All around the world men, women, and kids are discovering the delights of rich, robust Italian ice cream - Gelato ready to eat. Once you develop a taste for the Italian variety of ice cream, you may never want to go back to plain old ice cream again. Read on and you will discover many different ways in which you can find and enjoy gelato - in your own kitchen or on a vacation to Italy.
Gelato - the original type - is prepared from natural, fresh ingredients. When you eat gelato, be certain that what you are getting is authentic. This method of preparation is still the custom today in countless locations, as it has been since the days of the Renaissance in Florence, Italy. If a processed food is used to replace the normally fresh ingredients in authentic gelato - such as artificial flavors or sweeteners - will result in a gelato that is inferior in flavor and consistency. Unfortunately, commercialism has invaded the realm of quality gelato and today you can find inferior, mass-produced varieties in your local supermarket.
These products can never replace freshly-made, genuine gelato prepared with the freshest ingredients available. If you don't live in one of the bigger cities that have a gelateria, or other store that sells fresh gelato, you can instead make your own at home. Also in Italy, there is a fruity frozen dessert that doesn't contain milk know as sorbetti - Sorbet in America. Being a frozen dessert, sorbets are often sold alongside gelato in most gelaterias. Generally, people put sorbetti and gelato in the same general classification. Sorbetti is especially popular with folks who love fruit. If that describes you, then you will most certainly relish the rich and numerous flavors that are available. What's your favorite fruit? More than likely you will find it made into a sorbet. Even such diverse fruit such as melons and black berries make delicious sorbets. Sorbets are very different from the Italian ices that have been sold in America for many years. Everyone enjoys a snow cone or Italian ice when the weather is hot. The problem is there's nothing healthy in them since they are made entirely of ice, sugar, and artificial extracts or flavorings.
Some people wonder if gelato is healthier than regular ice cream, and the answer to this really depends on what kind it is and what it's made from. The ingredients for making gelato vary so much that it's impossible to draw any conclusions about the amount of calories in a normal serving. If you're trying to cut back on calories, your best bet would be fruit based sorbets, which are not literally a type of ice cream, but are often sold along with gelato. The ice cream in America is generally cream-based whereas gelato is made using milk. As a rule of thumb, gelato will usually have less calories than ice cream. Do you have a lactose intolerance? You can still make gelato, and save even more calories, by replacing the milk in your recipe with soy milk or plain yogurt. The sugar content is another factor you can control, and there are sugar free varieties.
You might have to search around in your supermarket to find gelato because it's outnumbered by American ice cream, but with the popularity of gelato increasing, that won't always be the case. American consumption of gelato may never overtake the amount of American ice cream that is traditionally eaten in the USA. Some reasons are that gelato shouldn't be stored for more than a couple of days and, due to the use of fresh ingredients, gelato is more expensive. If you prefer to have a reliable source of original, authentic Italian ice cream, the solution is to make your own out of the fresh ingredients you can purchase locally.
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