Chasing the Perfect Pistachio Gelato

I'm sure at this point it comes as no surprise how much I love pistachios. So when I started developing my pistachio gelato recipe, I wanted to make sure it was absolutely perfect. Whenever I travel to Italy and go to a gelateria, I'm mostly ordering pistachio. But I've had mixed pistachio gelatos. Some have had no pistachio flavor at all, while some tasted a bit too savory, and then there are the pistachio gelatos that are bright neon green, which, fair warning, aren't worth a single euro. And of course, I've had really amazing pistachio gelato too. But I wanted to make sure this recipe was the one I'd actually crave. So after a few months of testing, I finally developed my favorite version.

The first recipe I tested, back in May, used pistachio paste imported from Italy. The only ingredient was pistachio. It was ultra smooth, but it didn't have any real texture to it. The gelato was great, but it just wasn't what I wanted, and it was also a little too firm when I took it out of the freezer. It needed to temper for a while, and I felt like the texture could have been better overall.

So I decided to take this book in a different direction, actually toasting and grinding my own nuts to make my own natural pastes for the gelato, giving it a lot of amazing texture in the process. One thing worth keeping in mind, when you buy store-bought pastes, the nuts usually aren't roasted, and that means missing out on a lot of flavor.

My recipe is called Bronte Pistachio Gelato, and it calls for pistachios from Bronte. But you don't actually need Bronte pistachios to make an amazing gelato. Just make sure your pistachios are unroasted and unsalted, since you want to control the roast yourself, pistachios don't need nearly as dark a roast as hazelnuts do.

On my first batch, I felt like the flavor could have been more pistachio-forward, and it was just a touch icy. For the second batch, I bumped up the weight of the pistachios considerably, and that did it. The best way to describe the texture is ultra dense but somehow still light. The way real gelato should be. There's real texture from the fresh pistachio paste, and it's so, so good.

So I wanted to show you a little behind-the-scenes look at the process, and how the texture transforms throughout. Now, don't mind the very unaesthetic photos, you can see exactly why I need a photographer so desperately for the cookbook (haha).

.....................................................................................................................................................................................

This first photo is the color and texture of the homemade pistachio paste. It's such a bright green because of the Bronte pistachios, and although it looks like food coloring, I promise it's not (haha). You can see it's not super smooth, more like a thick, rustic paste.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbc4b2_cb7803e0249e4f1f9c790c926f053e6b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This first video is the gelato after 35 of 60 minutes of churning in the machine. The compressor I've been using to test these recipes for the book is the Cuisinart ICE-100 Compressor Ice Cream Machine. I chose this specific machine because, out of the compressor machines out there, it's the least expensive. Instead of paying $800 for one, this machine runs about $379, which I know still isn't cheap, but it's much more reasonable. (I actually have a post on why I use a compressor machine instead of a freezer bowl ice cream machine.) You can see the texture is starting to take shape, but it's still quite loose here.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbc4b2_33f2992d17b34e21baf4fe3a0cafb096/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The second video is after 32 of 60 minutes. You can start to see more definition and a bit more stretch, even with only a three minute difference in time, which shows how just a few minutes can mean the difference between properly mixed and undermixed gelato.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbc4b2_08c6fb949b7b459b8cf3711ceaba2ee1/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This next video is after 29 of 60 minutes of mixing. The shape has really taken hold, dense and stretchy, holding to the paddle rather than clinging to the sides of the bowl, it all climbs up together.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbc4b2_b1866443268a4bdb83693c1561395585/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

The final time was 25 of 60 minutes of churning. Be careful not to overmix your gelato, or it can end up icy and overchurned. Now just keep in mind the amount of time it takes your gelato to churn will be different. It depends on the recipe, the machine, etc. Thats why it is important to judge doneness by visual texture not by the amount of time it has been in the machine.

On the paddle, you can really see the dense stretch the gelato has, along with the texture given to it by the pistachio paste.

And finally, the last photo is of the finished gelato.

This is exactly the kind of work that goes into every single recipe in this book, tested, adjusted, and tested again until it's genuinely right. More coming soon…