Because my class is producing a video about food, Filiberto has made an extra effort to incorporate special food-related trips. We went to a fish market. We saw the production of chocolate. Yesterday we went to a local gelateria. Not everywhere that sells gelato makes it, but "La Cremeria" does. In summer they make 3oo kilos (660 pounds) per DAY.

Here Filiberto (with freshly-made ice cream cone in hand) translates the process. The equipment he's showing cost the owner nearly $200,000.

The dining are was large enough to seat the entire class and then some, but the production area was small. Only half of us could watch at a time, and even then it was crowded. Here Angelica distributes cones so we could eat it seconds after it was made.

The first flavor he made was hazelnut: very popular in Italy. Flavors with nuts, chocolate,etc have a higher cream content than fruit flavors.

We are working hard here in Italy, but it does have its rewards.

The second flavor was pistacchio. He gets this paste from a supplier. This is a rather expensive paste, but he made note of the fact that it's pure - no additives of any kind. He advised the students that they always read food labels and know what it is they're consuming.

As you might expect, the main ingredient is milk.

The pistacchio is precisely weighed - not because it is so expensive, but to make sure the gelato is consistent. If you go into a place and order a particular flavor, you want it to taste the same every time you order it.

In the case of pistacchio, some milk must be mixed with the paste before it's added to the refrigerated mixer otherwise the flavor will congeal in small pieces rather than in a smooth cream.

The pisacchio/cream mixture is added to the mixer. The machine is combination mixer/quick chiller. As it is mixed the temperature is brought down and you can hear the machine sound change as the mixture becomes thicker.

The mixture volume increases as it chills and air is folded into the mix. A picture I didn't get was the quick deep freeze. Our gelato never went into it, but stuff that goes out into the serving case does. It quickly drops the temperature of the stuff sub zero (almost 40 below) in order to preserve it, and to prevent crystallization that occurs in our "regular" freezers.

The mixing took only a few minutes. It seemed like a lot longer because all of us were anxious to taste it. The finished product is placed quite precisely in stainless steel trays for display.