Here’s something you may not know: for reasons beyond our understanding, all kinds of unusual and interesting foods have a day of the year dedicated to them. National Corndog Day? It’s May 22nd. Creampuff Day? January 2nd. Even things as specific as crown roast of pork, peanut clusters, and candied orange peels have dedicated days. (March 7th, March 8th, and May 4th, respectively.)
But the one food day that we’re really excited about this summer is National Spumoni Day, on August 21st. Spumoni, or spumone, is a classic Italian dessert made up of layers of ice cream. The original spumoni were made up of nut or fruit-filled ice cream surrounding a sometimes-liquor-soaked sponge cake, but these days the term can be applied to any combination of layered ice creams. To plan our Spumoni Day celebrations, we talked to the test kitchen at Häagen-Dazs to come up with a few different ice cream combinations—some classic and some new and inventive.
The Classic
Most traditional spumoni served today are made up of a combination of cherry, pistachio, and either chocolate or vanilla ice creams. These flavors are popular not only because they incorporate the traditional fruit and nut elements but also because their colors—red, green, and, sometimes, white—reflect those on the Italian flag. Aaron Butterworth, a product developer in the Häagen-Dazs test kitchen, suggested a way we could quickly combine these flavors into a very simple spumoni-style treat.
“Spumoni is a dessert I’ve always loved,” said Butterworth. “I recently took three of our gelatos—the dark chocolate chip, the black cherry amaretto, and our brand-new pistachio gelato—and I softened them up and swirled them together in a frozen mixing bowl, then sprinkled some salted almonds on the top.” To keep them cold, just throw the bowl back into the freezer until you’re ready to serve.
The American
Another popular way to enjoy spumoni is as “Neapolitan” ice cream: a combination of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors. The three flavors of ice cream are lined up next to each other so that eaters get a bit of each flavor in every slice. This cake-like loaf of ice cream is very easy to make. Simply soften a pint of strawberry ice cream, empty it into a 1 lb (8.5”x 4.5”) loaf pan, and smooth it down to create an even layer. Then freeze the pan with the ice cream in it until it has fully hardened. (You’ll want to put a layer of plastic wrap on top of the ice cream to keep it from developing ice crystals.) Repeat the process with a pint of vanilla ice cream and a pint of chocolate ice cream. To serve the Neapolitan, you can dip the loaf pan in hot water to loosen the ice cream and flip the whole block onto a serving plate, or simply slice pieces out of the pan.
The August Cooler
Once we’d tried these traditional flavor combinations, we wanted to branch out and create something unique and inventive, so we asked Chef Cesare Casella, the dean of Italian studies at the International Culinary Center, how we should go about combining flavors. “Creating spumone is like creating any ice cream,” Chef Cassella said. “You put together flavors that you like, and then you slice it. Really you can fantasize about the flavors you would like to try together and change it with the season.”
With this in mind, we thought we’d create a light, summery flavor combination that would be a nice antidote to the hot August weather. Using the method for a Neaopolitan-style cake, above, we combined bright, refreshing raspberry sorbet with creamy lemon gelato and vanilla Swiss almond ice cream. The result was reminiscent of a Häagen-Dazs sorbet and yogurt bar—a combination of bright, refreshing fruit balanced by the rich, creamy textures of the gelato and the ice cream.
The Nightcap
Once we had made this light version of spumoni, we decided that we also wanted a truly decadent spumoni, something grown-up that could be served late at night along with a glass of brandy. Aaron Butterworth suggested that we layer dark chocolate-chocolate chip gelato with dulce de leche and butter pecan ice creams. “With traditional spumoni, there’s a lot going on with the chewiness of the fruit and the crunchiness of the nuts,” she explained. “So in this version you’d have the sticky gooeyness of the caramel swirls in the dulce de leche, the crunch of the pecans, and the smooth, creamy chocolate chunks that are in the dark chocolate gelato.”
Instead of making a loaf out of these flavors, we made another classic spumoni shape: the domed bomba or “bomb” shape. Instead of a loaf pan, we used a 1.5-liter bowl and pressed the ice creams along the sides and bottom of the bowl to make thick, even layers, using two pints of ice cream for the outer layer, one pint for the middle layer, and half a pint for the center.
This last spumoni was, as Butterworth predicted, delicious. But then again, so were all of the others. They were so good, in fact, that we will probably make all four of them to celebrate Spumoni Day. And you should too. But if you overindulge, here’s something to keep in mind: National Bicarbonate of Soda Day doesn’t come around until December 31st.