Gelati: Take Two, Making Gelato

Gelateria Artiginale Ponte Pietra
On June 22nd, I shared with you the best gelati shop in Verona. I was able to arrange with Stefano (one of the owners) to have a behind-the-scenes tour of how gelato is made.


Here you see the Pastomaster, a machine which pasteurizes the milk. It is used for all milk/cream-based gelati. All the main ingredients (such as cream, sugars, etc) are mixed together and heated until they reach 85 degrees centigrade. They are then cooled. The result is what Stefano called the ‘base’.






At this point, other ingredients may be added such as flavors, fruit, nuts, etc.


Then, this mixture is put in the Mantegitore, or the “freezing machine”. This rotates and turns as you can see, and creates 10 kilo (or two tubs) of crystallized gelati.



Then the mixtures are poured into tubs and put in the freezer. Milk gelato takes six hours to freeze and fruit gelato takes four. So, the entire process, from start to finish is about seven to eight hours.



In the summer season, Stefano can make 60 liters or 15 tubs of gelato daily. The gelati season runs for 250 days straight, from March through the end of October. There are no days off during this time. So you know that the owners of gelaterias must love their work.

Now that I am back in San Diego, I must seek out a good source for gelato. It will be a challenge, I am sure.

Thanks to Stefano for sharing the how-to’s with me.