Homemade Italian Ricotta Gelato with Figs, Honey and Walnuts | Gelato Artigianale alla Ricotta con Fichi, Miele e Noci
A ricotta gelato has no egg yolk, no custard and no cooked base, and that absence is the whole argument for making one. Ricotta brings milk fat and milk protein in a single ingredient, so what you taste is fresh dairy rather than dessert: cold, dense, faintly sour and far more refreshing than its richness suggests.
Figs, honey and walnuts are what southern Italy eats with sheep milk cheese in September, and each does a distinct job here.
Yield: about 1 quart (1 litre), 8 servings. Prep: 35 minutes. Drain and age: 4 hours each. Churn: 25 minutes. Freeze: 3 hours. Difficulty: intermediate.
The Story
Ricotta is not strictly a cheese, and its name says so: ricotta means recooked. It is made by heating the whey left over from cheesemaking until the albumin and globulin proteins that survived the first round coagulate into soft white flakes. It is a second harvest from milk already used, which is why shepherds in Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria and Campania have made it for centuries from whatever whey the day's pecorino left behind. Nothing was wasted, and the ricotta was eaten within a day, still warm, with bread, honey or a few figs from the tree by the door.
Sheep milk ricotta is the version that belongs in this recipe, and it is genuinely different from the cow milk tub sold in most supermarkets. Sheep whey carries more fat and more protein, so the cheese is richer, denser and faintly gamey, with a grassy pastoral edge. In the south it is still sold in a small rush basket, the fuscella, that drains it as it sits. In Sicily the same ricotta fills cannoli and cassata, and it appears in gelato in the summer pastry shops, where a scoop goes into a soft brioche and is eaten for breakfast.
Honey and walnuts complete the picture. Orange blossom honey comes from the groves of Sicily and Calabria, and it has the floral, faintly citrus perfume that survives freezing better than vanilla does. Campania grows walnuts around Sorrento and in the hills of Irpinia, and the southern kitchen uses them in place of the almonds and pine nuts found elsewhere. Their tannic edge is what keeps a dish of fresh milk and honey from tasting cloying, and that bitter note is the reason the plate has always worked. Nothing on it needs explaining, which is the best argument for keeping it simple.
The fig is the seasonal clock in the dish. Italian fig trees crop twice: the fioroni of June, large, watery and mild, and the main harvest of late August and September, smaller, denser, sweeter and far more perfumed. This gelato wants the second crop. Fresh sheep cheese, figs, honey and walnuts is a plate you can still find on a Campanian table at the end of summer, cut with a knife and eaten with nothing else. This gelato is that plate, frozen, and it works because those four ingredients have been eaten together for as long as anyone can remember.
Ingredients
For the ricotta base
Whole milk ricotta, sheep if possible, 2 cups (500 g), drained
Heavy cream, 1 cup (240 ml)
Whole milk, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Granulated sugar, 1/2 cup (100 g)
Mild floral honey, acacia or orange blossom, 2 tbsp (42 g)
Pure vanilla extract, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Finely grated lemon zest, 1 tsp, from 1 unwaxed lemon
Fresh lemon juice, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
For the roasted figs
Ripe fresh figs, second crop, 6, about 12 oz (340 g)
Mild floral honey, 1 tbsp (21 g)
For finishing
Walnut halves, 1/2 cup (60 g)
Fresh figs for the plate, 2, halved
Mild floral honey for threading, about 2 tsp (14 g)
Lemon zest in fine strips, from 1/2 lemon
Notes on the ingredients
Buy the ricotta the day it was made, moist but not dripping, from a dairy that sells it in a basket. Avoid tubs with stabilizers, which taste of starch. Choose a mild honey such as acacia or orange blossom, because chestnut honey is too bitter and drowns the dairy. For the figs, look for dark skinned, fragrant fruit that yields gently to the thumb, and use them the day you buy them.
Preparation
Freeze the equipment
Place the machine bowl in the freezer 24 hours ahead, and put the storage container in the freezer the night before, so both are at 0°F (minus 18°C) when you need them.
Drain the ricotta
Line a fine sieve with cheesecloth, tip in the ricotta, set it over a bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours, or overnight. Discard the whey, or keep it for soaking bread. You want a soft mass that holds the mark of a spoon, about 2 cups (500 g) once drained. Weigh it before going on, because the weight tells you how much water is left.
Warm the cream, milk and honey
Combine the cream, milk, sugar, honey and salt in a saucepan and warm over medium heat, stirring, to 140°F (60°C), just until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil, because a boiled base tastes cooked and loses its fresh dairy flavour. Cool to room temperature, which takes about 20 minutes over an ice bath, then stir in the vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Blend and sieve the base
Put the drained ricotta and the cooled liquid in a blender and run it on high for 2 full minutes, until the mixture looks like thick cream. Pass it through a fine mesh sieve, pressing with the back of a ladle, and discard anything left behind. Taste a small spoonful cold. It must feel perfectly smooth on the tongue, with nothing to chew.
