Fat clemenza

Ricotta cannoli gelato

By: Nick Palumbo
From: Gelato Messina
Makes: 1 kg
Photographer: Billy Law

‘Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.’ Being of Sicilian background and writing a book on gelato, you didn’t think I would leave out a Godfather reference now, did you?

Traditionally, Sicilian cannoli are made with sheep’s milk ricotta, but it can be hard to find. Cow’s milk ricotta works just as well, but there is a difference in flavour, so it’s worth the extra effort if you can find it.

The recipe also uses cannoli shells; I’ve provided the recipe if you want to make them yourself. Don’t worry if you don’t have any metal cannoli tubes for shaping the cannoli, simply deep-fry the pastry as squares. They are only going to get broken up anyway, so you don’t really need the tubes.

Another option is to buy some unfilled shells from your nearest Italian cake shop. You can either break them up like I suggest in the recipe, or for something different, leave them whole and stuff them with the ricotta gelato so that they look like real cannoli.

Domestic

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
500g	milk
270g	ricotta, preferably sheep’s milk
1	orange, grated zest
150g	sugar
40g	skim milk powder
35g	dextrose
5g	stabiliser

You will also need

Quantity	Ingredient
200g	Cannoli shells, broken into 1 cm pieces
50g	dark chocolate, finely chopped
50g	cedro (candied citron), diced into 5 mm cubes

Method

Mixing

Put the milk, ricotta and orange zest in a double boiler over a medium heat.
Put all the powders in a bowl and mix until combined. When the milk and ricotta mixture hits 40°C, whisk in the powders and bring the mixture up to 65°C. Keep the mixture at 65°C for 30 minutes, whisking every 5 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel bowl and place in an ice bath; chill to 40°C. Cover tightly with foil and put in the freezer, stirring every 10 minutes or so until the mixture drops to 4°C, then place in the fridge and let it age for 4 hours.
Churning

Turn on your gelato maker so it begins the freezing process.
Using a stick blender, blend the mixture for 1 minute, then pour into the gelato maker.
Once the mixture reaches –4°C, scoop out the gelato and transfer to a pre-cooled stainless steel bowl; as you do this, fold the broken pieces of cannoli shells, chopped chocolate and diced citron into the gelato. Cover tightly and immediately place in the freezer.
Serving

The gelato should be served within 2 to 3 hours after placing it in the freezer, or when it reaches –12°C. If it goes below –15°C or is left in the freezer overnight, the texture will be compromised.

Professional

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
	as above

Method

Mixing

Put the milk, ricotta and orange zest in a pasteuriser and select high pasteurisation.
Put all the powders in a bowl and dry mix. When the milk and ricotta mixture hits 40°C, whisk in the powders; the pasteuriser will take the entire mix to 85°C, then will switch to cooling phase.
Once the pasteuriser runs its cycle and gets down to 4°C, let the mixture age for 4 hours at 4°C.
Churning

Measure an appropriate amount of mixture into a measuring jug and put in a batch freezer. Within 10 to 12 minutes, your mix should be ready for extraction. As the gelato comes out of the churner, fold in the broken pieces of cannoli shells, chopped chocolate and diced citron.
For long-term storage, up to 2 weeks: Put the gelato in a blast freezer for 30 minutes, then store at –18°C. For short-term storage, 2 to 3 days: Put the gelato in a storage freezer at –18°C.
Serving

The serving temperature of the gelato should be around –11°C to –13°C.