Sicily rhymes with ice cream

The World-Famous Dessert, a Refreshing Escape from the Summer Heat, Was Born on the Island

It’s getting hotter, more so every day. And what better way to cool your palate than with ice cream? Sweet, refreshing, and delicate. A whopping 82% of Italians enjoy ice cream frequently, at least once a week. When it comes to choosing the type, more than two-thirds of Italians (68%) prefer artisanal products over industrial ones. A significant choice that clearly expresses a strong preference.

Did you know that ice cream actually originated in Sicily?

Sicily was the first region in Italy where, by the late 17th century, the consumption of frozen creams like sorbet became widespread. It became a staple of the summer menus among Palermo’s aristocracy, turning into a gastronomic tradition, particularly with flavors like lemon and orange.

But the first appearances of frozen drinks or desserts similar to ice cream in Italy occurred, once again, in Sicily, as a result of Arab domination on our peninsula in the 9th century. These populations were known to enjoy cold drinks called sherbet, characterized by the use of distilled fruit juices flavored with lemon, orange, pomegranate, cherry, tamarind, and cherries. The Arabs in Sicily used snow from Mount Etna and the surrounding mountains to freeze these drinks in containers, which were then sweetened with sugarcane imported from Persia. It was in the lands of Sicily that the first ancestor of Italian artisanal ice cream was born.

Pic of JÉSHOOTS da Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/it-it/foto/gelati-assortiti-3631/

Who, then, invented the ice cream we all know today?

According to historical reconstructions by the Italian Ice Cream Institute, the invention of artisanal ice cream is closely tied to our territory and Italian cuisine. To witness its birth, we must look to the Renaissance and the 16th century. In 1565, the first person to claim the invention of the world’s most beloved Italian dessert was using most of the same ingredients found in today’s ice cream in his delicious frozen sorbets:

• Milk
• Cream
• Egg whites
• Snow
• Salt
• Sugar
• Lemon

However, the truly significant and decisive moment in the history of ice cream occurred later, in 1686, when the Sicilian chef Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli created the first perfect mixture for producing and packaging ice cream. Armed with this discovery and a curious machine for making frozen sorbets that his grandfather had given him, the enterprising ice cream maker from Aci Trezza moved to Paris, to the court of the Sun King. There, he opened the historic Café Procope, introducing modern ice cream to all of France and Europe.

Pic of Marcia Salido: https://www.pexels.com/it-it/foto/bola-de-helado-de-cioccolato-14132776/

From that moment on, ice cream spread across the world, and the first ice cream parlors began to appear in Europe and the United States, transforming this refreshing dessert into the iconic summer (and beyond) treat we know today.