Gelateria Della Passera: A Hidden Gem for Gelato

By: Jessica Adan

Though cold desserts were presumed to be invented in China in 3000 BCE, Florence, Italy, is the original home of the gelato you may know and love.

Italian gelato differs from ice cream in America due to the reduced amount of butterfat, the use of natural sugar, and the slow-churning process that creates the well-known dessert.

Because Florence is the birthplace, there is a different gelato shop almost every ten feet throughout the city. As a traveler, it is difficult to decipher which places are both authentic and delicious versus which places are tourist traps.

Luckily, Gelateria Della Passera offers visitors and locals a genuine but unique experience.

A street in Florence like the one above can have up to four to five gelato stores.

Gelateria Della Passera

Hidden away from the busy streets and noise, Gelateria Della Passera is easy to miss, but Cinzia Otri’s adoration for her work is not. In July 2010, Otri opened the shop to share her love for aliment and working in the kitchen with all of Florence.

A look at just how out of sight Gelateria Della Passera is. It is near the corner of a barren street.

Throughout the years, the store built a high reputation, receiving many awards from various critics and magazines.

For example, Gelateria Della Passera has been given the prestigious Three Cones from Gambero Rosso for the past few years. Gambero Rosso is a content company that is updated continuously with place recommendations that embody the Italian way of life.

Recently, in 2022, the Financial Times listed it as one of the 25 best ice cream parlors in the world.

Though the shop is relatively small, it has everything Otri needs, including the machines and items used to make her product.

“This room is my laboratory. All of the gelato is only made right back here,” she said.

Flavor

Gelateria Della Passera prides itself on its method of creating and flavoring the frozen dessert. The secret to their rich flavors lies in the avoidance of artificial ingredients instead, using newly self-prepared ones, including fresh milk and seasoned fruits, specifically from Italy.

Cinzia Otri holding up fresh grapefruit that will be made into sorbet for the morning batch.

In addition to gelato that contains milk, Otri also creates fruit sorbet. “I work fresh fruit without milk because I don’t like fruit with milk,” she said.

There are a variety of flavors, from crema to caffe degli artigiani to kiwi, that can appeal to all kinds of tastebuds. Otri keeps her menu dynamic, even if it consists of flavors she is not fond of so that everyone can find something to enjoy and have their desired taste.

Gelateria Della Passera offers both gelato that contains milk and sorbet that does not. The menu changes throughout the year.

“I don’t prefer chocolate or pistachio and strawberry, but they are for my sons,” she said. In fact, all of her children have the same favorite flavors and fight to get the first batch when she makes them.

Sourcing Ingredients

A majority of the gelato in the shop contains some sort of grown ingredient.

Otri ensures that she is able to source as many items as she can in Italy, specifically Tuscany. Lemons and pink grapefruit are one of the few exceptions, as they are usually derived from Sicily or the Amalfi Coast. Because Otri understands the importance of where she sources her produce, the flavor menu is seasonal.

In May, both melon and strawberry are being grown in Tuscany, so the flavor is available for people to enjoy. However, since they are not grown in the winter, they are only offered in the summer. Soon, in July, flavors like margot, apricot and peach will be ready to become gelato.

Fresh grapefruit is shipped in from the Amalfi Coast and is used to create the beloved grapefruit sorbet.

Although Otri prefers sourcing locally, some ingredients have to be imported internationally because they are not able to be grown naturally in Italy. For example, vanilla comes from Madagascar and Tahiti, and chocolate comes from massa di cacao grown in Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Peru.

“I work with massa di cacao which is one hundred percent cacao for the purest flavor,” Otri said.

It is evident that Otri is meticulous with her product research and strives to obtain the optimal ingredients to develop the most authentic and pristine flavor possible.

If you look closely, you can see the black vanilla paste that is infused into the gelato giving it a rich flavor.

Recycling Ingredients to Create New Flavors

One unique process conducted at Gelateria Della Passera is recycling ingredients to create more exotic flavors. This is done by taking the flavors of banana, orange, nutmeg and fior di latte.

Banana, orange and nutmeg is a sorbet that utilizes both orange peel and banana velvet. Banana velvet, according to Otri, is the white material that is extracted from inside the banana peel, which makes for a great texture. The nutmeg comes from the leftovers of other types of gelato. All three of these flavors join together to form a smooth and refreshing blend.

This cup has scoop of the banana, orange, and nutmeg sorbet on top of a scoop Earl Gray gelato.

Paolo Barbieri, an assistant in making gelato in the shop, said, “The banana, orange, and nutmeg gelato is only made of wasted food. It is recycled.” He works in the mornings to help Otri open up the store.

Otri and Barbieri work on the ice cream machine together to create the banana, orange and nutmeg gelato. Once it is ready, it goes into the metal containers that will sit on the display, ready to be ordered.

Additionally, a variation of fior di latte, a milk cream base gelato, is infused with figs. Instead of the fruit itself, however, the leaves are used. They are soaked in the cream for a period of time and then strained out. The remaining cream goes right into the machine to create a special flavor.

Using leftover ingredients is not only creative, but it is a way for the shop to be sustainable and reduce food waste that otherwise gets thrown away.

The fig leaves are soaked in a bowl of milk like the one shown above to absorb the flavor.

A Place to Visit

Gelateria Della Passera is the perfect place to enjoy gelato. The store really encompasses its four core values of innovation, passion, quality and craftsmanship. Every day, the shop continues to work towards improving and bringing in more customers.

Besides the gelato itself, the greatest part of visiting the store has to be the people. An owner like Cinzia Otri, who is willing to open up her shop early to answer questions and show her craft to a traveling customer, truly shows her respect for what she does and the dedication she puts into her product.

Assistants like Paolo Barbieri, who give free samplings and suggest pairings such as whipped cream with caffe degli artigiani to enhance the experience of the customer, showcases the shop’s love of creation.

Caffe degli artigiani gelato is made with real espresso. It is enjoyed best with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Overall, Gelateria Della Passera is an unforgettable location that all visitors should take the time to try.