Tag: ZINGERMAN’S DELI
I scream, you scream, we all scream for gelato!
Gelato is Italy’s version of ice cream. It is to American ice cream what Gucci is to Levi’s. Most Italian towns have at least a few gelaterie, tiny shops that sell nothing but gelato. Big cities will have dozens of them. They’ll usually have at least a dozen flavors prominently displayed, everything from sexed up standards like super dark chocolate to more exotic flavors like Marron Glacé (candied chestnut) or Torrone (nougat). When you pick a flavor, they’ll pile it into a cup or cone using a paddle that looks more like a spatula than a scoop. You eat it with a brightly colored, shovel-shaped spoon that’s as long as a toothpick and as wide as a cheap emery board. But before you pick a flavor and dig in, you have to pick which gelateria to visit.
There are a few factors to pay attention to when choosing a gelateria. Avoid gelato with DayGlo colors. Stay away from gelato mounded six inches above the tub, it probably has tons of stabilizers to help it keep that shape. Don’t go for the spot that has little jars of Nutella or tiny plastic fruits stuck in the gelato to show you which flavor is which. If the menu tells you where ingredients come from, like having IGP hazelnuts from Piedmont or DOP pistachios from Bronte, you might have found a good one. But the best indication of all is a long line—or, since this is Italy, a big, disorganized crowd.
The crowd knows. Those people waiting understand that a particular gelateria makes ice cream with luscious texture and big, bold flavors. And that’s the thing about gelato: when it’s really good the flavors are more direct and pure than American ice cream. The hazelnut tastes like freshly toasted hazelnuts. The strawberry sorbet tastes like fresh, ripe strawberries. I’m sure if Zingerman’s Creamery were tucked away on some narrow, cobbled, Italian alley, it would have a crowd stretching around the corner.
Gelato is made with only four major ingredients so you can’t skimp on any of them and get great flavor.
Zingerman’s gelato maker Josh starts with milk from Calder Dairy, located about an hour down the road from Zingerman’s Creamery in Carleton, Michigan. Calder has a herd of 113 cows that are known by names, not numbers. They’re never given any hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics. The milk is gently pasteurized and not homogenized, a process that agitates the milk to distribute the cream more evenly rather than allowing it to rise and separate. The result is that Calder produces a richer, creamier, sweeter milk.
To the milk, Josh adds cream from Guernsey Dairy in Northville, Michigan—the same source our Bakehouse uses for the sour cream they stir into every Sourcream Coffeecake. Then he mixes in demerara brown cane sugar. He adds pinch of stabilizer to help the gelato maintain its texture when frozen for a few weeks, and then all that’s left is to add the flavor. And oh, those flavors! His peanut butter gelato is made with Koeze’s atonishing Cream Nut Peanut Butter from Grand Rapids, Michigan. His dulce de leche gelato is made with a super thick and creamy dulce de leche caramel we get direct from Argentina, its home base.
In spite of great variety, Josh’s vanilla gelato is probably my favorite. “Before I started making gelato, I thought vanilla was just white and sweet,” Josh confessed to me the other day. I’d say that’s a pretty apt description of a lot of vanilla ice creams, but not so with Josh’s. He uses Madagascar Bourbon vanilla—and lots of it!—and the result is a rich, earthy, woodsy flavor that lasts and lasts.
What’s the gelato maker’s favorite flavor?
Burnt Sugar. That’s not because it’s the easiest to make—in fact, Josh calls it “a thorough pain in the ass.” He loves it because it takes sugar, one of the three base ingredients of gelato, and transforms it into an entirely different flavor. He starts with white cane sugar and cooks it with water in a big pot. Over the course of an hour, the water boils off, the sugar melts, and then just as it starts to burn he pulls it off the stove and adds additional water to make a syrup and keep it from hardening into a sticky hard caramel mess. “I put on gloves, and I should probably wear goggles too. Then I yell to get people out of the way. It’s so hot that when I add the water it boils upon impact. It’s like this insanely hot exercise of sweating and trying not to get it on your skin while it cools in the sink.” The burnt sugar syrup tastes like the top of a crème brûlée. The gelato flirts with the line between sweet and bitter. It’s sugar utterly transformed, and the end result is super smooth and creamy with an autumn orange-yellow color and a complex, intriguing flavor.
– Val
You can find our amazing gelato at Zingerman’s Creamery, and the Zingerman’s Deli Next Door coffeehouse. We can also ship gelato through Zingerman’s Mail Order.
Add some sweetness to the winter chill!
Books that feed your appetite…
You already knew Zingerman’s Delicatessen sells all manner of wonderful foods from both here and abroad, but did you know that we also sell books?
We’ve collected some of our favorite cookbooks, books about cheese, or pasta, or beef, as well as a few other interesting tomes, to help you build your own home library of books on the subject of eating well.
We’ve got Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vols. I & II by the inimitable Julia Child. Journalist Michael Paterniti’s memoir to his time at Zingerman’s and the quest it inspired for the world’s best cheese, The Telling Room. Or if you really want to dig deeper into the world of fermented curd, try The Cheese Primer, by cheese authority Steven Jenkins.
Looking for David Chang’s Momofuku? That’s on our shelves, as well as titles by Alice Waters, Edward Behr, and many more. How about the Fresh Honey Cookbook by our dear friend, Laurie Masterton, or Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food? You’ll find those here, too.
