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About Gelato
Anyone who has ever dug a short plastic spoon into a squat paper cup of Italian gelato knows that ice cream and gelato are not  the same thing. Ice cream -- iced rich cream -- turns most flavors into pastels. Gelato, a combination of whole milk, eggs, sugar, and natural flavoring -- or fresh fruit and sugar in the fruit flavors -- is a less firmly frozen, softer, more intensely flavored and colored creation, essential to the Italian summer. Arabs brought what came to be known as sorbetto to Sicily; but gelato is said to have been first created by Bernardo Buontalenti for the court of Francesco de' Medici in 1565. In a recent region-wide competition, Tuscan gelato artisans came up with a delicately perfumed, egg-yolk-rich, almost orange-colored velvety flavor called Buontalenti, homage to a Renaissance artist.
Although gelato is available all year, the sunny spring and summer months are the season when it becomes a driving force in the Italian culture, an excuse for an expedition into the cooler night air, a chance to hang out, something to meet over, a preface or postscript to the evening's activities, Italian air-conditioning. Many gelato shops (gelaterie) stay open until 1 a.m. or even later in the summer.
The best gelaterie will display a sign, Produzione Propria, Nostra Produzione, or Produzione Artigianale -- all indicating that their gelato is homemade. The best fruit gelato is made from crushed fresh ripe seasonal fruit. Although freezing should diminish flavors, somehow gelato winds up tasting more intense than the fruit from which it has been made. The best milk-based gelato is flavored with all-natural ingredients and has a silky consistency. They will all melt faster than ice cream does. Colors should seem natural, not too intense. If the pistachio is bright green, it's been artificially colored and probably artificially flavored. Fruit flavors should reflect seasonal fruits. Gelato sitting in plastic bins is industrially produced; homemade gelato is always stored in stainless-steel bins, which can be sterilized and reused.
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