Ice cream season kick off

When I first saw it, I just knew I couldn't go home without it. I grabbed the tiny little jar with the precious green cream inside. My treasure...
So precious I thought I really needed a special occasion to open it, to taste it, to enjoy it.
It's food, of course, I'm talking about. And the green souvenir in question is Pistachio cream that I bought in Sicily last summer.

It took me quite a while though, seven months or so, to decide about the best way to use it and I almost began fearing it would get wasted in the end.
Carefully checked the expiery date... it's near, but there's still time.
Looking through some old copies of Cucina naturale magazine I noticed this Pistachio ice cream, they suggested serving it with fresh cherries, but I couldn't wait for cherries to be in season, so I thought some amarena cherries would be just fine for this time of the year.
Althogh the rest of my family begs for chocolate ice cream every time I take the ice cream maker out (and I have made it several times since I published the recipe here), I decided that the official beginning of the ice cream season should be green-ish.
Now, the sad thing about this whole story is that I don't have any pistachio cream left, and the ice cream is almost gone as well. And if you've never tasted that creamy green goodness, you don't know what you're missing. Apart from everything else that is beautiful about Sicily, I have one more reason to go back, as soon as possible.

I have to say I really liked this recipe as well. Using ricotta cheese instead of heavy cream you get somewhat lighter taste, but still creamy and delicious. It can be used as a base for other flavours as well.  Mind just one thing, it's a rather small quantity, you may want to double it right from the start.

Pistachio ice cream

(for approx. 500 ml)
* 250 ml milk
* 125 g ricotta cheese
* 100 g sugar
* 2 egg yolks
* 1 whole egg
* 1/4 vanilla bean
* 75 g pistachio cream (paste)

Whisk the ricotta until creamy or strain through a fine mash strainer.
Mix it with the milk and put in a medium saucepan, with the vanilla bean cut in half (scrape the seeds first and add them, too).
Stirring continuously on low heat, bring the mixture to a boil.
Whisk together the egg yolks, the whole egg and the sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the pistachio cream as well. Stir in a couple spoonfuls of hot milk, and then pour in the rest in a thin streak whisking the eggs all the time.
Put everything back into the saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring until the custard starts coating the back of the spoon and starts boiling.
Strain the custard through a fine mash sieve (removing thus the vanilla bean as well), and let it cool at room temperature first, and then in the fridge.
Prepare the ice cream in your ice cream machine or simply pour it into an airtight container and freeze until firm.
** Now that I've used up all the Sicilian pistachio cream I'll try making my own pistachio paste. The procedure should be as follows:
Blanch the pistachios in boiling water, drain and remove the skins. Let them dry well and then pure in a food processor or with a stick blender. This way you should get a more intensly tasting pistachio paste than the one I used in this recipe (which was only 50% pistachios)

Gelato ai pistacchi


(per circa 500 ml di gelato)
* 250 ml di latte
* 125 g di ricotta cremosa
* 100 g di zucchero
* 2 tuorli d'uovo
* 1 uovo intero
* 1/4 di bacca di vaniglia
* 75 g di crema di pistacchi


Setacciate o mescolate bene con una frusta la ricotta. Unitela al latte, aggiungete anche la bacca di vaniglia tagliata a metà orizzontalmente e portate lentamente a bollore mescolando.
In una ciotola mescolate i tuorli, l'uovo e lo zucchero. Unite la crema di pistacchi e poi versateci piano il latte caldo, mescolando contemporaneamente con la frusta.
Rimettete il tutto sul fuoco e scaldate mescolando finché la crema avrà raggiunto il bollore e comincia a velare il cucchiaio.
Versate la crema in una ciotola filtrandola attraverso un colino a maglie fitte rimuovendo anche la bacca di vaniglia.
Lasciatela raffreddare prima a temperatura ambiente, e poi in frigo.
Versate la crema fredda nella macchina per il gelato seguendo le istruzioni per il vostro apparecchio.
Se non avete la macchina per il gelato, versatela in un contenitore con coperchio e mettete subito nel freezer, senza il passaggio nel frigo.

Sladoled od pistacija


(za otprilike 500 ml sladoleda)
* 250 ml mlijeka
* 125 g sira ricotte
* 100 g šećera
* 2 žumanjka
* 1 cijelo jaje
* 1/4 mahune vanilije
* 75 g kreme od pistacija


Ispasirajte dobro ocijeđenu ricottu i pomiješajte je s mlijekom. Dodajte uzdužno prerezanu mahunu vanilije.
Stavite na vatru i uz stalno miješanje, na srednjoj do slaboj vatri, pustite da prokuha.
Pomiješajte u zdjeli žumanjke, jaje i šećer, dodajte kremu od pistacija**, a zatim prvo par žlica vrućeg mlijeka, a potom i ostatak sipajući ga u tankom mlazu i polako, i stalno miješajući, da se jaja ne bi zgrušala.
Vratite sve na vatru i kuhajte na laganoj vatri, miješajući dok krema ne prokuha.
Maknite s vatri i prespite u zdjelu, kroz gusto mrežasto cjedilo, i ostavite da se ohladi.
Ako ćete sladolet raditi u stroju za sladoled ostavite ga da se prvo dobro ohladi u hladnjaku par sati a zatim radite po uputama za vaš stroj.
Ako nemate stroj, stavite smjesu u posudu pogodnu za zamrzavanje, s poklopcem, i hladite u zamrzivaču dok se smjesa ne stisne. Promiješajte vilicom svaka dva sata da spriječite nastanak velikih kristala leda.


**Ja sam ovaj put imala gotovu kremu od pistacija pa sam nju koristila. Ako je ne možete nabaviti onda pistacije (očišćene, neposoljene, blanširane) sameljite, a zatim štapnim mikserom ili električnim mlinom za kavu miksajte dok ne dobijete glatku kremu.