I eat a lot of ice-cream (a slight understatement, you understand) but I rarely get around to making my own. In fact, my poor ice-cream machine has been shoved to the back of a cupboard since we moved house in March! Earlier this week I decided to sort through the freezer and make some room for the ice-cream machine (the amount of freezer space needed for the cannister is another reason why the machine has languished in the cupboard)….

Of all the various types of ice-cream the world has to offer (sorbet, water-ice, granita, parfait, kulfi, French ice-cream, Italian gelato etc), my absolute favourite is gelato. Gelato is best defined by Marcella Hazan, who states in The Essentials of Classic Italian Cookery,

[...]to me it is hardly density that characterises it, but lightness and freshness of flavour. There is far less far, less cream, fewer eggs and no butter in gelato. It is never oversweet or overrich.

This really does sum-up gelato in my opinion. Technically it is denser than classical French ice-cream, but due to it’s simplicity and fresh flavours you never notice this denseness. It sings upon the tongue.

Marcella’s Banana-Rum Gelato is the easiest and quickest gelato in the world. Due to the richness of the bananas, you can get away with using skimmed milk which makes this quite suitable for dieters. I always add a teaspoon of lemon juice so that the banana doesn’t darken during churning. If you’re very keen you can halve the bananas length-wise and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon to ensure that the ice-cream isn’t speckled.

Banana-Rum Gelato, from “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cookery” by Marcella Hazan

Serves 6

350-450g ripe bananas (weighed in skins)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
150g caster sugar
150ml milk
2 tablespoons dark rum

Set up your ice-cream machine. You need to be able to use it immediately the preparation is finished.

Peel the bananas and puree them with the lemon juice in a food processor or use a hand blender. Add the sugar, blitz again. Add the milk and rum and process again until completely smooth.

Pour the mixture into the running ice-cream machine. Churn for about 15-20 minutes until the mixture is considerably thickened. Due to the alcohol, the gelato will not thicken up as much as regular gelato or other ice-creams. (The mixture will be quite pourable.)

Quickly transfer it to a tub with a lid and freeze until firmed up. This is called “ripening” and also helps to develop the flavour of the finished product.

Serve in small portions. This is very rich!!