Celebrate! - Fun Food Facts

Spumoni Day

Today, we're celebrating another delicious frozen treat that hails from Southern Italy. August 21st is National Spumoni Day!

Traditionally, a spumoni is a three molded layers of flavored gelato that create a unique dessert. The creamy creation often includes candied fruits and nuts in two layers and with a third chocolate layer.

According to a Chicago Tribune article from July 4, 1979, a "genuine spumoni" recipe was brought to the United States from Nola, Italy in 1905. Salvatore Lezza started a bakery in Chicago along with his wife, Lucia. Their traditional recipe called for three layers of semifreddo – An almond layer, semisweet chocolate, and stracciatella. Stracciatella is a type of gelato with irregular bits of chocolate in it.

However, around the United States, most spumoni will include a cherry layer with cherry bits, a layer of pistachio ice cream, and a layer of chocolate. Other varieties include hazelnuts, vanilla, strawberry, pineapple, just to name a few.

Serve spumoni sliced, and you will highlight its beautiful layers. It's also considered the traditional way to serve the ice cream dessert. However, the ice cream lends itself to be scooped, too. When first seeing spumoni, it looks a lot like Neapolitan. Minus the added fruits and nuts, the two ice creams are very similar. Spumoni inspired the Neapolitan. It also inspired cakes, cookies, and other recipes as well.