Age the base
Cover and refrigerate the base for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until it is at or below 40°F (4°C). The fat firms, the proteins hydrate and the churned gelato comes out smoother and slower to melt.
Toast the walnuts
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Spread the walnuts on a tray and toast for 8 minutes, until fragrant and a shade darker. Cool completely. Chop half coarsely for folding and keep the rest whole for the plate.
Roast the figs in honey
Raise the oven to 375°F (190°C). Halve the six figs and lay them cut side up on parchment, then drizzle with 1 tablespoon of honey. Roast for 15 minutes, until they slump and the syrup bubbles at the edges. Cool, chop into small pieces and keep every drop of syrup, which carries most of the flavour and will ripple through the gelato.
Churn
Pour the cold base into the churn and run it for about 25 minutes, until it reaches the texture of soft serve, around 21°F (minus 6°C). It should hold a ribbon on the paddle without stiffening. Stop as soon as it reaches that point, since churning longer only warms it and beats in more air than the ricotta can hold.
Fold and pack
Working quickly, fold the chopped figs, their syrup and the chopped walnuts through the gelato in loose swirls, so that ribbons stay visible. Do not stir until combined, or the figs bleed into the base and turn it a muddy pink. Pack into a container chilled in the freezer beforehand. Press parchment directly onto the surface and seal.
Harden and temper
Freeze at 0°F (minus 18°C) for 3 hours. Before serving, move the container to the refrigerator for 10 minutes so the gelato softens to a scoopable, silky texture.
Plating
Chill shallow bowls or small glasses in the freezer for 20 minutes. Dip a scoop in hot water, wipe it dry and shape two quenelles per portion, each about 1/2 cup (100 g). Set half a fresh fig beside them, thread honey over the gelato in a thin line, and scatter the whole toasted walnuts and a few strips of lemon zest. Serve at once, because the ripples of roasted fig begin to soften within two minutes.
For a Sicilian version, pack a scoop into a soft brioche instead of a bowl and add nothing else. For a dinner party, set the bowls on a plate with a small spoon and a few extra walnut halves, so guests can add crunch to each bite. Keep the plate simple: the gelato should be the only pale thing on it, and the figs the only dark one. Let the honey pool slightly, and add the zest last so its oils stay fragrant.
Professional Technique
The technique that decides this gelato is the fineness of the ricotta. Ricotta is made of granules of coagulated milk protein, casein and whey protein together. At room temperature they are soft, hydrated and small enough to read as creaminess. Below freezing they behave differently: the water around them turns to ice and the granules tighten and firm up, so the tongue finds them as grit. Freezing does not dissolve them, it hardens them, and a ricotta base that tasted creamy in the bowl comes out of the freezer as sand.
The remedy is mechanical and it happens before the machine. Blend the base for a full 2 minutes, then pass it through a fine mesh sieve, pressing with a ladle, until nothing is left on the screen. To test fineness, taste a spoonful of the base cold, since warmth hides grain. Better still, freeze a teaspoon on a small plate for 10 minutes and taste it: if it feels sandy there, it will feel sandy in the finished gelato, so blend and sieve again.
Moisture changes the work. A very fresh ricotta, still wet from the basket, has softer curds that break down easily, but it carries extra whey, so drain it for 6 hours and weigh it again. A drier ricotta, a day or two old, has firmer curds that need a third minute in the blender and two passes through the sieve, and may need a spoonful of milk to loosen. Both work, and neither is a fault. Whichever you have, judge the base by touch and taste, not by the clock.
Texture and Moisture Control
Smoothness in a frozen dessert is a question of ice. Ricotta, figs and cream all carry water, and every crystal that grows larger than the tongue can ignore reads as coldness with a crunch. The base is drained first to remove loose whey, and the figs are roasted rather than folded in raw, because heat evaporates their water and concentrates their sugar into a syrup that freezes soft.
Sugar and honey lower the freezing point, which is why this gelato stays scoopable at a temperature where plain ricotta would turn to stone. Too little and the gelato freezes hard; too much and it never sets. Ageing the base overnight lets the fat crystallize and the proteins hydrate, which gives the machine a thicker mixture to whip air into and a smaller crystal to build.
Speed matters after churning. Move the gelato to a chilled container at once and put it in the coldest part of the freezer, since fast freezing keeps crystals small. Parchment pressed onto the surface stops the top from drying into an icy crust. Tempering for 10 minutes before serving lets the surface rise from 0°F (minus 18°C) to about 10°F (minus 12°C), where the texture turns silky.
