Extra virgin olive oil is very low acid and tends to send fruity, complex oil flavors to the forefront of our sensory organs. Sounds perfect in an ice cream, no? While an extensive google search wasn’t performed, it is safe to assume there must already be other olive oil ice cream recipes on the net. To be more specific, there are already rosemary olive oil recipes.

Not an expert, but infusing anything into milk sounds like a dumbass idea. Infusions take time, at room temperature. Neither bodes well for milk. With that in mind, the natural alternative thing to do is to infuse the olive oil. At only half a cup of olive oil to approximately 3 cups of total liquid, the sharp rosemary will spice up your tongue, right up through your nose in centiseconds.

The rest is straight from Mr. David Lebovitz’s recipe except where noted.

Ingredients:
4-5 branches of (organic, or spider web infested) rosemary sprigs from your neighbors
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup + a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil, varietal of your choosing
1 cup of heavy cream
1 1/3 cup of whole milk
pinch of sea salt
4 eggs folks (altered ratio from original D. Lebovitz recipe)

Process:
Wash and dry rosemary sprigs extremely well. Heat o.o. over low fire. Warning: do not fry the rosemary. Go against the growth of leaves and strip off the rosemary into the oil, transfer infusion into non-reactive vessel, leave at room temperature and cover with cling wrap for minimum of 2 hours. Transfer into refrigerator to chill.

Place cream into freezer to further chill (the bowl in ice water method always seems backwards to me); make custard out of egg yolks, whole milk and sugar. As always, careful to not scramble eggs. Strain custard into cold cream. Strain rosemary from olive oil infusion. Press rosemary leaves against strainer to obtain maximum olive oil output and flavor. Whisk olive oil well into custard/cream. Refrigerate ice cream base for at least 2 hours.

(Now for the home ice cream maker trick – this applies only to machines with built-in compressors: do not pour the mixture into ice cream maker as soon as you turn on the machine. Let the freon do its work for 5 minutes to freeze the bowl, then pour in the mixture and install the dasher. This will always cut churning time by nearly 10 minuets.)

Churn mixture in your ice cream maker according to directions, freeze the soft serve. Place 2 sprigs of rosemary on top, then place plastic cling wrap directly on top of the ice cream prior to sealing the container. This prevents any formation of ice crystals on the surface.

To serve, drizzle some very light olive oil over scoop. Recipe inspired by Humphry Slocombe’s Olive Oil ice cream, as well as O. Mozza’s Rosemary Olive Oil cake & olive oil gelato.

Yes, this recipe is LA Food Blogger’s Tasting Conference (at The Association) Summer ‘09 approved:

Click here for a shot by NakedSushi.