Italian food is made special by the people who are passionate about creating it. Whether we’re talking about pasta, pizza or regional dishes known only to one city, you can be sure that the chef at the heart of it will use the finest ingredients to make it as tasty as possible! There is also one famous dessert which, in our opinion, is best consumed on a hot summer’s day in Italy, preferably as part of an afternoon walk with friends. We are talking about Italian gelato – ice cream!
As we mentioned in our last blog post, during our Italian holiday we met up with Michele Ravini, a friend and passionate gelatiere who runs the Gelateria Borgo Antico, a family business in Borghetto, close to Verona. Borghetto itself is a place very close to our hearts; it’s almost too small to be a village but it still has room for several restaurants, ice-cream parlours and even a quirky cocktail bar! Giordano and I have been coming to Borghetto for seven years, and we find an excuse to go back there every time we’re in Italy because it’s so pretty! 🙂
Gelateria Borgo Antico is tucked away in a little corner of Borghetto in a hugely popular tourist spot. We caught up with Michele at his place of work to ask him about his journey and his passion for great Italian ice cream. We also got a a tour of his immaculate and organised kitchen, where he prepares his ice cream for the following week and experiments with new recipes and flavours.
There is also a pane of glass in the kitchen floor where you can see the river rushing past beneath your feet. Look at Laura the daredevil, standing on the glass! 😉
Michele’s journey as a gelatiere began in the late 1990s, when his family decided to get a fixed ice cream parlour for their already-established family business. He spent three months studying with a master gelatiere by the name of Arnaldo Conforto, who also helped to fit out the family’s gelateria. At the beginning of the course, Conforto gave Michele a choice: did he want to learn how to make ice cream, or did he want to learn how to create new recipes?
Michele chose the recipes.
Following these three months of study with Conforto, Michele began working at the Borgo Antico gelateria in 1999. Before too long he was confident enough to begin experimenting with his own recipes and created his first new flavour, the “Veleno” ice cream, which is still a firm favourite in the ice cream parlour today. Veleno is the Italian word for poison, so-called because the strong crema di caffe’ – a rich coffee syrup – cuts beautifully through the pure taste of the milk-flavoured fior di latte ice cream. We have tried this recipe and can confirm it’s delicious!
Michele’s two favourite original ice cream recipes are “Crema Catalana” – a creamy recipe flavoured with burnt sugar, orange peel and cinnamon – and “Malos Cantores“, made with peanuts, caramel and chocolate. We can also confirm that the latter goes very well with the “Veleno” and is equally delicious!
Michele is also passionate about Asia and molecular cooking, and in the last few years he has slowly begun to introduce this passion into his gelato recipes. Only in Borghetto can you find an ice cream known as “Lost in China“, flavoured with green tea rice and mixed with a goji berry and ginger syrup. We love that he’s not afraid to experiment with new flavours!
As well as this, Michele regularly attends ice cream workshops and has opened several ice cream parlours across the Veneto region. His passion is reflected in his recipes; he told us that he feels it was his destiny to become a mastro gelatiere. He says he isn’t quite sure what he’d be doing if he hadn’t discovered ice-cream, but he’s pretty sure he’d still be working in a kitchen!
Next time, we’ll tell you a bit more about Michele’s family business and its history, and the methods they used for creating the best gelato. We will leave you this time with a picture of us in the gelateria, enjoying some spectacular ice cream!
Ciao for now!
Laura and Giordano