We’ve even got all of Ari’s books on management, as well as several other titles from Zingerman’s Press.
So, the next time you’re visiting the Deli, don’t forget to grab something good to read to go with the stuff that’s good to eat!
See you soon!
Annual Taste of Tantré Event
Last week, we gathered for our annual Taste of Tantré feast to eat great food and raise awareness, goodwill, and money to further the mission of The Agrarian Adventure, a leader in our community farm-to-school movement.
The Agrarian Adventure is celebrating its 10 year anniversary championing efforts to connect students with food, health, community, and agriculture. They’ve created and help to sustain a bountiful and diverse school garden at Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor, lead a Farmer in the Classroom program that reaches all Ann Arbor Public Schools, and work to foster ongoing relationships among farmers, teachers, parents, administrators and students.
A near-capacity crowd visited Zingerman’s Deli to take part in the benefit, and by all accounts the event was an enjoyable success! Here are some photos from the event:
You can help!
Support Farmer Visits to Classrooms
The Agrarian Adventure mentors area farmers to give fun hands-on lessons to over 800 elementary students a year, connecting them with our regional food system and locally grown produce. Help us bring this great program to more schools! Each $250 donation pays for one month of Farmer in the Classroom programming. This includes planning, materials, and a stipend for the visiting farmer for a month of weekly visits.
Your total sponsor-a-month donation is a tax-deductible contribution to The Agrarian Adventure, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, federal tax id is 20-1275718.
See you soon!
Featuring special guests Rolando Beramendi, Gianluigi Peduzzi, and Ari Weinzweig!
Please join us on Thursday, November 13, 630pm for a very special event!
We’re very fortunate to welcome not one, but two of the powerhouses of the traditional pasta world joining Zingerman’s co-founder Ari for journey through the history of Italy’s greatest pastas.
Gianluigi Peduzzi is a third-generation pasta maker from the Abruzzo, whose Rustichella pasta line has long been one of THE best in Italy and the US. At his side we’ll have chef, importer and pastalogist extraordinaire Rolando Beramendi whose excellent palate and passion for traditional Italian food have significantly altered the food scene here in the US.
Gianluigi, Rolando and Ari will guide you through a tasting of 6 pastas starting with the very first Rustichella pasta ever brought into the US.
Here’s the evening’s pasta plan direct from Rolando:
1- Whole Wheat Penne, our first pasta ever imported into the US, so I think we will serve it very simply as aglio, olio e peperoncino. This was the recipe that was then written on the original Penne bags!
2- Linguine tossed with the simplest tomato sauce. And we’ll add some grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano. Simple and direct, so we can really taste the flavor of the pasta.
3- Orecchiette which we we’ll serve alla Pugliese, with broccoli rabe and sausage. This pasta calls for something hearty.
4- Egg Pappardelle will help everyone taste the difference and supple texture of an egg pasta. We’ll serve it with some melted butter, and chopped mushrooms or dry porcini.
5- PrimoGrano Sagne a Pezzi so Gianluigi can talk about his 0 Km project, which is intended to aid the recovery of local agricultural system. PrimoGrano is a 100% Abruzzo product, traveling zero distance from sowing to collection. We’ll also talk about the grains we use and what a difference they make in the flavor.
6- ZeroTre is one of our latest projects. It’s a kid’s pasta, and we’ll talk about growing up eating pastina and serving alphabet pasta in chicken stock. It’s my favorite comfort food.
This is a once in a lifetime event in Ann Arbor and guaranteed to take the quality of your pasta cooking up to the level of Italy’s best chefs!
See you soon!
Taste of Tantré is a benefit for the agrarian adventure!
Join Zingerman’s Delicatessen and Tantré Farm this coming Wednesday, November 5, 630pm, as we gather for our annual Taste of Tantré feast where we will eat great food and raise awareness, goodwill, and money to further the mission of The Agrarian Adventure, a leader in our community farm-to-school movement.
The Agrarian Adventure celebrates its 10 year anniversary championing efforts to connect students with food, health, community, and agriculture. They created and help to sustain a bountiful and diverse school garden at Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor, lead a Farmer in the Classroom program that reaches all Ann Arbor Public Schools, and work to foster ongoing relationships among farmers, teachers, parents, administrators and students.
$80 of the ticket price is tax-deductible!
Support Farmer Visits to Classrooms
The Agrarian Adventure mentors area farmers to give fun hands-on lessons to over 800 elementary students a year, connecting them with our regional food system and locally grown produce. Help us bring this great program to more schools! Each $250 donation pays for one month of Farmer in the Classroom programming. This includes planning, materials, and a stipend for the visiting farmer for a month of weekly visits.
Your total sponsor-a-month donation is a tax-deductible contribution to The Agrarian Adventure, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, federal tax id is 20-1275718.
See you soon!
Noted Chocolate authority leads Tasting & Discussion
This event is now FREE! Stop in and learn about great chocolate!
Please join us this coming Monday, November 3, 630pm, as we welcome very special guest Jacques Dahan of Michel Cluizel Chocolate for a discussion and tasting of our favorite family-owned French chocolate from Damville, Normandy. Jacques, a chocolate expert and importer for the past 28 years, will share the details of chocolate production at Michel Cluizel. He’ll walk us through all aspects of the process, from sourcing the cacao beans directly from farmers, to the slow and careful roasting phase, to the final production of their rich and unique chocolate. Don’t miss it!
