This is spaghetti ice cream (Spaghettieis). It’s a quintessential German frozen treat that’s relatively unheard of outside of Germany. While it might look strange to some, it’s just a few familiar ingredients put together to create something deliciously unique. Some say it’s most beloved by children, but I know plenty of adults, like myself, that still treat themselves. Even if you’re not a huge fan of vanilla ice cream (and that would be me), I’d be willing to bet you’ll love this.
It’s so much fun and I’m excited to finally share this with you!
Spaghetti ice cream was invented in 1969 by Dario Fontanella, son of an ice cream making Italian immigrant and owner of Eis Fontanella in Mannheim, Germany. He had the brilliant idea of pressing vanilla ice cream through a spaetzle press* to create the look of spaghetti noodles. The the rest of the look was created by using a simple strawberry sauce for the marinara and white chocolate bits for the Parmesan. Thankfully (or perhaps unfortunately for him) he didn’t patent his spaghetti ice cream and it’s available at almost every ice cream parlour (Eisdiele) in Germany. There are many different flavours available now, like chocolate, banana, kiwi, melon, just to name a few. Of course, these other versions don’t look as much like they’re copying regular spaghetti.
*Just an aside, a spaetzle press is what they use to make spaetzle in Southwestern Germany (or Baden-Württemberg). In Southeastern Germany (or Bavaria), we use a spaetzle maker. And yes, they make two different kinds of spaetzle that are equally delicious.
Spaghetti Ice Cream in Karlstadt Am Main, Germany
The Potato Ricer changes the Flavour
My husband wanted me to make sure to mention this part on my post. Pressing the ice cream through the potato ricer changes the consistency. It also changes the flavour in an interesting way. He thought spaghetti ice cream was really good in Germany because of the type of ice cream they were using. Turns out that when he started using the potato ricer on his familiar brand of ice cream at home, it changed the flavour to be very similar to what he had in Germany. He was amazed and now just loves using the potato ricer whenever he has ice cream! It’s like the flavour change you get when you wait for your ice cream to melt, except it’s not melted.
Okay, enough talk because I know you want to learn to make one!
Spaghetti Ice Cream
(Spaghettieis)
Ingredients:
- Your favourite vanilla ice cream
- 8 oz of Strawberries, quartered
- 1 tablespoon of Sugar
- 2 teaspoons of Orange Juice (optional)
- White Chocolate shavings
- Whipped Cream (optional)
Equipment:
- Potato Ricer or Spaetzle Press
- Blender
- Grater or Micro Zester
If you’re not a fan of white chocolate, you can use shredded coconut or almond pieces as a topping instead.
If you don’t want to make your own strawberry syrup, you could use store bought. However, it’s not that much extra work and it’ll taste so much better (in my humble opinion, anyway).
In Gemany this would be made with a vanilla gelato, as that’s the main type of ice cream served in ice cream parlours. However, any kind of vanilla ice cream works, even lactose free. The creamier the ice cream is, the better formed “noodles” will be.
You can top your spaghetti ice cream with whipped cream, if you so desire. I don’t because it’s often served without in Germany. It kind of changes the “pasta-ness” of the dish. Also, German whipped cream usually has no added sugar.
The very first thing you’ll want to do is put your potato ricer in the the freezer for at least 10 – 20 minutes. It also helps if you put your serving plates or bowls in the freezer as well. Spaghetti ice cream melts very fast due its thinness.
I use this one here from OXO. It’s worked wonderful for this and, of course, ricing potatoes.
While we’re waiting, lets go ahead and make the insanely simple strawberry sauce. Quarter (or roughly chop) the strawberries.
8 oz of strawberries ended up measuring out to 1 1/2 cups, is that’s more helpful.
Add the strawberries and sugar to the blender and let it sit for a little bit while the sugar draws out some of the juice. Before blending, add the orange juice.
While the orange juice is optional, I really liked the little bit of extra sweetness it provided as I tried it with and without. It also helped mellow out the tartness of the strawberries without adding extra sugar as these store bought berries weren’t that sweet. Ultimately, how much sugar you use will depend on how sweet you like things. It is going over sweet ice cream, so for me it doesn’t really need to be that sweet.
I pulsed my strawberries for about 5 minutes until it was thoroughly blended and most of the seeds had been obliterated. If you really hate seeds, you can strain the sauce through a mesh sieve to get the rest.
It ends up making a cup of sauce. Pour the sauce into a jar and put it in the fridge to chill. You can also make this a day in advance, if you wish, so that it’s already cool when you’re ready to go. Chilling it help (a little) with keeping the ice cream melting too fast.
Grate your white chocolate in whatever manor that works for you and set aside.
As you can see, I tried out both the small-holed grater and my micro zester. With the former it ended up looking more like freshly grated Parmesan flakes and with the latter it ends up looking more like dried Parmesan powder.
When you’re ready to assemble your spaghetti ice cream, pull the plate and potato ricer out of the freezer. Load 2 – 3 scoops, or however much ice cream you want, into the ricer and press it through firmly. Thank you to my husband for modeling this technique for us. He’s an expert now.
Slightly soft ice cream, as opposed to frozen solid, will work a little better for this. However, this can end up being a little messy as ice cream will push its way up the sides of the inside of the potato ricer.
Pour the chilled strawberry sauce over the ice cream noodles.
Sprinkle on your white chocolate shavings and you’re done! A completed spaghetti ice cream ready to be devoured!
As you can see, it melts FAST. This was made on a frozen plate, with a frozen potato ricer and chilled strawberry sauce. The kitchen temperature was only in the mid 70’s.
