The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto: Bold, Fresh Flavors to Make at Home: A Cookbook

I have two other ice cream books, the Ben & Jerry's book (sitting there collecting dust) and The Ultimate Ice Cream Book (was my favorite till I got this), but then I went and bought this marvelous book! I would have given it a six star rating if I could! First of all, as a book, I love the way the book is put together, printed, and the images used. For me a good cookery book has to be printed on glossy paper, hardcover, and with plenty of eye pleasing pictures! This book scores big on all these fronts!! I love the color combinations used, they scream fun at me! Secondly, the contents: I love the brief history introduction regarding ice creams, gelatos, and sorbets at the very beginning of the book! The recipes in this book are exactly what I look for in frozen desserts! The one thing that I simply adore about this book is that it rarely uses extracts and essences, it teaches you how to use the real deal, like hazelnuts, pistachios and the like!!! Great for making homemade ice creams for the entire family to enjoy! The recipes always come rich and smooth!! Had some friends over and made them some chocolate gelato and the almost ate the whole batch! Made milk chocolate and hazelnut gelato with a Nutela swirl for the family and that was gone in a couple of days! The recipes are very easy to follow, especially if you have experience with preparing custards, and the ingredients are fairly easy to find in most supermarkets and there is no need to go to specialty shops. The book has an abundance of recipes and will give you a better understanding of how to add flavors, like nuts and fruits so that you can experiment and come up with your own versions or even creations, like my milk chocolate gelato with nutela swirl! This has officially become my favorite gelato / ice cream book in the world!

Good book with lovely recipes.

Gave this as a present. The recipient quickly made several different recipes, all of which were delicious. Easy to follow. Simple ingredients. It is an excellent resource.

I got this book because I am in love with their Blood Orange Sorbet and want to be able to make it myself! Though some of the recipes are a little complicated or use less commonly found ingredients, for anyone with an ice cream maker, a sweet tooth, and a sense of adventure, this is a great book to have. I even enjoy reading it for ideas since it is clearly written and easy to follow -- but it makes me long for Italy, where all the food is good and the ice cream is even better.

I just received this book and I absolutely love it! I was looking for a recipe book with true gelato recipes, but didn't want to buy one and find out it was not great. Amazon had the chocolate gelato recipe posted. I tried it and immediately knew I had to have this book. The chocolate gelato was divine. The book has so many wonderful recipes I want to try. The book is clearly written and easy enough for anyone to follow with success. There are recipes for everyone's taste buds.

I would highly recommend this book. The recipes couldn't be simpler and yet many of them are adventurous and delightfully different. Keep in mind that an ice cream maker is required for all the recipes. We have a very simple, inexpensive model which works just fine. This Fourth of July we chose three sorbettos for a Red, White and Blue theme: Strawberry, Blueberry and Coconut and they were all a huge success with our family! All three were easy to make and came out yummy and refreshing - not too sweet and a perfect finale for our BBQ menu. We can't wait to try everything - each recipe looks great and the pictures are all good enough to eat, too! Get this book - it's definitely worth it!

The recipes in this book are good, but they are no easy. It requires quite a bit of work, but the quality is good. However, there are times when you want to make gelato and not spend 1-2 days preparing. I use it when I am thinking ahead or feel in the mood for a project. Otherwise, my gelato maker came with much simpler recipes for last minute gelato.

My roommates and I discovered Ciao Bella ice cream while shopping at our neighborhood Whole Foods. Though we loved the flavors offered at our Whole Foods, especially the Hazelnut (yum!), we wanted to try some of the other flavors, because the ones we had were so delicious! We found ourselves surfing Ciao Bella's web page and then searching for specific flavors at distance grocery stores. Then ... everything changed! We discovered this cookbook. If you follow their directions and use fresh ingredients that are ripe/fresh, yours really will turn out just as good as the store bought Ciao Bella gelato. Promise. Why pay $5.00+ for a pint if you can make your own?! The day the book came I read it cover to cover. There are so many flavors to choose from, not to mention it's inspiring. Fig and port? Yum! Though we certainly haven't made all the recipes, once you master the basic recipe there is very little to change when it comes to adding flavors. I really liked that in the beginning of the book they discussed technique, stressing the importance of temperature, etc. They even explained the difference between different vanillas, which I certainly did not know. As they emphasized, you should feel inspired to try your own variations. After reading different recipes I began to gain a good perspective of when to add more sugar and when not to, etc. The recipes offer inventive combinations that sound delightful. It certainly gets you thinking about what other fruits you can combine to make delicious masterpieces. I certainly felt inspired and have made my own fruit sorbets based loosely on some of the recipes. Everything we've whipped together has turned out fabulous. I can't wait to try the champagne sorbets at New Years! Definitely worth the price. Did I mention we use this as a coffee table book now? Everyone loves it!

Amazing recipes to go with terrific information on the general history of how we came to have ice cream, gelato, etc., and it's a very handsome book. I'm dying to try everything in there and there's loads of room for improvising your own flavours. The recipes provided are generally very simple and aside from the kind of ice cream maker you choose, there's not much equipment you need that you probably don't have already. Basic ingredients are few and most are easy to find, sources are given for many things, though they'll be most useful to residents of the USA. Gelato has quite a bit less fat than premium ice cream does; another plus. There's even a recipe for granita, for which no ice cream maker is needed. Outstanding!

Todas las recetas que he hecho me han salido deliciosas.

Excellent book, amazing quality

Eu só fiz uma receita desse livro até agora, mas ficou maravilhosa. Bem explicado e as receitas parecem todas muito boas.

アイディア求めるのであれば良い本だと思いますが、レシピがざっくりしていてもう少し丁寧なものが欲しかったなと思います。