Pazzo Gelato Cafe Explains Weird Science: What’s In Your Gelato?

ANDOVER, Mass. - April 15, 2014 - PRLog -- With all of us having unique palates and food experiences, it’s only natural that we each have our own odd cravings and delicious combinations of food. Whether you like to dip your warm fries into a cold shake or your Oreos into peanut butter, our curiosity pushes us all to experiment with different flavor combinations. Sure, gelato is amazingly tasty all the time, but you may find that you want to branch out once in a while from your favorite flavor and push the boundaries of your taste buds. What happens when we experiment with multiple odd ingredients to create our gelato?  We create a delicious combination that leaves you wanting more!

Strawberry Balsamic

While you might put strawberries in your fruit salad and balsamic vinegar on your salad greens, these two ingredients form a classic Italian combination that complement each other perfectly. While we usually think of vinegar as sour and strawberries as dessert, in this case the roles are reversed.  Good quality balsamic vinegar is sweet and syrupy and helps to contrast the natural tartness of the strawberries. Balsamic vinegar atop creamy strawberry gelato or sorbet gives you a delightful treat that you can’t stop eating!

Mascarpone Fig or Cherry

Is there anything better than a combination of cheese and fruit?  How often do you find yourself hovering over that cheese platter grabbing cheese, crackers and fruit (whether grapes, cantaloupe, or apples)?  Pairing creamy cheeses works particularly well especially when it’s a delicious, smooth, velvety and sweet cheese like Mascarpone.  A sweeter Italian version of cream cheese, mascarpone serves as the filling for cannolis, lobster tails and tiramisu but also makes a sublime gelato.  When you pair it with a sweet/tart fruit like fig or cherry the combination will leave you wanting more! The fresh mascarpone gives the gelato a unique, smooth texture, and the fruit satisfies your craving for something sweet. Before you count out the fruit and cheese combination, let your taste buds decide!

Peanut Butter Oreo

What’s your dunking vice?  Something dipped in your coffee?  Hot French fries in your cold shake? For my employee Emily, it’s Oreo cookies dunked in peanut butter.  Voilà!!  That simple idea brought the birth of a new gelato flavor that simply drives people crazy with joy.  Creamy and rich peanut butter gelato with chunks of Oreo cookie folded in.  Remember everything tastes better with Oreos!

Banana Chocolate Caramel

We’ve all been there-staring at the fountain of bubbling chocolate and the layout of dipping choices before us.  Pineapples? Marshmallows? Pretzels?  There they are-bananas!!!  What’s better than a banana dipped in chocolate?  A frozen banana coated in chocolate of course.  But why stop there?  Add some salted caramel to it and it’s beyond delicious.  Believe me there is a reason this is our most popular flavor.  (People actually get upset if we don’t have it in the case that day.) The crunch of chocolate, the salty sweet taste of caramel and the smooth creamy texture of sweet ripe banana gelato.  We’ve done all the work for you by combining the three flavors into one. If the creamy texture of this one doesn’t have you hooked, the delicious caramel, chocolate, and banana combination sure will!

How Can You Improve Chocolate???

You chocolate lovers are a fierce bunch.  You know you can’t go wrong with rich deep flavored dark chocolate.  Chocolate is so wonderful think of all the different items it pairs well with: everything from marshmallows to oranges to bananas.  But a new trend began several years ago to further enhance the flavor of chocolate:  the addition of salt and sea salt in particular.  Salt is the most powerful flavor enhancer we know and the combination of the two takes the chocolate to a whole new level.  Don’t believe me?  Next time sprinkle a little kosher or sea salt right before you pop your chocolate chip cookies or fudge brownies in the oven and then thank me later!  Now let’s push the boundaries even further and add a third flavor to the mix.  For us this past weekend it was extra virgin olive oil.  The olive oil gives the chocolate even further depth of flavor and both are enhanced by the addition of sea salt.   Those daring and spontaneous folks who tried it did not walk away disappointed but actually came back looking for it again the next couple of days! The combination of healthy olive oil and your favorite sinful treat will make you a fan of this three-flavor dessert!

The great thing about gelato and sorbetto is the ability to ignite your imagination! Customers regularly stop in our shop or post on Facebook asking us to create out-of-the-box flavors that really work well together. Everything from olive oil gelato to a tomatillo sorbet- we can do it!

Feel free to email me with ideas at jim@pazzogelatocafe or post on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pazzogelatocafe.

Pazzo Gelato Café is located at 99 Turnpike Street (Rt. 114), North Andover in the Eaglewood Shops Plaza.