Madisono's at Ferrari's Restaurant

If you're feeling like you need a mini vacation, you might consider visiting Italy at Ferrari's Little Italy and Bakery restaurant in Madeira, Ohio. We've been selling Madisono's gelato and sorbet there for several years and it's one of our favorites. When we enter the store for deliveries, we are always transformed to our "happy place" with the comforting aroma of fresh baked bread they offer from the bakery at the front of the restaurant. Seriously, is there a more comforting smell than crusty bread just out of the oven?

The delicious Northern and Southern Italian food is served family style in the restaurant, and after my wife eat dinner there we always leave with bellies full and hearts satisfied. When you go, save room for gelato, but if you opt for a crispy canoli confection instead, don't worry! You can pick up a pint of Madisono's on your way out to enjoy at home.

New Seasonal Flavors are Coming! Meyer Lemon sorbet

Would you take a look at these beauties? These are very special lemons called Meyer Lemons. What makes them so special you say? Well for one, they are now a new seasonal sorbet flavor offered by Madisono's starting in February. We use a lot of hand motions and facial expressions in the shop to describe flavors, so this our best effort using words. It would help if you could imagine us making a sweeping gesture with our hands from our mouth to heaven above and looking like we are going to cry because the taste is so overwhelmingly beautiful. Got the image? Now for words: sweet, tart, lively, refreshing, bursting, clean, lemon-y, citrus, crisp, bright...

Meyer lemons themselves are very special, even before their life in our sorbet. The Meyer lemon is actually a hybrid between a lemon and a mandarin orange. This is why the rind has a dark warm yellow color and the flavor is less acrid and slightly sweeter than a typical lemon. The fruit originates from China and was brought to America by agricultural explorer Frank Meyer in 1908. You can purchase Meyer lemon trees and grown your own, but in our ever changing midwestern climate they are a challenge to keep alive. We actually tried to grow one at our house but our black thumb took it to fruit tree heaven a few months later. If you'd like to learn more, here is a link to an interesting article from NPR about the lovely lemon.

Here is a picture of how we get that gorgeous flavor into the sorbet. After scraping off the flavorful rind (which is entirely edible, by the way) and adding that to the sorbet base, we squeeze the juices out so that every delicious part possible of the Meyer lemon is incorporated. Can you imagine how great the shop smells after this? It smells really good. This flavor and 3 others will be soon available at retail locations in February of 2012.

Dulce De Leche Gelato recipe

Photo by Amy Neunsinger

Have you tried Madisono's Dulce De Leche gelato yet? It is a sweet and creamy flavor inspired by the Mexican Dulce De Leche or "sweet milk" desserts. You might recognize the flavor as sweetened condensed milk but we don't use a can of sweetened condensed milk for our gelato, we do it old school buy boiling down milk until it is thick and caramelized. This takes over 7 hours (yes, 7 hours!) but we think that authentic flavor is what makes our gelato so good.

Here is a beautiful recipe from epicurious. Remember that you can use the "where to find it" tabs at the top to find retail stores that sell Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet.

Dulce De Leche Gelato with Mexican Chocolate sauce and strawberries

• 6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
•  2 pints Madisono's dulce de leche  gelato
• 4 cups fresh strawberries (about 1 pound), hulled, quartered

Preparation

Place first 4 ingredients in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water; stir until smooth.

Divide ice cream among 6 bowls. Sprinkle berries over. Spoon warm or room-temperature sauce over.

If you're in Oxford, Ohio visit Moon Coop Market!

We are really excited to have Madisono's Gelato and Sorbet sold at the Moon Co-op Natural Foods Market (Miami Oxford Organic Network Co-op) located on 512 South Locust St. in Oxford, Ohio. A newly opened retail outlet for the 7 year strong coop, it showcases organic and natural products from toothpaste to spices, as well as locally grown produce in season. Our gelato and sorbet fits right in since it's locally produced, and uses all natural ingredients. My wife's family has big history in both the city of Oxford, as well as being Miami Aumni so this was a very important location to add in the tri-state region. She suggests to the Miami students that Madisono's Dark Chocolate Orange and Salted Caramello gelato would be the perfect finish to a Miami bagel from B&D and bag of Smartfood popcorn. If you haven't started your evening yet, be sure to get your pints (gelato pints!) now, so they'll be waiting when you come home which will be much, much later in the evening. I went to college, I know these things...

A little Florida sunshine today

It's quite a chilly day out today so we are warming up our hearts with some gorgeous fresh red grapefruits from Florida. These will be used in the pink grapefruit sorbet we are making today along with some ruby red grapefruit juice. These fresh ingredients are the life-force behind the sweet-tart citrus flavor so many people love. Can you feel the warm sun now? Try a pint and you'll see what we mean...

Happy New Year from Madisono's Gelato

We're excited to start this new year off right by replacing the old computer that took an impossible 60 seconds to load a page is now replaced with a current and speedy model. It takes a little time to install everything but man, it's worth it!

Installing a new computer is just a part of the fun we're having today. The other part is making some sorbet. Ruby Red Grapefruit sorbet to be specific. We developed this special flavor exclusively for Executive Chef Cristian Pietoso for Nichola's (top rated Zagat in 2011) and Via Vite restaurants here in Cincinnati. It is featured in the signature scroppino drinks served there and one patron recently reported to me that this drink is "the best alcoholic drink ever!".

If you're finished with the New Year's wine and champagne, here is a recipe for the refreshing Italian drink adapted from this recipe. We suggest you try this one and then have one of Chef Cristian's for a full taste test and report back to us later...

*to find Madisono's pink grapefruit sorbet, check our "Where to find it" page on this blog.

Ingredients

1 pint pink grapefruit sorbet

1/4 cup Prosecco or sparkling wine

1/4 cup vodka

Method
Pour ingredients into a blender, clamp on the lid and buzz until the ingredients are fully incorporated and frothy, 30 to 40 seconds.

Lunch on the land 2011

This past Sunday, September 18th, marked the third Lunch on the Land Findlay Market fundraiser. Held at Turner Farm in Indian Hill, the event was a collection of Cincinnati's finest restaurant talent and those dedicated to preserving Historic Findlay Market. Madisono's has been a participant in the event since the beginning and every year it gets better. The Tillers provided the music, Amy Tobin served as MC and the chefs provided some great food. 150 people attended the event. Scarlet Oaks culinary students helped out for service and prep. I have included several photos of the event.

This year I wanted to do something different. We have been making Madisono Mad Pops for about year so to make that anniversary, I decided to serve a Mad Pop. My direction was to look for farm related foods that could work in a pop. I settled on an apple carrot and beet pop. Niemeyer Farms provided the apples. I froze them in 3 separate stages so that each flavor could be experienced, it also added a nice stratification to the pop. Thanks to all of you who attuned this year.

Thanks for supporting Madisono's

Matt