Replace cream with extra-virgin olive oil for a rich, fruity, peppery ice cream. by Tim ChinOlive oil and dairy are a rad combo in this olive oil ice cream. The grassy, peppery notes of good extra-virgin olive oil pair perfectly with the rich, unctuous flavor of an oozy burrata or a bowl of freshly made ricotta. Add ice cream to that list. It may sound like an odd combination, but extra-virgin olive oil ice cream is pretty amazing stuff—creamy and sweet, with a hint of savory grassiness and a pleasant back of the throat burn to balance its refreshing chill. But you can’t just stream olive oil into a regular ice cream base and expect success. When we added enough olive oil to a classic base that we could actually taste it, the incredibly high fat content led to a pasty, gummy ice cream. We found that we needed to ditch almost all the milkfat in the base (save for the small amount found in the whole milk) by subbing in water for the heavy cream. That move let me add a full ¾ cup of olive oil, producing a deeply flavored ice cream with great texture. To reinforce the olive oil’s peppery notes, We added a little freshly ground pepper to the mix, giving this ice cream the look of classic vanilla bean ice cream. Photography by Steve KliseFood Styling by Marie Piraino