Rethinking gelato: Anything's possible, including olive oil and basil, says Vancouver artisan

A gelato master class shows the versatility of the traditional Italian dessert.

Published Dec 24, 2024  •  Last updated 1 day ago  •  3 minute read

The Mozzarella Di Bufala Gelato was inspired by a traditional Italian caprese salad. Oleocanthal photo

According to Salvatore Boccarossa, the differences between ice cream and gelato can be boiled down to three letters: TAF.

That is, temperature, air, and fat content.

Matteo Bartolini of Locanda dell’Orso adds some limoncello gelato to apollini patries.

Boccarossa runs Passione Gelato Artigianale in Parq Casino. In November, during an event sponsored by the local office of the Italian Trade Association in recognition of the 2024 edition of the Italian Cuisine Week, he led a gelato master class using special ingredients sourced from Italy.

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Gelato, he informed us, is not as cold as ice cream, or as fluffy (air is injected into the latter). That’s why it’s measured by litres and not grams. Generally, gelato has 25-30 per cent less air, so it’s denser.

The fat content is lower too, at 6-10 per cent compared to ice cream’s 15-35 per cent.

Gelato is also quite versatile, as Boccarossa and Matteo Bartolini of downtown family-style Italian restaurant Locanda dell’Orso demonstrated. On the menu were four different flavours and styles, two of which lean toward the savoury side.

With the Bufala Mozzarella Gelato, Boccarossa and Bartolini used a mix of local buffalo milk and bufala mozzarella from Italy’s Campania region. They topped the gelato with a tangy cherry tomato marmalade and a basil oil drizzle for a dish inspired by a traditional caprese salad.

For the other savoury sample, the gelato makers cut the milk base with Extra Virgin Olive Oil Crognale of Trappeto di Caprafico, obtained from olive trees of the Crognalegno variety. The salty crunch of a caper meringue complemented the gelato’s ultra-creamy texture.

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“The gelato world is changing, especially in Europe,” said Boccarossa, who started making gelato in Vancouver at Bella Gelateria in 2012.

“We can do many many, many things with gelato. You can make it with sriracha. You can make it with anchovies. It’s not just limited to the sweet side. Anything is possible.”

Traditionally, the dessert’s base is made of milk, cream and sugar. The other two samples, using hazelnut and limoncello gelato, were more typical but served in unconventional ways.

In the Classic Rum Baba, a gelato flavoured with hazelnuts from the Giffoni region near Napoli and Salerno was paired with a baba, a small rum-saturated cake, an iconic dessert associated with Napoli.

In our last sample, limoncello gelato was served in an apollini, a cone-shaped puff pastry made by local artisanal panettone maker Antise Vancouver.

Collaborating for the first time, Boccarossa and Bartolini came up with the menu in an effort to showcase ingredients from the Campania region in southern Italy.

The duo used a two-litre Musso machine. Gelato can be made easily at home. Most flavours take two hours, although some, like cold-tea-infused gelato, may take a couple of days.

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Presently, Boccarossa doesn’t sell savoury flavours at Passione Gelato Artigianale, which he opened in 2019.

“Usually, people come in after they’ve had a meal already and they want something sweet. But sometimes what we’ll do is give out savoury gelato as samples.”

At the time of writing, flavours included matcha, a dairy-free chocolate, hazelnut and Grandma’s Tiramisu. A dairy-free pistachio was also available.

The masterclass was held to bring businesses together, said Italian Trade Agency director Marco Saladini.

Funded by the Italian government, the ITA facilitates the entry of companies into new markets and seeks to attract investors to Italy. The ITA has three offices in Canada, including Toronto and Montreal, and opened its Vancouver branch in 2023. With its TrackIT Blockchain program, the agency also seeks to provide authentication for Italian products.

“We gathered professionals from different areas related to Italian cuisine so we could show them some new things,” he said. “The chefs clearly showed them new, uncommon preparations.”

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