Professional Mise en Place
Equipment and tools
Ice cream machine with the bowl frozen for 24 hours
High speed blender and a fine mesh sieve with a ladle for pressing
Cheesecloth, parchment paper and a freezer container chilled the night before
Probe thermometer for the warm base, and a second one for the freezer
Rubber spatula for folding, and a scoop kept in a jug of hot water
Prepared ahead
Ricotta drained the night before and weighed
Base blended, sieved and aged, up to 24 hours ahead, covered and cold
Figs roasted, chopped and refrigerated with their syrup, up to 2 days ahead
Walnuts toasted, cooled and stored dry in a sealed jar
Gelato churned, packed and hardened the day before a dinner
Service setup
Bowls or glasses chilled in the freezer for 20 minutes
Gelato tempered in the refrigerator for 10 minutes
Honey, lemon zest, whole walnuts and fresh figs lined up at the pass
Scoop in hot water, with a clean towel beside it
Chef Tips
Weigh the drained ricotta. If it comes to more than 2 cups (500 g), the extra is water, and the gelato will be icy. Drain it further instead of adjusting the sugar, and keep the mixture cold at every stage.
Choose ripe figs that give slightly under the thumb. Underripe ones stay bland and hard, while overripe ones burst in the oven and burn the honey. If the figs are mild, add a squeeze of lemon to the roasting tray to lift them.
Taste the walnuts before toasting. One rancid nut spoils the whole batch, and freezing does not hide it. Toast them the day you serve, so they stay crisp against the cream.
For the best flavour, serve within three days. Ricotta gelato tastes freshest early and turns flat as the vanilla and honey fade. Make a small batch, and make it often, since the recipe takes little more effort than a large one.
Common Mistakes
Boiling the base. Heat above 140°F (60°C) makes the milk proteins taste cooked and dulls the fresh dairy flavour that is the point of the recipe.
Skipping the drain. Undrained ricotta adds whey, and whey freezes into hard ice. A wet base yields a gelato that scoops like a sorbet.
Folding in raw figs. Fresh figs are mostly water and turn into frozen pebbles. Roast them first so the fruit stays jammy and tender.
Skipping the ageing. A base churned straight from the blender is thinner and slower to whip, and the gelato melts fast with a coarser texture.
Serving straight from the freezer. At 0°F (minus 18°C) the gelato is too hard to taste. Let it sit for 10 minutes and the honey and lemon come forward.
Using a stabilized supermarket ricotta. Gums and starch make the base gluey, and they mask the fresh milk flavour. Buy real ricotta, and check that the label lists only milk or whey, salt and acid, and taste it before you buy.
Wine Pairing
Greco di Bianco DOC: A tiny Ionian coast passito from half dried grapes, and the closest thing to a native match. Dried fig, citrus peel and bergamot continue the fruit in the gelato instead of contrasting with it, while its resinous herbal finish lands squarely on the walnut. Production is minute, so treat a bottle as a find, and pour it in small measures.
Moscato di Scanzo DOCG: A red passito from a few hectares outside Bergamo, dried for a month and aged for two years, and one of the few sweet reds that can sit beside dairy without clashing. Its tannin is negligible, while rose, dried cherry and sage give the plate a savoury lift that white dessert wines cannot. Serve around 57°F (14°C), in a small glass, so that the perfume of the wine is not lost.
Ramandolo DOCG: A Verduzzo from the steep slopes of the far northeast, with something almost no other sweet white has: real tannin, from long skin contact. That grip cuts through the fat of a rich frozen cheese where a softer wine would simply pool, and its bitter almond and honeyed apricot notes track the toasted walnut closely.
Romagna Albana DOCG: The passito Albana, from grapes dried on the plant or on racks, is the gentlest choice on the list. Apricot, acacia honey and a touch of quince sit at moderate sweetness over brisk acidity, so it refreshes between spoonfuls instead of adding weight. Choose it when the meal before was substantial, or when the guests prefer a lighter wine.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the gelato in an airtight container with parchment pressed on the surface, at 0°F (minus 18°C) or below, for up to 2 weeks, though it is best within 3 days. Never store it in the refrigerator, where it melts and coarsens. Do not refreeze gelato that has melted, because the ice will grow large. Scoop with a clean, dry utensil and press the parchment back on the surface after every serving, so that the gelato does not pick up freezer odours.
There is no reheating, only tempering: 10 minutes in the refrigerator before serving. The roasted fig and syrup keep refrigerated for 2 days, and the toasted walnuts keep dry for 1 week, ready to add fresh at service. Label the container with the date, because ricotta gelato is easy to forget and loses its fresh flavour quietly.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 8 portions of 1/2 cup (100 g):
Calories: 305 kcal
Total Fat: 19 g
Saturated Fat: 9 g
Trans Fat: 0.4 g
Unsaturated Fat: 9 g
Cholesterol: 45 mg
Sodium: 115 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 26 g
Fiber: 1.4 g
Total Sugars: 23 g
Added Sugars: 17 g
Protein: 9 g
Lactose: 3.2 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, riboflavin, vitamin B12, potassium
Figures are estimates and vary with the fat of the ricotta and the ripeness of the figs.
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