From the archives: The history of gelato

La Grassa, the fat one, may seem an unflattering nickname for a city with the oldest university in Europe, but the sobriquet is actually a compliment. Bologna is the gastronomic heart of Italy, a place where food is an art form. And nothing epitomizes it like the delicacy that was born here, gelato. The serving area of a gelateria is a feast for the eyes. A quick one on the way home from work here isn't a drink, it's a gelato. So naturally, Bologna is home to the first ever gelato university. Term papers here are hands-on production. Gianpaolo Vali has been teaching for 25 years. We pasteurize at 85 degrees, we cool at 4 degrees centigrade. Students come from around the world, looking for a way to beat unemployment, or just looking for change. The profit margins for a gelateria are huge. It costs less than $2 to make a pound of gelato, which can sell for up to $15. Technique can be learned in a month, but perfect gelato needs more than a recipe. Without passion, any technical part decreases. This assignment of the day was a basic flavor, not as easy as it sounds. We have a mixture, Gianpaolo tells them, 10 different kinds of stracciatella. The coffee break is a tasting session, and pointers from teacher Pietro Bianchetto on customer relations. It's important that the gelato tastes good, but it's also important how to communicate to people that our gelato is good, that our gelato is natural. Gelato is Italian for frozen, but contrary to popular belief, it's not ice cream. By comparison, gelato is practically a health food, with a mere 7% fat content, barely a third of that found in ice cream. Flavor comes from almost any natural ingredient you can imagine. The exception is a specialty version using alcohol. A splash of aperitif, a deluge of prosecco, add to the gelato, cover with whipped up fresh oranges, and... Sublime, but I wouldn't want to drive after one of these. Flavored frozen treats were recorded as far back as Mesopotamian times. Gelato as we know it was an indulgence for aristocrats in the 16th century. There are more than 600 recognized flavors. This gelateria copyrighted six of them, named after the owner's children. Gelato makers like to tout their product as the flagship of made in Italy, but in fact the real revolution in the history of gelato was made in America. In 1903, an Italian immigrant applied in Washington D.C. to patent a device to produce the innovation that made gelato available to everyone. The ice cream cone. And then there are wickedly wonderful temptations like these. Gelato inspired prose by Tolstoy and Honoré de Balzac. In Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert described a woman eating gelato, her eyes half closed, spoon between her teeth. And if you think that's too sensual an image for a frozen food, you've never had real gelato.