Stracciatella (ice cream)

Makers produce the effect by drizzling melted chocolate into plain milk ice cream towards the end of the churning process; chocolate solidifies immediately coming in contact with the cold ice cream, and is then broken up and incorporated into the ice cream with a spatula.[1] This process creates the shreds of chocolate that give stracciatella its name.[3] (Stracciatella in Italian means "little shred".) While stracciatella ice cream traditionally involves milk, ice cream and milk chocolate, modern variations can also be made with vanilla and dark chocolate.[4]

Enrico Panattoni

Enrico Panattoni, the owner of La Marianna, a gelateria in Bergamo in northern Italy, invented the dish in 1961.[5][n 1] According to Panattoni, the idea came to him after he had grown tired of stirring eggs into broth to satisfy customers of his restaurant who kept asking for stracciatella soup.[5]

He was passionate about cooking and pastry, after various and repeated experiments, he invented a particular kind of ice cream made of a very white cream with irregular pieces of dark chocolate inside. During the creaming process of Fiordilatte, he inserted a dose of hot dark chocolate that, thanks to the whipping of the blades, "shredes" the chocolate while it solidified. The effect recalls one of the most popular dishes of his restaurant, named the Roman stracciatella.[8]

The melted chocolate that solidifies and shatters in the batch freezer, reminds the egg that binds in the boiling broth of the Roman stracciatella. «Roman stracciatella was the most famous consommé and, as for that soup, I was looking for an ice cream that could be loved and appreciated by my customers» said the inventor of the stracciatella.[9]

La Stracciatella the ice cream of Bergamo is a project to enhance the artisan ice cream and tourism promotion, based on the spread of the history of the birth of the stracciatella taste. The aim of the project is to spread the origin of Stracciatella, making it a heritage element of the Italian gastronomic tradition and a vehicle for the enhancement of the territory and an attraction of Italian and foreign tourists to make Bergamo and its Province known to the domestic and international public.[10]

In 2017 La Stracciatella il gelato in Bergamo became a collective trademark, filed with its patent in the office of the Chamber of Commerce of Bergamo, which identifies the ice cream parlours and the promotion and communication initiatives of the project.[11]

The brand is linked to a specification production, which explains the guidelines to which the ice cream parlors must follow for the production of the stracciatella taste and to use the brand "La Stracciatella the ice cream of Bergamo". The specification explains the use of the following simple ingredients: mixture of fresh milk and cream and dark chocolate with minimum 58% cocoa. The production process is characterized by the discontinuous method, pasteurization and freezing on site and the mechanical or manual shredding of melted chocolate.To promote and spread this brand and the history of the birth of Stracciatella, the project "La Stracciatella ice cream in Bergamo" provides a series of promotions, through various media and events. A real launch event was held in Bergamo on September 25th 2017 with a press conference for the presentation of the project to ice cream parlors, the public, the media, local institutions and companies. On June 17th, 2018 Bergamo celebrated its ice cream with a big square party in the heart of Upper Town. For the occasion, a spectacular laboratory in sight showed the public the production of 300 kg of stracciatella with free tastings and, at the same time, a rich artistic program with circus, music and theater told the story of the birth of Stracciatella.[12]

• List of ice cream flavors