Spaghettieis - Ice Cream Spaghetti

This instructable will show you how to make Spaghettieis - a cheerful preparation method to serve vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce.

I was wondering why there wasn't already an instructable about Spaghettieis - since this is a food hack right in the spirit of instructables. So I checked wikipedia and was pretty surprised to find out it is a typical German thing.
It was invented 1969 by the son of an Italian immigrant and owner of a gelateria in southern Germany. The inventors name is Dario Fontanella and he once had the brilliant idea to squeeze vanilla ice cream through a "Spätzlepresse" so it transforms into vermicular shapes.
(A Spätzlepresse is a kitchen device which is normally used to prepare the southern-German specialty "Spätzle", it is similar to a potato ricer.)

Dario Fontanella didn't patent his invention so it started to spread all over Germany. Spaghettieis is a real ice cream parlor staple you can get it in every gelateria here - you can even buy it as frozen convenient food at the supermarket. And of course Spaghettieis is especially popular with children : )

I love the story of the origin of Spaghettieis. It is a brilliant example of "fusion cuisine" - invented before this even was a term...

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

You need:

- for the "spaghetti": vanilla ice cream - about 2 to 3 scoops per serving.

- for the "tomato sauce": strawberries and sugar or strawberry dessert sauce - I used 150g / a heaping cup of strawberries and 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (enough for about 4 servings) - or you use store bought strawberry sauce

- for the "parmesan": grated almonds / shredded coconut / grated white chocolate - half a teaspoon per serving

- the original recipe calls for whipped cream, which I didn't use - but highly recommend. About two scoops per serving.

carlos66ba had the brilliant idea to add some blueberries for mimicry meatballs. So if you want to make spaghetti with meatballs add blueberries to the "tomatoe sauce"!

And sabeena suggested another rather decadent meatball idea: top with unwrapped Ferrero Rocher : )

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spätzle press or potato ricer (with circular holes)

If you make the strawberry sauce yourself you need: something to blend them and a sieve to separate the seeds.

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No pasta machine required ; )

Step 2: Preparation and Tomatosauce Part 1

The ricer should be cold for spaghetti production - so place it right beside your ice cream in the freezer.

I recommend to put the plates/bowls you'll use for serving as well into the freezer. The cooler they are the longer the spaghetti will stay in shape.

If you use store bought strawberry sauce, just place it in the fridge (and wait for at least half an hour to let the tools and ingredients cool) then continue with step 4.

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If you make the strawberry sauce yourself: Cut them in small chunks, place them in a mixing bowl, add the sugar and stir well. Now wait for about ten minutes until the strawberries release some juice.

While waiting for the juices to release it's a good time to prepare the whipped cream. I couldn't find lactose free cream so I skipped this ingredient. As a consequence you won't see whipped cream in this ible. But you can follow this or this instructable to learn how to make it. I recommend to add rather less / no sugar to your whipped cream. Unsweetened whipped cream is a nice counterpart to the sweet ice cream...

When the cream is whipped let it chill in the fridge.

Step 3: Tomatosauce Part 2

When the strawberries are nice and soggy blend them with your blender device.

Put the sauce through a fine sieve to separate the seeds - if it clogs up use a spoon an stir around.

Store the strawberry sauce in the fridge until the ice is prepared. (I really recommend chilling the sauce. When I made the ible I was impatient and very keen on eating spaghettieis and didn't wait - the room temperature strawberry sauce made the spaghetti melt pretty quickly...)

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Clean the blender bowl by swiveling out with a splash of milk - mmh! a gratis sip of strawberry milkshake : )

Step 4: Pasta Production

You can't really transfer the finished spaghetti so you have to press the ice cream directly into the bowl/plate in which you'll serve them. So take your frozen plates out of the freezer.

If you use whipped cream add it to your bowl/plate first. Just scoop one or two tablespoons in the center of your plate, it will be covered by spaghettis anyway.

Take your ricer / press out of the freezer and fill it with about three scoops of ice cream.

Press the ice cream through the press / ricer. (You might use a kitchen towel or a pot holder to touch the ricer, its quite cold...)

I had to push pretty hard to get the ice cream through the tiny holes of my spätzle press. If you own a ricer with interchangeable plates, choose a plate with rather big holes.

Step 5: Serving

Scoop some strawberry sauce on top of your mimicry Pasta and drizzle with fake Parmesan (grated coconut/almonds/white chocolate) and serve.

If you serve this dessert to people who are not familiar with it you might get interesting reactions - Dario Fontanella, the inventor of this recipe, told in an interview: In the beginning, when spaghettieis was still a new thing, children sometimes started to cry when he brought them spaghettieis - Since they ordered a sundae they where rather disappointed about getting served a pasta dish... : )

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So make yourself some Spaghettieis and have fun with this (against all odds typical German) ice cream!