04/06/2024
Happy birthday to Spaghettieis!
A German invention is 55 years old today.
Spaghetti with vanilla “noodles”, fresh strawberry “tomato sauce”, and white chocolate or coconut “parmesan cheese.”
Spaghetti-Eis, one of the country's most popular varieties of ice cream... Germans enjoy about 25 million servings every year.
Seventeen year old Dario Fontanella came up with the idea, and served the first spaghetti ice cream on April 6, an Easter Sunday, 55 years ago in his father's Mannheim ice cream parlour.
Vanilla ice cream "spaghetti", served on a layer of cream, decked with red strawberry sauce, and white chocolate or coconut.
And how can you make it at home? Like this:
For four portions...
200g-1 cup strawberries
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
50g-2 oz white chocolate shavings or desiccated coconut.
120g-1/2 cup whipped cream
12 scoops of vanilla ice cream
Wash the strawberries, remove stalks, cut them into small cubes and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Leave to stand for 30 minutes. Then puree with a hand blender.
Make fine shavings from the chocolate with a potato peeler and chill.
(If using coconut it is easier to get it ready to use)
Whip the cream until stiff and divide between 4 dishes.
Press 3 scoops of ice cream through a Spätzle or potato ricer over the cream mounds.
Pour strawberry sauce over the ice cream and garnish with chocolate or coconut...
Apparently when Dario Fontanella first served the dessert to children they cried because they wanted ice cream and not what appeared to be a bowl of spaghetti. :-)
Some tips... The strawberry sauce can be made from couple hours to a couple days ahead and stored in the fridge. While the heavy cream can be whipped a few hours before.
But only make the ice cream pasta when you are ready to serve, as it melts quickly.
And place the press in the freezer beforehand so that it cools thoroughly. This will prevent the ice cream from melting immediately and the "spaghetti" will be perfect.
If the ice cream from the press does not have a spaghetti noodle shape, either the ice cream or the press/ricer is not cold enough.
Dario Fontanella still produces ice cream in his Mannheim ice-cream parlour. Together with his five employees, and without using any emulsifiers, colourants or chemicals.
Photo credit: Original source of photo unknown.
