In 2004 when Mario Batali opened the Gelōttō Cart, a mobile, gelato-only off-shoot of his popular pizzeria, OTTO, the first specialty dessert trucks were several years off, and buying high-end desserts from a cart was unheard of in New York. And, as hard as it might be to believe, there were few places selling authentic Italian gelato in the city at the time. Fast-forward a decade, and gelato has moved from the specialty shop to the grocery case as the American appetite for ice cream’s luxe Italian cousin has grown. While the options for gelato-on-the-go have multiplied, the Gelōttō cart remains a warm-weather gem for dessert hunters and gatherers in Greenwich Village.
The setup is decidedly old school. From late spring to mid-fall the red, yellow, and green painted pushcart commutes just a couple blocks from its specially made wee garage at the mothership, Batali’s casual Neapolitan pizza eatery where pastry chef and gelato master extraordinaire, Meredith Kurtzman churns out small batches of heaven.
Seasonal produce and top-notch ingredients drive the dessert program at OTTO. The crown gem of the rotating menu is the olive oil gelato, an earthy yet intensely buttery and smooth concoction made with Sicilian olive oil that’s been on the menu since they first opened their doors. While Americans love their mix-ins—from candy to nuts to cookie pieces—Meredith, for the most part, keeps things traditional. “I’ve tried to steer clear of putting stuff in my gelato, but it seems to be popular.… Honestly I like the idea of doing simple things, and I love working with fruit.”
Several years before food carts and trucks became trendy, Batali wanted to create an authentic street gelato experience. “It was Mario’s idea when he opened the place,” says Meredith. Initially parked on the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, the cart found early success. “It was a unique product,” Meredith explains. But over the years the Gelōttō Cart has faced its fair share of challenges, especially with all the red tape that comes along with permitting for vendors. “I don’t think anyone who goes into it knows what they’re getting into,” sighs Meredith. Since the cart opened, Washington Square Park has undergone an ambitious and protracted renovation that has kept various areas of the park fenced off to foot traffic for long stretches of time. Even without the construction, the cart’s previous locale on the northwest corner was a sleepy spot. In 2012, the cart moved to the northeast corner, where Waverly Place becomes Washington Square North and University Place becomes Washington Square East, a far livelier thoroughfare, regularly traversed by thousands of NYU students making their way to and from classes.
“From the get-go, I wanted to make something really delicious—that’s why I went into the food business. My main thing is I want to make delicious food.”
Meredith’s passion for ice cream was born in her childhood: “I grew up chasing the Good Humor Man,” she says with a laugh. But her path to the kitchen wasn’t a traditional one. Before donning chef’s whites, she spent years as a freelance textile designer specializing in silk-screen painting. “With the advent of computer-aided design, the work disappeared, and I was bored with it anyway. I’d always been interested in food and cooking, and started volunteering as a kitchen assistant at a local cooking school,” Meredith says. An International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) scholarship brought her to the New York Restaurant School for pastry arts. Meredith was working as the pastry chef at Esca when Batali tapped her to develop the gelato program for the not-yet-opened OTTO, where she’s since created a name for herself with inventive flavors from the likes of sweet-corn gelato to avocado gelato to concord grape sorbetto with fennel. “Gelato has less overrun than ice cream. That is, it takes on less air [volume], when it is churned,” Meredith explains. The end product is denser than ice cream, making each bite a more intense flavor experience.
Like the restaurant, the cart has a rotating menu of flavors. “In an ideal world, having a cart where you really could assemble things would be great. The trouble in New York is that people are impatient, and it takes time.” Due to space limitations, they can only offer four or five flavors at a time from the cart, from which they sell both small and large servings for prices that are less than at the restaurant. “It’s an expensive product, and when people eat street food they don’t necessarily want to spend $8 on gelato. So we lowered it to $4 and $7.” For years the cart didn’t serve the famous olive oil gelato, but recently Meredith relented, “The thing I used to say is, I want people to taste good gelato in the park, but eventually I want to lure them into the restaurant. This year I said, the hell with it. Give the people what they want.”
(BANANA GELATO COVERED WITH CARAMELIZED WHITE CHOCOLATE)
Adapted from Meredith Kurtzman’s recipe
Also known as a bomba, tartufo is a ball of ice cream covered in a crunchy chocolate shell. When directly translated from Italian, tartufo means truffle, and as far as desserts go, it’s about as close as Italians get to the Good Humor Man. Meredith’s plays with convention by studding her tartufo with peanuts and chocolate cookies and subbing caramelized white chocolate for regular chocolate in this sweet and salty treat. While the cart version of this treat includes homemade sugared peanuts and brownie cookie crumbles, you can simplify preparation by substituting ½ cup dark chocolate chips and ½ cup salted peanuts.
