The 8 ice cream shops (and their best flavors) to try in Turin

“Strawberries, cream and champagne, strawberries under the moon… tonight someone else will say, I’ve never told anyone”. The refrain by Achille Lauro and Rose Villein resonates in the ears, fresh, summery, and it is pleasant (with or without cream) to leave it there to accompany the mind while the tip of the tongue is busy tasting an ice cream cone, strawberry and champagne flavour. An experience, as it is fashionable to say now, to be had while walking through San Salvario, in Turin, after a stop at Modo, a young ice cream shop, as are its creators, and so is the environment and also, on average, the typical customer. Which was certainly born after 1980, the date on which Siculo opened in another part of the city, a name that is a guarantee and forty-odd years later is capable of taking you to Sicily in your mind, with its flavors and colors extraordinary.

A somewhat special stage for the “On the tip of the tongue” column and let’s talk about ice cream. Turin is second to none in this regard, as is already the case in the art of pastry making. Precisely in these days the third edition of the Italian Ice Cream Festival is taking place in Rivara, open until Sunday 2 June, at Villa Ogliani, organized by Associainsieme, in collaboration with the Municipality of Rivara, the patron of the festival Marco Nicolino of the Buono ice cream shop and Sano di Rivarolo Canavese, Ascom Confcommercio Turin and province, Ascom Confcommercio Rivarolo ei Maestri del Gusto, project of the Turin Chamber of Commerce. It is an opportunity to learn about and try the artisanal products of 12 master ice cream makers representing eight regions. Piedmont, Val d’Aosta and the province of Turin are at the top: Alberto Marchetti of the Alberto Marchetti ice cream parlors in Turin, Christian Bordet of the Ivana ice cream shop in Pont Saint Martin (Ao), Alessia Torselli and Vera Castrovilli of Nevedarance di Caluso ( To), the same owner Marco Nicolino, Davide Frainetti of the Gonetti ice cream shop in Turin, Irene and Silvia Aimone Giggio of the La Porporata agrigelateria in San Maurizio Canavese (To). A team of professionals from a sector that is continuing its evolutionary path, moving from a predominantly summer product to delicacies to be tasted all year round.

Also thanks to the great studio on the raw material, the evolution in the use of milk – and consequently creams – and seasonal fruit. Everything is contained within a few kilometers, the small producers have become the added value of the ice cream makers who have combined research with study. Ice cream making, like pastry making or even more so, is today chemistry and physics applied to gastronomy. Conogelato – another of the cutting-edge realities today in a city that has seen the growth, we remember, of phenomena such as Grom (whose founders Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom are now engaged in a new entrepreneurial adventure in Milan, together with the pilot Charles Leclerc for a low-calorie ice cream), but also like Alberto Marchetti or Mara dei Boschi – works with great attention on the use of buffalo milk (Piedmontese) managing to obtain a consistency that can be felt on the palate. La Contadina, or the Cascina Roseleto ice cream shop, operates on the entire supply chain, from its animals to the finished product. And so Aria – those who also made the bread, butter and jam flavor by reusing unsold bread – enhances the supplier companies in the name of complete transparency. The time of “magic dust” is over. Ice cream is natural, and different.

Air
Nomen omen: why Davide Ferrero and Roberto Speranza brought new air to the world of ice cream. Attention to the raw material, its processing, the choice of suppliers. There is care in everything: on the menu you can choose between classic, vegan and “experimental”.

Ice cream
Ice creams made from buffalo milk, to enhance the flavor of the ingredients (the fruit is in season), but also give a creamy and sweet consistency. The unmissable flavours: Fior di bufala (Piedmontese breed), pistachio and dark chocolate. The gem: the prickly pear.

The Farmer
Read: Cascina Roseleto. Years pass, but this reality remains a guarantee. It is an ice cream shop and a dairy, everything is made with milk that comes from the farm’s pastures. Among the creamy flavors, the Ciaparat (variegated gianduja biscuit with caramelized almonds and hazelnuts) is unmissable.

Marchetti
Alberto Marchetti thinks once and does a thousand: the ice cream master is also involved – together with Eredi Borgnino – in proposing an ice cream with gourmet topping and a cocktail inspired by the Bicerin. In general, raw materials found in the Slow Food world, pleasant to get lost among delicious creams and fresh fruit.

Way
The starting point for getting to know the very young Guido Montaldo and Giorgio Oddone is the blackboard with about fifteen flavours. To which, if desired, you can add whipped cream with a whisk. But following inspiration and seasons, other proposals arrive to accompany the classics. Like strawberries and champagne.

Niva
Depart from Turin and find yourself in Lisbon, Porto and Cannes. 35 years after the start of the gastronomic adventure of Diana De Benedetti and Silvio Rivolta, here are the ice creams of Diana and Dalia (daughter of the artist) with alpine milk and Piedmontese ingredients: such as the Burè Roca pear, Ramassin plums, peaches of white pulp vineyard.

Sicilian
It was born in 1980 and is always current: it anticipates and coexists with fashions, in the name of quality. And then it allows you to dream of a trip to Sicily, with the flavor of almond, ricotta or Bronte pistachio, in a mix that looks to today, with celery, prickly pears and salted pistachio.

+than an ice cream
The classic that discovers the future: a bit like the location, from which the continuous movement of tourists and Turin residents can be observed. Created by a social coop, there is quality and desire for something new, in the initiatives, in the marketing, in the taste: like the coffee stracciatella, worth trying.

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