The Art of Italian Gelato: History, Flavors, and Techniques

Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli is believed to have been the first person to commercialize gelato.

Centuries before Marco Polo, Roman emperors were known to enjoy frozen desserts, covered in honey after eating ice from Mount Etna and Vesuvius volcanoes. Italy also played the most important role in introducing frozen desserts to Europe. In the 9th century, when Sicilians were introduced to sugarcane, it revolutionized Sicilian cooking. They began sweetening their drinks, both hot and cold, with this new product, but the evolution of gelato is really the story of Sicily in the south and Florence in the north.

In the mid-16th century, the Medici family of Florence sponsored a culinary competition for the most unusual and delicious dishes. Cosimo Ruggeri, a chicken farmer by trade and a cook in his spare time, took part in the competition. Ruggeri’s frozen dessert was the forerunner of gelato and was called fior di latte, which translates as milk cream. He won the coveted prize and took Caterina de’ Medici with him to the French court to show how Italian chefs were superior to those in France. She made her specialty for her marriage to the future king of France, and her creation was a success. Unfortunately, the court chefs, jealous of his connection to the queen, despised Ruggeri. He soon tired of palace intrigue and bid farewell to France, leaving Caterina with his recipe for fior di latte.

A generation later, the Medici family commissioned the famous artist and architect Bernardo Buontalenti to organize celebrations for the visiting king of Spain. He staged theater performances and fireworks, but most importantly, he created a cream with bergamot, lemon, and orange that was chilled with a mixture of his own invention. Buontalenti presented the king of Spain with the creamy frozen dessert we now call gelato.

It was Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, a famous restaurateur, who is credited with making gelato famous throughout Europe. Born in Palermo, Sicily, Procopio moved to Paris and opened a café in 1686 that soon became the center of every culinary innovation of the day. From exotic coffee to chocolate, served in delicate gelato presented in small glasses like egg cups. Procopio’s café was a huge success. Although Procopio was pivotal in introducing gelato to France, it was up to dessert makers from Italy’s Dolomites to broaden the dessert’s availability to other parts of Europe. It was indeed in Sicily that the dessert originated and was popular for generations before Ruggeri gave his twist to the dessert.

The history of frozen desserts is really the history of two different types of desserts, each closely tied to two regions, one in the north of Italy and one in the extreme south. Florentine gelato was made with milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and natural flavors. Snow was kept in the cantina (basement) during the winter. When summer brought tourists to the Dolomite mountains, selling gelato was one of the main sources of income for people in the region, but gelato was an expensive enterprise. This limited market space, so a seasonal migration of gelato artisans to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and France began, bringing their confections to wealthier communities. This tradition made Italians dominant in the milk-based gelato business, both in northern Italy and in neighboring countries. True gelato contains much less air than typical American ice cream and is therefore more rich in flavor. Gelato is also healthier than American-style ice cream, as it contains all-natural ingredients, fewer calories, and less butterfat.

In the Far South, gelato was mainly water-based. It is low in fat and slightly high in sugar. Southern gelato producers used methods similar to those in the Dolomite region, especially in Sicily, where underground storage areas, more than 90 feet below ground, were used to store compacted snow. Like their northern counterparts, local Sicilian artisans would travel to neighboring countries to sell their sweets to wealthy clients.