Eleonora Galasso: Fruttini gelato

Here is a scrumptious dessert you can indulge in without having to loosen your belt. I love to get these perfumed morsels – nothing more than fruity ice cream served in the fruit’s own frozen skin – out of the freezer at the end of an impromptu dinner. All you need to do is remove the flesh of the fruit and then freeze its shell, which will serve as the vessel for the fruity ice cream itself. Serve them in a bowl as if they were simply fruit – your friends will be amazed to find the ice cream surprise inside!

Preparation time: 40 minutes plus

Freezing

Serves 8

4 figs
4 small pears
12 large cherries or
12 blackberries plus a handful of
blackberries for the filling
500ml (18fl oz) vanilla ice cream
3 tablespoons whipping cream
small handful of mint leaves

Start off by preparing the fruits. Cut the figs and pears into halves and very gently excavate the flesh with the help of a teaspoon, setting the flesh aside in separate bowls. Repeat the same process with the cherries, if using, placing the flesh in a separate bowl and taking off the stalks and removing the stones as you go. Cut 12 blackberries, if using, into halves and set aside.

Place the remaining handful of blackberries in a separate bowl and blitz them together.

Place the fruit ‘shells’ in a dish, transfer to the freezer and leave for 2 hours until frozen solid.
Add a third of the ice cream along with a tablespoon of whipping cream, if using, to each of the fruit bowls. Mix together well to give you three different fruity ice creams.

Remove the fruit ‘shells’ from the freezer one type of fruit at a time. Fill the halves of each fruit with their respective ice cream, then sandwich them together to make them whole again. Return to the freezer for at least

30 minutes, or until needed.  To serve, arrange the frozen fruits in a fruit bowl and decorate with the mint leaves.

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