Chocolate Sorbetto

Earlier this year we took a trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia.  I was in the midst of a 3-month elimination diet to help cure some GI problems and was off of all sorts of foods including dairy, wheat, and--of all things--vanilla.  As we were passing through "Italy" my husband spotted a little gelato stand and pointed it out.  I thought this was really cruel at first because I happen to ADORE gelato and obviously couldn't have any.  However, it turned out to be fortuitous because they also had sorbetto.  Now, I'd never heard of it but it sounded like something worth investigating.  We asked and to my delight we were told that it had no dairy and no vanilla!  SCORE!!!  We shared a chocolate sorbetto and later returned for a combo of strawberry and chocolate because it was so good.  I vowed to find some sorbetto recipes and make some for myself.  This recipe comes VERY close to the Busch Gardens one.  All my kids loved it!  We served it with homemade strawberry jam to cut the richness a little.

Chocolate Sorbetto
Ingredients:
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract*

1.  Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring often to make sure all the sugar dissolves.  Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 4 minutes.
2.  Take the saucepan off the heat and add in the chopped chocolate, whisking until the mixture is completely smooth.  Add the cocoa and whisk till smooth.  Add vanilla and whisk.
3.  Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl to cool to room temperature.  Stir often while it cools.
4.  Cover and chill at least 4 hours.
5.  Pour into ice cream machine and process by manufacturer's directions.  Transfer to freezer container and freeze at least 2 hours.

To serve, remove container from freezer and allow to stand at room temp for 15 minutes.

FYI--Sorbet and sorbetto are sometimes used interchangeably.  From what I can tell, sorbet is French in origin while sorbetto is Italian.  From what I have experienced, sorbetto seems to be creamier in texture than sorbet.

Source:  bittersweetblog.com (slightly adapted)