Is It Gelato Time Yet?

Ice cream is one of those desserts that can be eaten any time of year, but is especially loved during the warm summer months, being a great way to cool down while enjoying this delicious ice cream treat. "Is It Gelato Time Yet?" is a popular frozen treat that has been enjoyed for many years, and is especially abundant still in Italy where it all began.

Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream, and can be made with milk, cream, various sugars and flavorings which often include fresh fruit and nut purees. Gelato is most often lower in calories, fat and sugar than other types of ice cream desserts. Gelato is a type of soft ice cream dessert that contains a small amount of air, when made in Italy gelato ice cream has to have at least 3.5 percent butterfat. The amount of sugar used in this popular ice cream dessert is balanced with the water content so the dessert is not frozen solid.

Gelato dates back to frozen desserts in Sicily, ancient Rome and Egypt that were made from snow and ice that was brought down from the mountaintops and preserved below the ground. In 1686 a fisherman by the same of Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli made the first ice cream machine, with gelato gaining popularity in the 1920's and 1930's in the norther Italian city of Varese, where the first gelato cart was used. Today in Italy there are as many homemade gelato makers as there are industrial gelato producers, with more than 5,000 Italian ice cream parlors which employ mostly Italians. There are a variety of delicious flavors to enjoy all over the world, at any time of year.

On this great site you will find traditional authentic Italian recipes passed down from generations of Italian grandmothers and Nonna's from all the regions of Italy. Rossella is the host of the all new online cooking show and food webisode series, Cooking with Nonna. Rossella was born into a family of culinary aficionado's and food lovers. Growing up there was always something on the stove, says Rossella a first generation Italian American from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Her roots are from Mola di Bari, a small fishing village known as Mola where her parents were born. For Rossella cooking was never about cooking, it was about family, community and spending quality time with each other.

Some of the Italian recipes you will find on the site include three cheese pasta with zucchini and b�chamel recipe, Anelletti passing with ricotta salata recipe, arborio rice with dry fava beans recipe, Arrabbiata sauce recipe, avocado pesto recipe, baked rigatoni recipe, baked rotini recipe, black tagliolini with calamari e Zucca recipe, meat soup recipe, broccoli and shells recipe, broccoli with Maritati pasta recipe, butternut squash ravioli with porcini sauce recipe, roasted butternut squash with homemade ricotta cheese ravioli recipe, fusilli with cauliflower and tomato sauce recipe and more.