Stracciatella (ice cream) facts for kids
Stracciatella over chocolate ice cream
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| Type | Ice cream |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Italy |
| Region or state | Lombardy |
| Created by | Enrico Panattoni |
| Invented | 1961 |
| Main ingredients | Milk, cream, Milk chocolate |
| Ingredients generally used | Dark chocolate |
Stracciatella is a super popular type of gelato, which is Italian ice cream. It's made from creamy milk-based ice cream. What makes it special are the tiny, uneven pieces of chocolate mixed throughout. This yummy treat was first made in 1961 in Bergamo, a city in northern Italy. It was created at a place called Ristorante La Marianna.
The idea for stracciatella ice cream came from a soup also called stracciatella. This soup is made with eggs and broth and is very popular near Rome. Stracciatella ice cream is now one of Italy's most famous gelato flavors!
How Stracciatella Gelato Is Made
To make stracciatella, chefs start with plain milk ice cream. As the ice cream is almost finished churning, they slowly pour melted chocolate into it. When the warm chocolate touches the super cold ice cream, it instantly turns solid.
Then, the chefs use a spatula to break up the hardened chocolate. This mixes the chocolate pieces into the ice cream. This process creates the small, shredded bits of chocolate that give stracciatella its name. In Italian, stracciatella means 'little shred'.
Even though traditional stracciatella uses milk ice cream and milk chocolate, there are new versions too. You can find stracciatella made with vanilla ice cream or even dark chocolate pieces.
The Story Behind Stracciatella
The delicious stracciatella gelato was invented by Enrico Panattoni. He owned a gelateria (an ice cream shop) called La Marianna in Bergamo, Italy. He created this special ice cream in 1961.
Enrico Panattoni said he got the idea because he was tired of making stracciatella soup. His restaurant customers kept asking for the soup, which involved stirring eggs into hot broth. He loved cooking and making pastries, so he started experimenting.
After many tries, he invented a unique kind of ice cream. It was a very white, creamy ice cream with uneven pieces of dark chocolate inside. While making his "Fiordilatte" (milk-flavored) ice cream, he added hot dark chocolate. The mixing blades broke the chocolate into shreds as it became solid.
This effect reminded him of the Roman stracciatella soup. In the soup, the egg cooks and forms strands in the hot broth. Panattoni wanted to create an ice cream that his customers would love just as much as that famous soup. He said, "Roman stracciatella was the most famous soup, and like that soup, I was looking for an ice cream that could be loved and appreciated by my customers."
See also
In Spanish: Stracciatella (helado) para niños
