New perspectives on the encounter of the ice cream world and microgreens vegetable. The flavors of the future? They sometimes point to the salty, with forays into the botanical microcosm as well as fresh herbaceous nuances.
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Ice cream beyond ice cream: the new vegetable frontiers
When we think of ice cream, the first things that come to mind are the warm weather, relief from the heat while grappling with a cone with our favorite flavors, a bowl to share after dinner on an evening with friends. Ice cream, in the collective imagination, is primarily a dessert, perhaps an ideal end to a meal: much less known, but to be explored and especially enjoyed, is its gastronomic versatility.
'Savory' ice cream is certainly nothing new in haute cuisine, but it is worth observing a particular application that multiplies its potential. Let's talk about the vegetable world, in particular microgreens and their possible interaction with the world of ice cream applied to dining and fine dining, but not only. To do so, we heard from three key players in the world of gelateria (ice cream making), three landmarks with different roles who told us their point of view and how they interacted with Koppert Cress, Dutch company founded in 2002 in Monster, which specializes in the production of watercresses, specialties, leaves and flowers.
Chef's ice cream: the green soul of Carpigiani products
Michela Iorio is PR & Communication Manager of Carpigiani, an Emilia-based company with nearly eighty years of history and a leading manufacturer of machines for the production of artisanal gelato, Italian-style ice cream, and soft ice cream. He tells us, "Our partnership with Koppert Cress goes back at least six years. We liked each other right from the start, not only for what could be done with ice cream in the haute cuisine, but also for ice cream in general, because cresses and microgreens can be used as additions and decorations even for a more traditional product.
I remember one of the first things we tried on an impromptu basis at an event was a cream ice cream with jasmine blossom, a small edible jasmine flower. It is full of recipes that use these kinds of essences, even since the Renaissance, hence plant-based inclusions. At Identità Golose, we were in our second year of pairing, and we relied on our Corporate Chef Diletta Poggiali, who has an in-depth knowledge of herbs and spices to enhance their aromatic notes in combination with ice cream. From my point of view, vegetable inclusions in ice cream are healthy and, above all, they give the possibility of having an explosion of taste very close to what are the achievements that chefs make in their dishes, as well as being aesthetically beautiful to see, which is not a given."
Diletta Poggiali lands at Carpigiani after participating in a contest for chefs held by the company, in which it was a matter of bringing a dish that included a savory gourmet ice cream: "I competed for fun and made it to the finals with top professionals: I brought a dish that was pasta e fagioli with a smoked tomato sorbet (even Davide Oldani, who was on the jury, remembers it). In Carpigiani I began to really appreciate the possibility of working with a real technology that made ice cream, because in most of my experiences in the kitchen I used pacojet, which is not a proper device designed for that. To find myself seeing what real ice cream could do in terms of texture and consistency was very cool. The curious thing is that my first job ever at the age of 16 was actually at the counter of an ice cream shop, never in the world would I have imagined that I would go back to that."
Before joining Carpigiani, by her own definition she was a 'wandering' cook: "I have worked for about 20 years in the kitchen, in restaurants of all kinds, from Michelin-starred to Japanese, from trattoria to vegetarian, simply because I love this field and have loved every dish I have made, and enjoy starting with any ingredient. I also teach gelato classes, but I mainly deal with gelato in the restaurant industry by interfacing with chefs who want to include gelato on the menu." From Ora D'Aria in Florence with Marco Stabile, to participating in major events such as Postrivoro and Al Mèni, Diletta has worked with chefs from all over the world "cooking anything from pig heads to the most unlikely vegetables."
Ice cream and microgreens, a successful unconventional marriage
Diletta goes on, "As a chef, I have never liked garnishes not aimed towards the taste and the intrinsic nature of the dish. The parsley of Romagna's trattorias or random edible flowers are things I never could stand, as I find it better to have an essential dish than one filled with garnishes that have nothing to do with it. Cress and even sprouts were the turning point for me, because in the dish they are valuable elements: they bring flavor, texture; an intensity in a minimal amount that goes exactly with the philosophy of ice cream in a gastronomic dish, which is not what you eat in a cup or cone in an ice cream shop, but you appreciate it in small amounts as if it were a sauce, a foam or an air as a characterizing element. Cress is exactly the same thing, so they marry and chase each other in a perfect way, in fact in the recipes I tell about I wanted to make different uses of it." It starts with the 'butter croissant'.
"I used the one from the guys at Paciugo Lab, along with a 30-month Parmigiano Reggiano ice cream. I paired it with a mixture of watercress: basically, I wanted to take up the classic savory pasta that you usually eat even for breakfast in bars in Bologna. Often there is prosciutto, but in this case cheese and salad leaf in this bouquet of watercress, which recalled mustard and arugula, bringing me bitter tones but also crunchiness. In this case they were not part of the ice cream, but they provided their own indispensable contribution."
