When Carpigiani, the Italian company and makers of the finest gelato machines in the world (that’s why I agreed to be their chef for Australia), brought together all the gelato chefs from around the world to HQ in Bologna for a meeting of ideas, I met a Spanish gelato chef by the name of Fernando Saenz Durante.
Fernando can’t speak English or Italian and I can’t speak Spanish but because I can speak Italian and they are similar languages, we could get the gist of what each other was saying. He told me of a sorbet he made using red apple skins (none of the fruit itself) and marsala. He put the apple skins in water and then left them in the fridge for about ten days. The water took on the colour of the skin and flavour of the apple, and he then used that water to make his sorbet (this technique is known as maceration). I was blown away and asked if I could include his recipe in this book.
If you are ever in La Rioja in Spain and you’d like to check out his place, it’s called Heladeria Della Sera at Portals, 28, Logrono. I highly recommend it.