Milk-Free Strawberry Gelato

The first reaction I got was a teeny-weeny squeal of delight coming from my little daughter as I scooped out the gelato (ice cream) from the container. It was indeed bright pink, I thought. It had a rich strawberry flavor which is was what made it especially good. And one other thing that's quite important to me - it's milk free!

My sensitivity to milk has changed from bad to worse. I cannot stand the smell of warmed-up milk anymore in the kitchen. Preparing my children's milk is becoming a problem. Thankfully, I don't have an infant anymore to feed with milk 24 hours a day. I guess the strong aversion arrived at the right moment. Pitching in to my shortcoming, my husband prepares the milk and my son fills up his empty cup with the tap to rinse out the residue before I walk back to the kitchen. Not that I can totally avoid anything with dairy milk anyway. I think it is impossible to go through cooking without encountering one or two recipes using dairy products. 

When I was browsing Pellegrino Artusi's cookbook entitled La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di Mangiar Bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), I came upon his fruit gelato recipe without milk. His cookbook is one of my cooking bibles at home. The recipes he wrote were from 1891 to 1911 and considered excellent in the Italian culinary world. Being from that period, the way of writing is also too "ancient" for me but I always manage to breeze through his recipes.

I was just confused about something. If the fruit-flavored ice cream does not use milk, then shouldn't it be called sorbetto (sorbet)? This I asked my husband's relatives over dinner once. It's amusing how sometimes, you pose a food-related question and out comes clashing opinions. "No, it's a sorbetto. It's a granita. Well, yes, maybe it's a gelato". After all, Artusi's recipes are scientifically tested, having been written after a series of trials and experiments.

My recipe to this milk-free strawberry gelato is based on one of Artusi's gelato recipe. It can be accessed at She Knows where I create recipes other than my blog. Click to this link to take you there. My list of food & travel articles can be seen on this link.  Thanks!

Enjoy your week!