Watercress as an actual ingredient is found in a sorbet, the Bloody Morar, evidently inspired by the Bloody Mary, in which Diletta used Morar Shoots, watercress with a sturdy, juicy stem belonging to the Koppert Cress family of white vegetables : "it is a tomato sorbet in which the intense and spicy note usually given by Worchester sauce, in this case, comes from these young horseradish roots: blended within the mixture, they gave this refreshing and spicy note in the mouth to complete the effect of a real Bloody Mary. " Finally, the 'bread butter and sugar' ice cream: "The ice cream tastes like grandmothers' snacks; in this case I used Dushi®ufe0f Button, a flower that has an extremely sugary taste to complete the flavor profile."
Cremeria Scirocco: the Bolognese gelateria that creates unique flavors with microgreens
Andrea Bandiera, born in 1968, is an ice cream maker sui generis, starting with his choice to open Cremeria Scirocco in a semi-peripheral area of Bologna: "This has been my parents' clothing store for 45 years. Around this porch there were 7 cafes, and the Roveri area drew a high-end audience, before the 2008 crisis. All that was missing was an ice cream shop." In fact, Bandiera's path is atypical, because for sixteen years, before converting to artisanal ice cream, he devoted himself to computer science: "It was 2004: I was building boards and microprocessors, very complex things, but I wanted to go back to my old passion for food." Andrea brings the ice cream shop to life by researching on the Internet to figure out what he would need: "I go to a supplier in Bologna and make him a list, and he supplies me with everything and gives me an initial imprinting, which is basically 'open a bag, put water in it, and get the ice cream out.'
The road to repentance on the path of preparations, however, is short: "After three months I say no, that's not what I want, I'm looking for research and craftsmanship, for this profession. Coming from electronic design, I imagined designing ice cream flavors in the same way, so I realize I have to get into studying. I was recommended the book by Luca Caviezel, an old Sicilian ice cream maker: when I opened it I got shocked, because the numbers were tiled just like on the Excel sheet I was used to. So I create the balancing program, and start modifying the recipes, abandoning all those envelopes they had given me. In 2007, two years later, we were recognized as the best gelateria in Bologna in Repubblica, and for seven years now Gambero Rosso has been confirming our three cones."
Bandiera in the meantime, however, did not abandon his path as a computer scientist; on the contrary, he created software for ice cream shop management. He also began to make friends with many chefs: "At midnight, I would close up and go to the kitchens to see what they were doing. Chatting, tasting, sometimes even helping with the catering. It was an extra experience that helped and formed me. Being in contact with cooks allowed me to acquire techniques that are not normally used in ice cream parlors. In this way I started making my first savory ice creams and we became the 'ice cream shop of strange flavors.'" After a period of 'breaking in' customers, Cremeria Scirocco became a landmark: "We work on ingredients with a very modern trend, we work on pure neutral, even with vegetable fibers, flax fibers, lemon fibers. I always keep 3 savory flavors, starting from almonds to gorgonzola, which lends itself to pairing in dishes. Plus there are requests from chefs, such as squid ink ice cream."
With Koppert Cress, Bandiera found himself with a lot of inspiration: "When they brought me these ingredients to try, I realized that there is a lot of variety to range: of course that's where my head started. The products can be used by applying different techniques: you can make infusions and extractions, blanch and use the chlorophyll part: I could have made ten flavors of ice cream, but I decided to be calmer (laughs). I used the cabbage, boiled in water with cardamom leaves (Cardamom Leaves) and Sansho Leaves and Mu Jiang Zi pepper that I found in China, which is very particular and has this lemony taste. Then the cabbage I blended it with hazelnut and put Morar Shoots in it with that horseradish flavor, a little bit that on the finish helps to clean it up. A very interesting ice cream came out". Another, equally original recipe is a quasi-matcha ice cream.
"I took Kaffir Lime and Sansho leaves, dehydrated them in the microwave and blended them making a powder. It is quite fresh with a nice citrus note, less tannic and green than matcha. If I could have micronized it, it would have bound even more. Compared to the cabbage flavor, which is more gastronomic, this one tastes more popular and can be served as an entrée, for example with strawberry and pistachio." It's worth listening to Andrea Bandiera when he talks about his profession, which he says lacks greater recognition: "Sometimes it's hard to make people understand the study work behind this profession. Maybe it's because there are 40,000 gelato shops in Italy and it's so ingrained in common usage to find gelato on any corner and of any kind, that many people don't realize the quality. It is very hard to convey it, from the ingredients to the correct serving temperature."
