One of the many memorable things about last year's visit to Sperlonga, Italy, situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea, was a delightfully simple, yet elegant ice cream dessert I ordered at Ristorante Scylla. Today, I decided to recreate this dish. Unfortunately, it was not quite as simple as I anticipated.
First, you will need four oranges. After rinsing well, use a vegetable peeler to remove the orange rind. Try to avoid getting the white pith as much as possible, as it will unnecessarily sour the candied orange pieces. It is suggested that you cut the orange peel into smaller pieces than I did.
The next part in the process requires bringing about four cups of water to a boil, dropping in the orange peel, then lowering the temp to a simmer for fifteen minutes. After the time is up, slowly stir in about two cups of sugar. Bring to a boil, then simmer for one hour. You will want to stay around the kitchen for this period, as you will need to stir and monitor the boiling mixture.
Once the mixture boils down sufficiently, remove the candied oranges and place them on a rack to dry. Strain the orange syrup at this point and save for later. (This is also a good time to add additional flavorings like lavender.) This essentially becomes a marmalade syrup.
The next challenge is slicing the ice cream into attractive cubes. After cutting the ice cream out of its carton, it's time to get to work. I bought a salad chopping tool for this purpose, but it did not work well. We also tried a pizza cutter with no luck. In the end, the best tool was a baker's dough cutter.
Enjoy the cubed ice cream with candied orange peel and drizzled syrup over the top. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
(If planning to travel to Sperlonga, there are a few practical pieces of advice I'd like to offer that could spare you some trouble and inconvenience Feel free to contact me for details.)
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