This Summer Dessert Looks Just Like a Plate of Spaghetti

Staff Author, Jillian Barreca
·3 min read
2

You didn't read that wrong: Dessert that looks like pasta.

You may not know that Germany has a booming ice cream culture. As soon as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds, Germans of all ages flock to their nearest Eisdiele (ice cream parlor) in search of a sweet scoop or two. The country is one of the top leading producers of ice cream in Europe, making it a more than €2 billion-euro industry. This passion has inspired many inventions over the years that go far beyond banana splits (like this sundae in the shape of a popular cartoon bee), but none are as beloved as Spaghettieis.

I know what you're thinking—spaghetti and ice cream? No, thank you. But I and many others grew up eating this playful sundae made to look like a saucy plate of pasta. In 1969, Dario Fontanella dreamed up this invention in his family's very own Italian ice cream shop in Mannheim, Germany. Inspiration struck on holiday after he ate a Mont Blanc dessert, made with whipped cream and strands of chestnut puree to resemble mountain peaks, and he set out to create his own frozen version.

After a few failed attempts using pistachio, lemon and strawberry ice cream to illustrate the colors of the Italian flag, Fontanella landed on vanilla gelato which looks like real spaghetti noodles. To this day, you can still visit his family's shop in Mannheim but luckily, Spaghettieis is now widely available and sold more than 30 million times a year in ice cream parlors across the country.

How Is Spaghettieis Made?

The sundae starts with a dollop of whipped cream topped with ice cream “noodles” that are extruded through a spaetzle press or potato ricer. Thanks to different freezing points between the two, the whipped cream center develops a crackly outer shell. German ice cream parlors have access to special extruding machines so they don’t need to thaw theirs out the way that you do when making this at home. This is why I recommend pre-freezing the whipped cream slightly beforehand to get a similarly satisfying effect. Everything is then topped with a fresh strawberry “marinara” and some white chocolate “parmesan” shavings, making the illusion complete.


Nowadays, other versions of Spaghettieis exist like a take on carbonara which includes nuts, and swaps out the strawberry sauce for Eierlikoer, a custardy rum-spiked liquor. But nothing is as popular as the original combination.

Get the recipe for Spaghettieis, a Spaghetti-Inspired German Sundae

Tips For Making Spaghettieis

  • Chill your potato ricer. Make sure to throw your potato ricer (or spaetzle press) in the freezer at least one hour before assembly. This prevents the ice cream from melting and maintains the shape of the noodles.

  • Choose the right setting. Use the smallest setting on your ricer so that you get perfectly thin spaghetti shapes.

  • Practice your technique. The trickiest part of making this sundae is getting the consistency of the ice cream right. It needs to be soft enough to squeeze through the ricer but not so soft that it doesn’t hold its shape. Start with a test scoop to see if your ice cream needs to rest at room temperature for five minutes before you can start extruding.

  • Use the best berries. This sundae uses a fresh strawberry sauce so make sure to get the ripest strawberries you can for maximum flavor. Once made, keep the sauce as cold as possible so it doesn’t melt the ice cream.

  • Save some freezer space. If you want to save space in your freezer, pipe the whipped cream dollops onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. They can be peeled off of the parchment once firm and then placed into chilled ice cream bowls.