7 egg yolks
¼ cup granulated sugar, divided
¾ cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 cups whole milk
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
¾ teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup Sugared Peanuts (page 30)
1 cup Brownie Cookie crumbles (page 31)
1½ cups Caramelized White Chocolate Glaze (page 29)
Whisk together the egg yolks, 2 tablespoons sugar, milk powder and cream in a large heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan warm the whole milk and the rest of the sugar over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. When tiny bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan, remove mixture from heat.
While whisking constantly, temper eggs with the hot milk mixture, adding a tablespoon of hot liquid at a time. Return to medium heat, stirring constantly. When steam starts to rise in pot, immediately strain into a heatproof bowl. Whisk in the condensed milk and salt. Place bowl over an ice bath (see page 153 for instructions) and whisk to cool mixture to room temperature. Chill covered in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.
Thoroughly mash bananas and blend into chilled gelato mixture. Strain gelato to remove any banana solids and churn in an electric ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Transfer gelato into an airtight container and place in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours, or until gelato has set. Using a large ice cream scoop, form 6 large round balls of gelato and place in ramekins or serving dishes. Chill uncovered in freezer until hardened in freezer, about 1 to 2 hours, or until hardened.
Alternately, you can form the gelato balls and place in a parchment-lined jelly roll pan or rimmed baking sheet to freeze then just before serving use a metal square spatula to remove gelato balls from pan and place into serving dishes or cups.
Remove gelato balls from freezer and stud with Sugared Peanuts (page 30) and crumbled Brownie Cookies (page 31) or ½ cup salted peanuts and ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips.
Quickly ladle cooled Caramelized White Chocolate Glaze (page 29) over gelato; it will harden in a minute.
Serve immediately or store covered in freezer for up to a few hours before serving.
Adapted from Meredith Kurtzman’s recipe
White chocolate lacks the cocoa solids found in milk and dark chocolate, and the flavor and workability can vary greatly between brands. For this recipe, Meredith always uses Valrhona® white chocolate fèves (oval-shaped pieces), which are ideal for melting. The secret to caramelizing white chocolate is to use a spatula to constantly move the chocolate around in the oven so it doesn’t get the chance to burn. When you pour the white chocolate mixture over the ice cream, it will harden to form a crunchy shell.
10 ounces white chocolate fèves, or coarsely chopped pieces
cup coconut oil
Move oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 300°F.
Spread fèves or chopped chocolate, on ½ sheet pan covered with a silicon baking mat.
Melt the chocolate for 5 minutes, opening the oven and pulling out the rack to stir occasionally with a heat-resistant spatula.
Continue to check and stir chocolate in 3-minute increments, until the chocolate has completely melted and is light tan in color.
Remove the chocolate from the oven and scrape into a bowl.
Whisk in the coconut oil. Pour mixture through a fine sieve set over a clean mediumsized bowl to strain out any sediment. Whisk the strained mixture until it reaches room temperature, about 3 to 5 minutes. Once mixture reaches room temperature you can use it to glaze gelato balls. Cover and store leftover glaze for up to 2 days in a heat-resistant container. Reheat glaze by microwaving on medium heat in 30-second bursts, stirring after each until glaze has returned to liquid form and has reached room temperature.
Adapted from Meredith Kurtzman’s recipe
Candied nuts are a classic New York street food. At Mario Batali’s Gelōttō Cart they use them for their Banana Tartufo (page 27), but you might want to make extra for snacking.
¼ cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut halves
Move oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large metal bowl whisk together corn syrup, brown sugar, and salt. Add peanuts and stir to coat with syrup.
Spread nuts out onto a small sheet pan lined with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until peanuts are a warm brown color. Remove from oven and using a greased offset spatula immediately scrape peanuts onto a cool metal or glass surface. Use a fork to poke peanuts apart, allowing them to separate and cool, about 30 minutes. Once peanuts are no longer too hot to handle, break up any remaining peanut clumps and store covered for up to 5 days.
Adapted from Meredith Kurtzman’s recipe
These dark chocolate cookies make an appearance as cookie crumble pieces on the Banana Tartufo (page 27) at Mario Batali’s GelōttŌ cart. Intensely chocolatey and oh, so soft, it seems almost sinful to sacrifice them to crumbling. We won’t tell if you snag one for munching.
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½ tablespoon pieces
2 large eggs
cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Move oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Combine chocolates and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with waxed paper and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir and if the chocolate isn’t completely melted, cover, and microwave in 10-second bursts, stirring in between until chocolate and butter are completely melted. Let cool, about 15 minutes.
Add eggs and sugar to the bowl of an electric stand mixer and using the whisk attachment, beat until frothy. Add vanilla extract, and beat until soft peaks form.
Fold beaten eggs into cooled chocolate. Gently fold flour mixture into chocolate mixture until batter is thoroughly combined.
Stir to cool mixture slightly and using a tablespoon or 1-inch ice cream scoop, portion out cookies on a sheet pan lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper sheet pan, spacing the cookies approximately 2 inches apart. Allow shaped cookies to dry out for 5 minutes before baking.
Bake for 8 to10 minutes, interior of cookie should be slightly soft. Cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
