Hi, and welcome to the perfect summer dessert. Next week, all subscribers will receive a photo essay from my most recent trip to Italy, which featured a dinner in the vines. In the meantime, check out my past posts here and learn more about my day job here. Thanks for joining us!
Okay, yes. At this point, you know that I went to Italy. I’m sorry to keep harping on it, really, but I ate something there that was so good that I just had to try to recreate a version of it at home. That something? Blueberry and fennel gelato.
I KNOW. If you know me, you know that I famously dislike ice cream. It’s not even a dislike, really. It’s just a very underwhelming…meh? If I’m eating dessert, I’d rather it be fruit pie or cookies or brownies or cheesecake or a piece of really good chocolate or literally anything else. But in Rome, it was hot as hell, and we found ourselves within a short walk of Otaleg, which has been on my saved map of Rome since I read Katie Parla’s recommendation list. We got in line, and I realized that they had some sorbets on the expansive menu. We went two nights in a row, and each night, I was bowled over by the dairy free options that relied on pure fruit flavors and stunned my palate into gelato-loving submission.
One of the flavors I had was mirtillo e finocchio: blueberry and fennel. The tart smack of the blueberry against the sweetness of the fennel stuck in my brain. I wanted to find a way to recreate this at home.
This galette celebrates those flavors in a slightly different context. The fennel isn’t overpowering at all, but rather plays an almost-invisible role in lifting up the rich sweetness of the blueberry.
The recipe for the dough is loosely based on Paula Haney’s recipe from The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie. As you may remember, I worked with Paula on her second book, The Hoosier Mama Book of Breakfast Bakes, and there is no one I trust more with summer fruit + pastry. Enjoy!
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