Where ice cream legally has a minimum of 10 percent fat, gelato is made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream, so it contains more like five to seven percent fat. Don't expect to be able to get Italian gelato results by making a gelato recipe in your home ice cream machine: Gelato is churned at a slower speed than ice cream, so it's denser because not as much air is whipped into the mixture, hence the more intense flavors. Now you know.