Banana and limoncello gelato with walnuts and limoncello cream

This gelato brings me back to 20-plus years ago when I got married and my wife and I were in Amalfi on our honeymoon and had a most amazing limoncello gelato. Eventually, through trial and error, I came up with this simple, beautiful gelato of banana and limoncello.

Banana and limoncello gelato with toasted walnuts and limoncello cream. Credit: Luca's Key Ingredient

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh milk
• 2 cups pouring/single cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 6 egg yolks
• ⅔ cup caster sugar
• 2 bananas, very ripe (blackened skin), peeled and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup limoncello
• ½ cup walnuts, lightly toasted

Limoncello cream

• 200 ml limoncello
• 150 ml thickened cream

Cooling time: 4 hours.

Instructions

1. For the limoncello cream sauce, add limoncello to a saucepan, reduce by half then add cream and reduce by two-thrids. Allow to cool then refrigerate.
2. For the gelato, heat milk, crea, and vanilla till hot but not boiling. Remove from heat. Place egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and mix till thick and pale in colour. Then add the hot cream mixture and whisk continuously. Pour the mixture back into your pot then add bananas. Stir over low heat for 4-5 minutes or until thick and the temperature reaches 82°C. Immediately remove from heat. Add limoncello. Blend with a mixer, sieve the mixture and set aside to cool. Refrigerate for 4 hours.
3. Pour the cooled custard into an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer's instruction until the ice cream is firm. If you don’t have a gelato maker, place the custard into a deep tray in the freezer for 1 hour. Then every 30 minutes take it out and beat with an electric mixer. Repeat this 3-4 times till the gelato is firm.
4. Serve a few scoops of banana gelato with a few walnuts into a glass, then pour as much or as little of limoncello cream sauce as you like over the top.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.