Spaghetti ice cream (Spaghettieis)
Vanilla ice cream pushed through a potato ricer looks like spaghetti, strawberry purée like tomato sauce and white chocolate like parmesan. It all comes down to the temperature of the ice cream.
Sundaes and bowls · Hands-on: 15 min · Waiting: no waiting · Total time: 15 min · Servings: 2 · Difficulty: Moderate
Spaghetti ice cream is a German invention: in 1969 in Mannheim, the gelato maker Dario Fontanella pushed vanilla ice cream through a spaetzle press and produced something that looks like a plate of pasta.
At home it is easier than it looks — all you need is a potato ricer with coarse holes. The critical thing is the temperature of the ice cream. Too hard and it will not go through (or you will bend the press); too soft and it comes out as mush. You want the point where the ice cream is still firm but a spoon sinks into it — around −11 to −9 °C, which means 5 to 10 minutes out of the freezer. Chill the ricer and the plates in the freezer first; warm metal melts the first batch before it lands.
Serve immediately: the strands have a large surface area and melt faster than a scoop.
What you need
- 500 g vanilla ice cream
- 250 g strawberries (fresh, or frozen and thawed)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 30 g white chocolate to grate
- 150 ml whipped cream
Method
- Put the potato ricer and two flat plates in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
- Blend the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice into a purée and put it in the fridge. It should be neither icy nor warm.
- Grate the white chocolate on the finest grater into a small heap and keep it in the fridge.
- Spoon a layer of whipped cream onto the chilled plates and spread it into a mound — this is the base that lifts the strands.
- Take the ice cream out and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes. The test: a spoon sinks in with slight resistance.
- Fill the cold ricer halfway and press the ice cream straight onto the cream. Work fast and in batches — return the ricer to the freezer for a moment if it warms up.
- Pour the strawberry purée over the strands like a sauce, scatter the grated white chocolate on top and serve at once.
Serving and storage
Serve on a flat plate with a fork as well as a spoon — the joke is that it looks like dinner. It gets children every time.
Tips
- A press without coarse holes makes strands too thin, and they melt instantly. Use a potato ricer, not a garlic press.
- Without a ricer, a colander with larger holes and a stiff spatula works — the strands will just be shorter.
- Very airy ice cream collapses under pressure. Denser gelato holds its shape better.
- If the first batch melts, do not try to rescue it — put the plate back in the freezer for five minutes and start again with a cold ricer.
- Raspberry purée works instead of strawberry. Dark berries look more like plum sauce than tomato.
Which ice cream works
Shop-bought will do, but homemade makes it a different dessert. These recipes of ours fit:
Amount: 250 g per serving
Egg-free vanilla ice cream (Philadelphia style)
Pure, creamy vanilla with no egg yolks — fresh, milky and ready without cooking a custard.
French vanilla ice cream (with egg yolks)
A French-style classic: vanilla custard made from egg yolks, milk and cream. Smooth, rich and fragrant.
Fior di latte
The purest gelato of all: milk, a little cream and sugar. No eggs, no vanilla — it tastes of fresh, sweet milk.
Crema — egg-yolk gelato with lemon zest
Italian “crema”: egg yolks, milk and a delicate scent of lemon zest. Lighter than French vanilla ice cream, with a pronounced eggy flavour.
No-churn ice cream with whipped cream and condensed milk
Three ingredients, a mixer and a freezer. Whipped cream provides the air, sweetened condensed milk the smoothness.
More desserts
Ice cream sundae with hot chocolate sauce
The classic sundae: vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce and whipped cream. The sauce must be hot and thin — a thick one sets into a hard shell on the ice cream.
Banana split
A split banana and three scoops of three flavours in one dish. It looks like decoration, but it only works if the banana is not overripe.
Related articles
Gelato, soft serve and cream ice cream: what’s the difference
Scooped, soft serve, cream, milk or sorbet — what the names mean in Slovakia and Czechia, and how they differ in production, serving temperature and composition.
Sources
A dessert with ice cream is not an ice cream recipe — we do not compute its mix composition or nutrition.