If I tell you gelato's fat content technically makes it more like ice milk than ice cream, don't believe me. Otherwise, you might not try it — and that would be a shame.
One of the newest of the gelaterias opening lately in the valley is Citta Gelato & Cafe, a pleasant little place set into a strip mall in Sandy. The owners of Citta learned gelato-making in Italy, and their training shows.
The place is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a menu of various pastries and panini, plus soup and a pasta of the day. Expect a wonderfully diverse crowd: gals out for an evening without the husbands, local kids on scooters, a couple of men playing chess at a table near the gelato case.
We took the kids to dinner at Citta. If you're just there for gelato, you can step up to the case and make your selections. But you sit down and are waited on for meals.
Citta has a continental vibe, with the small eating space broken up into several discrete areas, thanks to judicious table placement and the French doors that open up to a small "party room." We ate at tables near the window, with half of us on comfy metal chairs and the other half on bouncy leather-upholstered benches.
My youngest daughter had the smooth, earthy tomato-basil bisque, while our oldest had three massive pillows of ravioli filled with a silky blend of cheeses and topped with tomatoes and roasted red peppers.
My middle daughter, my husband and I had panini — she the havarti and ricotta; he the meatball with roasted tomatoes, havarti, fresh basil and roasted red peppers; and me turkey breast with red pepper, havarti and mayo. All were beautifully cooked, crisp and chewy, and all showcased delicious flavor blends. On the side we had simple salads of fresh greens and sun-dried tomatoes dressed with a drizzle of balsamic reduction.
We ordered the Italian scone for our 2-year-old, but after he commandeered half of my turkey sandwich, I got to eat the scone. A warm Italian roll — in this case, ciabatta — was sliced in half and drizzled with butter, honey and raspberry sauce. Golly, was it good.
And I haven't even gotten to the gelato! If you've never had gelato, you really must try it. You won't believe it can be both richer and lower in fat than ice cream, but it is. Of course, it's usually got a pretty rich price tag — at Citta, a small serving roughly the size of one scoop of ice cream is $1.99 — but its depth of flavor makes you feel more satisfied than you might with a lower-quality frozen dessert.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite. Was it the tiramisu, my favorite rich, darkly flavorful dessert miraculously reproduced in frozen form? Or the yogurt with blood orange and peach sauce, sour and studded with little bits of candied orange peel? I loved the coconut, snow white and full of soft little coconut shreds, but I might have liked the icy, pungent green apple or the rich, smooth banana even more.
There are traditional flavors — strawberry, hazelnut, pistachio, all of them delicious — and ones you've likely never seen, like yogurt with sour cherries. And, yes, there's chocolate — my husband had half chocolate chip, vanilla gelato full of tiny dark-chocolate bits, and half walnut fudge brownie, in which the walnut was deliciously assertive.
We took home a few pastries (made by a local chef for Citta) for breakfast the next day: a tender little apple tart topped with a piecrust heart, and a big slice of pear and pistachio tart that was juicy, rich and satisfying.
Breakfast $2.50-$5.99, panini $4.99-$6.99, pasta $6.99, soup $2.99-$4.99, gelato $1.99-$16.
Stacey Kratz is a freelance writer who reviews restaurants for the Deseret Morning News.
E-mail: skratz@desnews.com