Vanilla Gelato and Affogato
This week I had a strong craving for Affogato, a simple but delicious Italian dessert that is made by pouring a shot of hot espresso over a scoop of vanilla gelato. Naturally, to make this I needed vanilla gelato. So, this was as good a time as ever to break out my ice cream machine, which I had not used for a while, and make the gelato myself.
As I have mentioned before, there are a couple of styles of gelato. There is Sicilian style, which is made without eggs or cream, just a base of milk with corn starch and sugar (called crema rinforzata). And there is Northern Italian style which is made from an egg based custard made with either milk only or a combination of milk and cream. The style I prefer is usually tied to the flavor. With fruit or nuts like pistacchio, it is definitely the Sicilian, which really highlights the flavor of those ingredients, but when making vanilla I prefer a custard based gelato.
Note: If you prefer, you can replace 1 cup of the milk in the following recipe with 1 cup of cream.
That just looks lovely! Thanks for the recipe, I’m gonna try to make my own gelato 🙂
So glad to have come across this amazing Italian gelato recipe. I never knew the difference between the Sicilian style and the northern Italian. Now I know (my husband will be so impressed)
What a great tribute to your Dad, to share these fabulous ‘treasures’ with everyone.
Oh my that looks so good we had to give it a try! We tried it tonight… well we had to buy the gelato but one day we will see about making it ourselves. So we ended up skipping the first 4 instructions and went with Affogato – delicious! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and the pic. The pic and the way you have it presented really creates the desire to try this!
Jason
Filstop…
Boycott Ramar Foods
I have made this vanilla gelato recipe many times – it is very easy and absolutely delicious! Tonight, for the first time, on New Year’s Eve 2025, we are having it for dessert with the espresso topping it off for our AFFOGATO DESSERT!❤️