Gelato al limone ( Fresh Lemon Juice Ice-Cream... buonissimo! )

"Summer wouldn't be Summer without ice-cream!" When I was growing up, in Italy, we would keep really big tubs of it in the freezer. My father had three loves in life: his wife and kids, rum baba` and ice cream! I remember finding him in the kitchen, one lazy Summer afternoon, eating ice cream from the tub. He looked like a naughty little kid, my poor babbo! He really loved ice-cream!

Did you know that Italians only eat ice cream in Winter? When we were in Italy, in April, my husband went to Caffe` Roma, as he so wanted to taste his favourite granita al limone (lemon sorbet) but was very disappointed when signora Maria told him that the machine was still switched off! Not warm enough yet!

So... I set myself a challenge: I will try to make lemon sorbet or ice cream which tastes better than Caffe` Roma's! I found a recipe for Lemon Ice-cream, and one obvious and easy one for Granita al limone (Lemon Ice) which I will show you later.

Here is how I made my lemon ice-cream:

Gelato al Limone

(Lemon Ice-Cream)

4-6 servings

Ingredients:

200g (7 oz) sugar

125 ml (4 1/2 fl oz) lemon juice

( about 7 large lemons)

125 ml (4 1/2 fl oz) milk

230 ml (8 fl oz) water

pinch of salt

2 egg whites

Fresh Fruit

Before you start, prepare all your ingredients. Squeeze the lemons, to obtain the right amount of juice. Next, place water, salt and most of the sugar  (160 g - about 5 1/2 oz) in a pan.

 Heat for about five minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and add lemon juice and milk. I was surprised at this stage, as I thought I was going to end up making ricotta, but no... the liquids really blended well!

This mixture needs to be frozen, once cool, for as long as it takes for it to become ice ( about three hours.) I kept stirring mine, as I wanted it to be soft. Anyway! When this mixture is frozen, whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl.

 Now begin to gradually add the rest of the sugar, until you get a lovely, soft meringue like texture ( this tastes so incredibly silky!)

Break up the icy mixture from the freezer, then fold in the "meringue" until you get something which is beginning to look like ice cream. This has to be frozen for a while longer before being consumed. Again, I kept stirring mine and the result was molto, molto buono... Very good: a cross between ice-cream and sorbet. Just lovely for a sunny afternoon, with the addition of blueberries and just a few little alpine strawberries from the garden!

I love the little strawberries!