either way it was very easy and very delicious. I had a few spare lemons, so I cut them in half, scooped out the flesh and piped the ice cream into it for a cute little treat. Aren't they cute? And look at the tiny bits of zest in there...hmmmmm..

 

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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