Koppert Cress & Carpigiani (& Friends) ice cream and sorbet recipes.
Butter croissant with 30-month Parmigiano Reggiano ice cream and watercress misticanza
For the 30-month Parmigiano ice cream
Ingredients
- 320 g milk 3.5 percent
- 121 g water
- 13 g of olive oil
- 16 g of butter
- 40 g low-fat milk powder
- 87 g trehalose
- 63 g of dextrose
- 24 g dehydrated glucose syrup 38-40 DE
- 2 g salt
- 4 g seutro creme
- 310 g Parmigiano Reggiano aged 36 months, grated
To complete
- Savory Croissants
- Kyona Mustard Cress
- Arugula Cress
- Adji Cress
Procedure
Combine milk, water and melted butter, begin blending with a high-powered blender and add previously blended powders (except Parmigiano Reggiano).
Pasteurize at 85°, cool quickly and add Parmigiano Reggiano, blending until perfectly incorporated. Preferably let the mixture ripen for a few hours before whipping.
Make a cut on the croissant, fill with a quenelle of ice cream, top with a misticanza of watercress (Kyona Mustard cress, Arugula cress and Adji cress) and a few drops of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
For the "Bloody Morar" sorbet
Ingredients
- 450 g datterini tomato puree
- 20 g of lemon juice
- 10 g Worchestershire sauce
- 229 g of trehalose
- 31 g of dextrose
- 58 g of dehydrated glucose syrup 38-40 DE
- 25 g extra virgin olive oil
- 1 g salt
- 173 g water
- 3 g of neutral fruit
- 1 tub of Morar shoots
- 1 tub of Mustard Cress
Procedure
Combine all the liquids except the oil, start blending with a high-powered blender and add the previously blended powders. Add the Morars and oil and blend until smooth. Stir-fry. Serve with a black rice flour crumble, Morar shoots and Mustard cress.
Recipes by Andrea Bandiera
"Almost Matcha"
- 554 g Whole Milk 3.5%MG
- 170 g of Fresh Cream 35%MG
- 102 g of Trehalose
- 43 g of Skim Milk Powder 1%MG
- 43 g of Dextrose Monohydrate
- 34 g of Glucose Syrup 60DE
- 34 g of Maltodextrin 18DE
- 3 g of Flax Fiber Stabilizer
- 17 g of Green Mix (dried and chopped Kaffir-lime and Sansho leaves)
TOTAL 1000 g
Preparation
Dry Kaffir-Lime and Sansho leaves by preferred technique (classic dehydrator at 45°C for several hours, or microwave for a few minutes; then reduce to a very fine powder.
Place the milk, cream and glucose syrup in a saucepan and heat it to a temperature of 65°C. Meanwhile, place the remaining ingredients (excluding Green mix) in a bowl, mixing them together.
When the liquids have reached 40°C, sprinkle in (mixing well) the previous powders. Once they reach 65°C cool the mixture as quickly as possible to 4°C.
Insert the Green Mix, mix well and let it ripen for at least 4 to 6 hours, at the end before whisking, mix again.
At the end of the mantecation, prepare a bottom of Honny Cress and a scoop of Gelato garnished with Zallotti Blossom.
"Cauliflower, Spicy Hazelnut"
- 400 g steamed cauliflower
- 200 g mineral water (resulting from steaming)
- 120 g of Glucose Syrup 60DE
- 80 g of IGP Hazelnut Paste
- 80 g of Trehalose
- 47 g of Dextrose Monohydrate
- 40 g of Inulin from chicory
- 28 g of Maltodextrin 18DE
- 4 g of Flax Fiber Stabilizer
- 2 g of Salt
- 2 g of Lemon Fiber
- Mu Jiang Zi Pepper Q.b. (about 20 berries)
- Cardamom and Sansho leaves Q.b. (about 20 leaves)
- Morar-shoots leaves Q.b. (about 1.5 g)
TOTAL 1003 g
Procedure
Steam the cauliflower using an infusion of fresh Cardamom and Sansho Leaves and some Mu Jiang Zi peppercorns as water; once cooked, collect the remaining cooking water.
Meanwhile, place the remaining powdered ingredients in a bowl and mix them together.
Sprinkle (mixing well) the previous powders into the cooking water, creating a syrup.
Add the hazelnut paste and mix well, then cool the mixture as quickly as possible to 4°C.
Insert Morar-Shoots leaves and pulverized Pepper to taste, mix well and let ripen for at least 4/6 hours, at the end before whisking, mix again.
At the end of the whisking/mantecation, prepare the dish with make a bottom of hazelnut crumbs and garnish with a Morar-Shoots leaf and Anise Blossom.