In hindsight, I should have taken the photos for this post last week when the weather was still in the low 60’s. Actually, today is also in the low 60’s again but you can never quite tell what the weather is going to be like in the Northwest. The perfectionist side of me almost convinced me to go out and get more ice cream to do another photoshoot. As it is, though, I already did two with four completed spaghetti ice creams (3 of which are refrozen in my freezer right now). I went through a whole gallon of ice cream! Did not expect that. It’s why there are 2 different sets of photos here. In trying to get a complete set, I got different pieces of both that were better.
I hope you’ll forgive me for not having a completely matching set of photos but you now get the idea on how to make an awesomeness dish of spaghetti ice cream.
Go treat yourself, and everyone you know, to one as soon as you can. They will love it. Or, if you have kids, surprise them and see what they think!
As always,
und Alles Liebe,
Diony
PS. I’m very thankful to Spunk over at Instructables for posted a “how-to” guide on Spaghetti-Eis. Without it, I never would have realized how simple it is to make this at home.
Spaghetti Ice Cream
Ingredients
- Your favourite vanilla ice cream
- 8 oz of Strawberries quartered
- 1 tablespoon of Sugar
- 2 teaspoons of Orange Juice optional
- White Chocolate shavings
- Whipped Cream optional
Equipment
- Potato Ricer or Spaetzle Press
- Blender
- Grater or Micro Zester
Instructions
-
Place your potato rice and serving dishes into the freezer until well chilled.
-
Quarter strawberries and place into blender with sugar. Let sit for 5 - 10 minutes to draw out extra juices. Add orange juice, if using, and blend well for 5 minutes. Pour sauce into jar and place into fridge to cool. Grate white chocolate and set aside.
-
Assemble by putting 2 - 3 scoops, or however much ice cream is desired, into potato ricer and press firmly, letting the ice cream noodles drop onto serving dish. Top with strawberry sauce and grated white chocolate.
-
Serve immediately and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Shredded coconut or almond pieces can be used as a topping instead of white chocolate.
Any type of vanilla ice cream works for this (lactose free, coconut, soy, etc), but the creamier the better for forming the "noodles".
Adapted from Istructables
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Haha! How fun!
I LOVE Spaghettieis! What a fun post! The Italians who ran our local ice cream shop back in Germany put whipped cream UNDER the ice cream, so it didn’t spoil the look. As you mentioned, it was unsweetened, freshly made whipped cream. Yum! This is typical to how we serve spaghetti in my Italian-American family – with ricotta cheese UNDER the spaghetti, where it can melt a bit and help the sauce turn all creamy. That may be where they got the idea at my childhood ice cream parlor… anyway, if you want to use whipped cream, that’s one authentic way to do it!
Awesome! Thank you for the great information, Concetta! If whipped cream is served under the Spaghettieis in Karlstadt too, I would never have noticed. Once I get to the bottom of my serving, it’s all a melted mess anyway. I’m going to try this the next time I made one!
I’ve always wondered why whipped cream is put under the spaghetti ice cream noodles! That’s makes sense.
Delicious! How I miss it …
Note to self: get a potato ricer, and pronto!
It’s good stuff, isn’t it? You won’t regret the potato ricer! It’s handy.
I LOVE Spaghettieis… and it never even occurred to me I could make it at home. Thank you so much for sharing!! 🙂
You’re very welcome. I didn’t occur to me either until one day I just looked it up. So easy! Hope you’re enjoying lots and lots of homemade Spaghettieis! 🙂
This is a great activity to do with children.
Absolutely!
Thanks, must try this soon!
You’re welcome. Hope you enjoy it!
According to Dario Fontanella, the original way he designed it was indeed, as Concetta pointed out, with whipped cream UNDER the spaghetti, using it to form a base to make the “noodle” portion look larger, since vanilla beans were relatively costly, so he couldn’t use a ton of Vanilleeis without making the dish too expensive. The nice aspect of this is that it effectively freezes the (unsweetened) whipped cream a bit, giving it an unfamiliar and ice-cream like texture, and the less sweet center goes nicely with the super-sweet strawberry coulis. And while I often prefer white chocolate, shaved coconut was the original topping. Then again, almost anything goes anymore as far as Spaghettieis is concerned (my personal favorite is currently “Carbonara,” with hazelnuts and caramel — lecker lecker).
This is great info to know. Thank you for sharing!! I think I’m going to have to adjust my post to include putting the whipped cream underneath because it just overall makes more sense in putting it together. You’ve made me want to try out the “carbonara” version next time I’m in Germany!
Carbonara Spaghettieis?!?! Ooh, that sounds wonderful! I can’t wait to try it! I also have to remember to make a version on April Fool’s Day!
When I lived in Germany I was amazed by all the different types of ice cream sundaes they made, especially Spaghettieis, as well as Lasangeeis and Pizzaeis… I could never work out how to make Spaghettieis at home but I’d never thought of using a potato ricer. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re very welcome, Alex! Hope you enjoy making it at home. Would probably be fun to make Pizzaeis too.
Traditionally whipped cream forms the base of this treat. Then vanilla ice cream spaghetti is put over the whipped cream, to be topped by a strawberry sauce and white chocolate sprinkles. The whipped cream is hidden under the ice cream, never on top. I suppose you can ask for it to be made without the whipped cream, but where is the fun in that? Also, it is “real” whipped cream, unsweetened, and not out of a can. I grew up in Germany and that is my favorite treat when I go back and the reason I own a potato ricer.
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