Rhubarb Ripple Ice Cream

I’m not a girly girl and I don’t much like colour, but there’s a particular shade of pink that I can’t resist. It’s a dusky, old-fashioned sort of shade, and everyone else on Pinterest seems to be equally enamoured with it. Like Pinterest, this shade of pink seems to be an acceptable balance between full-on girlishness and subtle, measured style – or so I believe. Having noticed the new, bright pink rhubarb in the garden last week, I decided to use some in a sort of soft-fold ice cream today, with rose water and toasted hazelnuts. Garden-grown rhubarb is never quite as pink as the forced shoots which appear in shops in early January, but I think it’s just as pretty, in its own dusky way.

   

Rhubarb Ripple Ice Cream

250g young rhubarb

25g caster sugar

1l tub of plain vanilla ice cream

75g chopped toasted hazelnuts

1/2-1tsp rosewater

Remove the leaves from the rhubarb stalks, slice and put in a saucepan with the caster sugar and rose water. Simmer very gently for around 20 minutes. If the purée really isn’t pink enough, add a tiny drop of red food colouring or some raspberry coulis. Taste to make sure it’s sweet enough; add a little more rosewater if desired. Cool and set aside. Whip the (slightly softened) ice cream in a free standing mixer, add half the hazelnuts and put it back in the freezer for a few minutes. When it’s firm but still malleable, swirl a few tablespoons of the purée in. Re-freeze, allow to thaw slightly and serve with more toasted hazelnuts, rose petals, whatever you like.