On Gelato
When I was a graduate student the first time, I lived in a remote town that had a large and incongruously beautiful grocery store.* In addition to being enormous, well-organized, and packed with delicacies, the place was open twenty-four hours a day. I was living alone for the first time, and I was getting really into cooking and providing for myself—certainly I was more into Living Life than I was into my coursework, in English literature—and, too, I was keeping a schedule that can only be described as sleep-disordered, staying up a little later every night, and sleeping in a little later every morning (or “morning”). One thing that meant was that, on the nights I didn’t frequent the local townie-student dive bar, I often made a middle-of-the-night shopping trip to said grocery store, stomping around its brightly lit, nearly deserted acreage, coming home with the makings of something simple but hearty. It was cold in this town, and everybody knew everybody. Going to the store after midnight was exercise, entertainment, and a welcome taste of anonymity rolled into one. Afterward, I’d drive home with my loot, prepare a full meal from scratch at 3 a.m., and eat it.
I don’t keep grad-student hours anymore, but grocery shopping as restless entertainment still resonates. Life during Covid takes me back, in a strange way, to the feeling of life in Ithaca (“There’s nothing to do! Guess I’ll go to the grocery store”), and my pantry has the groaning shelves to prove it. I’m collecting things: cake flour, chocolate chunks, a big bag of powdered dry milk, cans and cans of tomatoes and beans, boxes and boxes of pasta. The freezer’s full of meat. Some primal urge to accumulate supplies, which I associate with winter, has joined forces with the fact that grocery runs are almost the only in-real-life form of indoor, out-of-the-house activity available to me, and the results are . . . bulky.
If you’re in a similarly well-stocked condition, it’s time to make recipes that mostly use what you have on hand.
Chili is a classic of the category, full of beans and, often, tomatoes: on the site, there’s pantry chili from Simply Stacie, and three bean slow-cooker chili from Saporito Kitchen. Otherwise, sweet potato barley vegetable soup from The Perks of Being Us accomplishes a similar goal, a hearty dinner you can eat for more than one night: just the thing if you’re trying to free up some time to bake holiday cookies. Another contender? Classic spaghetti and meatballs, made using both ground beef and sausage, from Jam Jar Kitchen.
For dessert, try olive oil chocolate chip cookies (they’re vegan) from Serious Eats, or impossible pie, from Simply Stacie—who notes, though, that “grandmas everywhere have recipes like this one. It’s easy to see why”—a custardy creation that generates its own crust as it bakes, and which calls for shredded coconut. Of which, it occurs to me, I’ve had a bag in the pantry for far too long.
*It was a Wegman’s
This time, we’re catching up with Mary Jaras of The Gelato Life. Mary’s first couple submissions to Trivet Recipes arrested me immediately, both for their style and their content: moody, chiaroscuro-like, almost goth camera work featuring silky, sophisticated gelato and creations made therewith. Right away, I wanted to know more.
Hello, Mary! As bloggers go, you're pretty mysterious. Your “About” page is just a photo of you, somewhat murderously cracking open a coconut. So—without wanting to spoil the mystery—can you say something about who you are, and how you came to have a blog about frozen desserts?
The coconut deserved it! When I started the website (not that long ago), writing stuff about myself seemed like a pretty low priority, so I just never got around to it. Until now.
I’m a television producer by profession and a gelato maker by passion. Last year I started listening to my friends, who encouraged me to go pro with ice cream. After looking into it and interning at a gelateria between shows, I quickly realized that starting a gelato company is next to impossible for an individual. So I created TheGelatoLife.com to share recipes and tips as well as the culture and history of frozen desserts. It’s a fairly new site, but it’s growing quickly.
I adore your photography. The food shots on your site are beautifully composed and notably dark and moody; they look like Caravaggio paintings, if Caravaggio's specialty had been ice cream.
Thank you! Our friend Caravaggio probably ate gelato. It was a status symbol among the elite during the Italian Renaissance.
Your work is also different from the prevailing trend in food styling and photography that I see, which is all about a bright, clean look. Where did your aesthetic come from, and can you say anything about how you achieve your shots?
I wish I could say it was some kind of deeply thought-out aesthetic choice. The truth is, I have always loved the early morning light in our kitchen. Plus, I have an affinity for old things, the kinds of items that develop character through decades of use. So I just grabbed some stuff around the house, set it up in the kitchen and started taking photos. I kept playing with it until I started getting photos that had some feeling.
The dramatic lighting (chiaroscuro) does add gravitas to a dessert that is routinely shown as “light and fun.” Not that I want to take the fun out of it (I’ll slip things in like a shot of murderously slaying a coconut). I just want to encourage people to see another side to a food that we often take for granted in our freezer.
Speaking of food photography and aesthetics, are there other food creators out there whom you think are doing interesting things with their photography, or whose work you admire? It's always good to find some new follows.
It’s an amazing time for food creators; there are so many people doing incredible work. I really admire Amiee Twigger’s (@Twiggstudios) sense of aesthetic, Thalia Ho’s (ButterandBrioche.com) poetic vibe, and I adore Andrew Rea’s (a.k.a. Binging with Babish) irreverent take on cooking. I’d watch that guy cook just about anything.
Your blog has a fairly non-commercial vibe. There are no ads, no "work with me" call-outs to companies; in general, nothing that feels like padding or as if it's there for SEO. Are these deliberate choices?
These are very much deliberate choices (thank you for noticing!) The Gelato Life is an ad-free zone and I plan to keep it that way. I want people to delight in visiting the site, finding a recipe, or learning more about ice cream. Pop-up ads and banners hawking the latest Viagra offer get in the way of that.
There is no “work with me” call-out on the site simply because it seems unnecessary. Brands have no problem using the “contact me” form. In fact, I’m really excited about a couple of upcoming sponsored collabs. I’m not opposed to commercial opportunities as long as they are a good fit.
What would you say to people who've never made gelato or ice cream before, or who think it sounds like a lot of work?
Go for it! It can be as easy as whipping a few ingredients together in under ten minutes. You don’t even need an ice cream machine to get started. In fact, Java Mocha Fudge Brownie Cake and No Churn Dark Chocolate Ice Cream have been huge hits. A word of warning: making your own ice cream is seriously addictive! Before you know it you’ll be buying an ice cream machine and hunting down authentic Sicilian nuts for Italian Pistachio Gelato.
Find Mary at The Gelato Life, or on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. You can also check out her profile and recipes on Trivet Recipes.
In closing, do you like panettone? How could you not? Yet you might appreciate it even more after reading this piece from the NYT about how the cotton-candy-soft, citrus-rind-flavored traditional Italian Christmas loaf is just about the most difficult bread in the world to bake.
See you just this side of 2021,
Katherine