Some people have visited Europe for the history. Others have gone for the weather (at least until it officially became the world’s fastest-warming continent). Then there are those who’ve claimed both when it’s actually the gelato they were in it for. Some would even say, if you didn’t come away from your last European vacation a gelato expert, you weren’t doing it right.
Of course, there is more to Europe than gelato: namely, other cold desserts that deserve our attention. When done to perfection, a cold treat has the power to stave off a tantrum or rescue your day from the humid Spanish shvitz. It imprints onto your memory like a burnt-orange sunset or tea-soaked madeleine. We’ve found the most lauded recipes, so you can try them at home.
Italian shaved ice from La Sora Maria, Rome
Grattachecca.Supplied
Like churches built in phases atop ancient temples, the modest kiosks that sell grattachecca, Italian shaved ice, to overheated Romans have links to the ancients. The patricians devised a proto-sorbet mixed with honey and fresh fruit that even philosopher Pliny the Elder was moved to write about.
If you’ve walked the Lungotevere along the Tiber River in Trastevere, you might have noticed La Sora Maria’s rivals, Sora Mirella and Alla Fonte D’Oro, scraping away in tiny baroque kiosks on the cobbles, and possibly endured the ensuing brain-freeze. Confusing their product for granita would be easy, but a Roman would scoff. Granita is from miles away, in Sicily.
While many purveyors have graduated to ice-crushing machines, Rome’s most respected grattacheccari grate large ice blocks, or checca, by hand. The shavings get stuffed into a half-litre glass, drizzled with a combination of fruit syrups, then topped with pieces of fresh fruit – lemon, coconut, cherries and those tiny tart berries called frutti di bosco. Smooth like wet snow, they soak up the flavours so you’re not left with a cup of dull ice after five minutes.
Off the tourist trail on Via Trionfale, north of Vatican City, La Sora Maria might have the most loyal clientele in town. The 90-year-old family business is run by descendants of the eponymous Sister Maria, who are exceedingly friendly yet unwavering about what a “real” grattachecca comprises: black cherry, tamarind, orange, coconut and lemon. Giulia Liset, great-granddaughter of the late Maria, shares the recipe.
Recipe: Grattachecca
Take your ice block out of the freezer for a few minutes, to soften it before scraping.
Use a scraping tool to shave off coarse bits of ice and stuff it in a half-litre glass.
Add two ounces of fruit syrup or fresh juice, such as orgeat, squeezed orange, tamarind or lemon.
Scoop out a few black cherries with their juices and ladle on top.
Add pieces of fresh coconut and orange.
Consume quickly – melting messes with the integrity of the treat.
Spanish nut milk from Orxateria Daniel, Valencia
Horchata served with a fartón, a soft ladyfinger topped with powdered sugar.Visit Valencia
The joy of being a pedestrian in Valencia, Spain, comes from discovering its ancient fabric made new: the restored manors, the reinvigorated port, the glassy additions to the art nouveau Mercado de Colón. But the temperatures start soaring past 30 C in spring and regular refreshments are imperative. In the aforementioned market you can multitask at Orxateria Daniel, a new incarnation of the 75-year-old café, famous for perfecting the local specialty drink horchata.
Unlike the Mexican rice-milk horchata pushed at margarita brunches, the Valencian original uses a “milk” made from the tiger nut, or chufa, actually a tuber grown across 16 villages north of the city, making the drink a protected “designation of origin,” like Champagne. Some call it the OG non-dairy milk, because the superfood came to this Mediterranean coastline from North Africa during the Islamic expansion, more than 1,000 years ago. Sweeter and thicker than oat and almond varieties, it tastes like a vanilla milkshake, without the guilt.
The first Daniel, on what came to be known as Avenida de l’Orxata, was to the city’s social life as Café de Flore was to Paris’s – Salvador Dalí was a patron, wiping the white horchata mustache from his trademark curly one. But the airy expanse of the Mercado de Colón location offers superior people-watching, with all that glass. The recommended order would be a Daniel Gigante, served almost frozen with a fartón, a soft ladyfinger topped with powdered sugar. The Chufa de Valencia council shared its official recipe, though it takes time and equipment.
Recipe: Horchata
Wash a cup of tiger nuts several times, then immerse them in a litre of clean water for one to eight hours.
Crush rehydrated nuts in a mill. Add approximately three litres of water for every kilogram of pulverized nuts.
Leave them to soak for a half-hour.
Press the mixture through a sieve or cheesecloth to separate liquid from solid.
Use the remaining solid residue to steep out more horchata, adding approximately two litres of water per kilo of residue. Sift and press like the previous mixture.
Add sugar at a ratio of about 150 g per litre of liquid. Stir and pass through a sieve or cheesecloth once more.
Cool the final liquid to 0 C, then taste.
The horchata keeps in a cooler of less than 2 C.
French frozen soufflé from Pic, Valence
Midway between Lyon and Provence, the citizens of Valence are gastronomically savvy. So the fact that they – and the thousands who pitch up to eat here – speak rapturously about the soufflé glacé at Pic, a fourth-generation family restaurant laden with Michelin stars, means it holds up.
The frozen dessert began as a riff on the classic hot soufflé by Jacques Pic, who took over the kitchen in the 1950s – though chefs elsewhere have devised their own recipes. Softer than ice cream and slightly less cold, it requires little time and no baking, yet this version with Grand Marnier is still one of the most praised dishes coming out of Valence. Pic’s daughter Anne-Sophie, currently head chef, likes to keep things simple.
You can go in for the whole 10-course Pic experience and finish with the buoyant soufflé glacé – its custardy sweetness flavoured with Grand Marnier – or you can give it a whirl at home. Anne-Sophie Pic shared her recipe.
Soufflé glacé au Grand Marnier:
In a saucepan, combine 90 ml of fresh orange juice with 70 g of sugar and zest of one orange. Bring to a boil.
While heating, place three egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at high speed. When the juice is boiling, slowly pour it in with the yolks and keep beating until mixture is completely cooled.
In a separate large bowl, beat 100 ml of cream until soft. Gently mix in the juice and yolk mixture, along with 50 ml of Grand Marnier.
Get out six soufflé ramekins or moulds. Cut a large sheet of baking paper into rectangles and place one rectangle around the first ramekin, so that the paper increases the height of the ramekin by a few centimetres. Hold in place with a tight elastic band. Repeat for all ramekins.
Pour the mixture into the prepared moulds. Place in freezer for at least six hours.
Remove the baking paper, sprinkle surface of soufflés with icing sugar and orange zest.
One in a regular series of stories. To read more, visit our Inspired Dining section.