Pistachio gelato

On being invited by my cousin to Christmas dinner last December, I offered to bring dessert. As I had been wanting to try making pistachio ice cream / gelato since the pistachio ice cream we had at Prego, I offered to bring exactly that.

After spending some time scouring the internet for receipes from famous chefs, I decided on David Lebovitz's receipe for pistachio gelato. Although his receipe calls for the use of pistachio paste rather than ground pistachio nuts, the latter works fine in my opinion.

The bowl on the left contains ground up pistachios from raw kernals. The corningware on the right contains ground up pistachios that were roasted in their shells (I had to separate the kernals from the shells). As you can see their colours are different, so if you want an ice cream / gelato that has more of a green hue, you will need to buy kernals-only pistachios.

Right after pouring the mixture into the machine

After about 20 minutes of churning

The picture right on top shows the end-result - the pistachio gelato in its frozen state. It may look a little like gunk, but it received many praises from mine and my cousin's families for being deliciously nutty and not too sweet.

Pistachio ice-cream / gelato is hard to come by at supermarkets, and if you find them, they are usually as expensive as the versions you would buy from a gelateria. So why not make your own? ;)



Pistachio Gelato
Adapted from David Lebovitz's Pistachio Gelato Receipe

This receipe will make about 3 cups of gelato.

Ingredients

2 cups (½ liter) whole milk
1/3 cup (65 gr) sugar
2 tablespoons (16 gr) cornstarch (also known as corn flour)
200g ground pistachios
50g crushed chunks of pistchios (optional, for crunch)
a few drops of lemon or orange juice

Method

1. Mix the 1/4 cup milk with the cornstarch until the starch is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

2. Heat the rest of the milk in saucepan with the sugar.

3. When it almost starts to boil, stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook at gentle simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

4. Remove from heat, scrape into a bowl, and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

5. Once chilled, whisk in the ground pistachios and a few drops of citrus juice until smooth.

6. Freeze the gelato in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

7. At the 20-minute churning mark, add in the crushed chunks of pistachio.