This is a soft and light, Italian-style Watermelon Pudding. It isn’t like traditional American puddings, it’s WAY better!
We settled on Watermelon Pudding because it had been on our “to make” list for a looooong time.
When I first heard of Watermelon pudding it was a few years ago at a dinner party with my extended family.
A woman was raving about something called Gelo di melon she had at a local fine dining restaurant.
I remember wondering at the time if that was some kind of exclusive thing. It’s not. I googled it.
It’s a Sicilian pudding and it’s quite popular, actually.
And delicious, but I am getting ahead of myself.
I looked around for years at dozens of recipes, and the one thing I kept seeing people mention, is that it was traditionally made with the addition of jasmine water.
Being as jasmine water is fairly difficult to find sold anywhere, and I don’t have jasmine flowers (or the time and patience) to steep my own, I waited to try the recipe.
I waited because I wanted to try it that way, not the traditional way instead of using vanilla extract or rose extract (other things people used to substitute.)
Well I finally located a place to get jasmine extract, and I created my own jasmine water from the extract and used it to make this very delicious dessert.
The kids enjoyed it a lot!
Side note: I have now tried this same recipe with orange blossom water and also rose water and omg!
Try it with whatever you can get because it’s worth it!
Printable Recipe for Watermelon Pudding
Watermelon Pudding {Gelo di melone}
Ingredients
- 3 pounds watermelon
- ½ cups granulated sugar depends on how sweet the watermelon is
- ⅔ cups cornstarch
- 3 Tablespoons jasmine water
- ¼ cups pistachios ground/crushed
- ground cinnamon if desired
Instructions
- Cut your watermelon into small pieces, removing all seeds. Place the flesh of the watermelon into your food processor and process until smooth.
- Place into a bowl. Add the sugar and the cornstarch together and whisk well.
- Pour into a pot on the stove over medium heat.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Allow to boil for about 2 minutes or so.
- Remove from the heat and add the jasmine water.
- Divide the pudding equally among 8 serving dishes.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Serve chilled and sprinkled with ground pistachios and some cinnamon.
This looks SO refreshing!
And not at all like “pudding”.
Good for you for hunting down what you need! I call that a resourceful foodie!
This is something new to me. Looks so pretty and refreshing!
Okay you have my attention! I love the idea of making a pudding with watermelon, that does sound refreshing:-) Hugs, Terra
Yes, watermelon pudding – gelo di melone – is eaten every summer here in Sicily!