National Spumoni Day

National Spumoni Day is celebrated every August 21st.

Spumoni is an Italian ice cream dessert that originated in Naples, Italy. It is traditionally made using different flavors of ice cream containing whipped cream, crushed nuts, and candied fruits, which are formed into a Bombe (a molded, layered ice cream dessert) or as a loaf which can be sliced. The most common 3-flavor combination is: chocolate, which may or may not contain chopped hazelnuts or chocolate shavings, pistachio, which almost always contains chopped pistachios, and cherry, which contains either candied or maraschino cherries. Spumoni ice cream was the precursor to the more commonly known Neapolitan ice cream.

You can make your own homemade Spumoni ice cream dessert using this recipe from BrownEyedBaker, or this more simple recipe (which uses store bought ice cream) from MyRecipes. You can also find Blue Bunny Spumoni Ice Cream at your grocery store.

Spumoni, which comes from the Italian word Spumone (from spuma or "foam") is also the name of an Italian cocktail which contains Campari, grapefruit juice, and tonic water.

Funny Spumoni tidbit ~ in 2008, Hatch Family Chocolates in Salt Lake City, Utah found Jesus' image in a bucket of Spumoni ice cream. Holy Spumoni!


Image: Flickr