Will the REAL Basil Gelato Lady (and Man) Please Stand Up?

So many accolades came our way at Saturday's sumptuous Sonoma Wine Country Weekend Event! Standards of Excellence Appliances not only co-sponsored the Viking Chef Stage for the Steel Chef Competition (see exciting video on last Tuesday's post) with surprise guest judge Chef Hubert Keller but our tasting booth was one of the best in a sea of top notch culinary bites. When you do tasting events such as these in a place like Sonoma, you really have to "bring it". How do you stand out amongst food and wine geniuses in a crowd of true aficionados?

Brian Lima, Tom Payne, Arlyn and David getting it done!

My solution? How about tasting and smelling booth featuring herbs and spices used in very cutting edge ways? It worked! With the help of my two brilliant young former interns turned employees David and Arlyn, we set up a beautiful booth with potted herbs and flowers. I pre-ordered lavender and hydrangeas along with pots of mixed herbs and small pots of thyme, sage, rosemary, mint and parsley from Trader Joe's for a great price. They were in cases for easy transport. Guests loved the look of our table, and it was inexpensive and very sustainable.

Guests came back for seconds...

The biggest sensation, besides our Standards of Excellence team, was the Basil and the Lavender Gelato from Noci Gelateria. Formerly named Cici, Noci is located at 17 East Blithedale Avenue in Mill Valley, CA and is owned by uber-sustainability champions Michael and Liana Orlandi. Many guests were hesitant but curious when trying the herb infused flavors. All were won over and our booth was over-run all day with enthusiastic fans. I am thrilled to share Michael Orlnadi's Basil Gelato recipe (below) and to give over my title of "Basil Gelato Lady" back to it's rightful owner, Liana Orlandi. No matter where I was that day, I was the "Basil Gelato Lady"!

Next week, I will post several herb infused syrup recipes made from the very same potted herbs you see in the photo above. But first, those herbs are going on another culinary adventure! Parsley, sage, rosemary and I are heading to Lake Tahoe! Standards of Excellence is taking part in the Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival featuring our own Chef Extreme, Chris Krotke with a Chilean Braised Stew with Apricots and Sweet Potato Puree paired with Nickel and Nickel's 2007 John C.Sullenger Cabernet. Oh, yes, another culinary home run. We will be thrilling the crowd with Kitchen Aid Appliances and a raffle for a Kitchen Aid Mixer. We will be rocking! See you there?

Noci Basil Gelato
makes (2) 1-quart batches

Note: Noci uses all organic products and local dairy from Straus Family Farms. Michael makes his gelato using grams but he converted it to cups and ounces for the home cook.

• 6 1/4 cups Straus Organic whole milk  ( 1500 g.)
• 1 1/2 cups organic sugar ( 335 g.)
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. Straus Organic cream  (130 g. )
• 1.25 oz. Organic basil leaves (about 1 large bunch, 35 g. )
• one pinch of sea salt

1. Combine milk & sugar in a blender and blend until sugar granules have dissolved (about 5 minutes).Transfer to a bowl and whisk in cream.
2. Place the basil in the blender and add back milk mixture until blender is full, blend on high until leaves have completely emulsified into mixture. If you don’t have a blender powerful enough to do this, you may use a mortar & pestle to crush the basil with the salt. (while you’re at it you could hand-make some pesto too!)
3. Pour blender mixture back into bowl with remaining milk mixture & whisk to blend. Freeze according to ice cream maker’s directions.

noci (Formerly: Gelateria Cici)
17 east blithedale avenue
mill valley, ca 94941
v 415.388.2423
www.nocigelato.com
nocigelato@gmail.com