Spumoni is a delicious dessert made from three flavors of ice cream stuffed into a cup, and cut in four when frozen. The ice-cream colors reflect the colors of the Italian flag—red, white, and green—and spumoni has long been a big item on the menus of Italian American restaurants. Spumoni has its origins in a Neapolitan dessert, and supposedly came to America in 1905 with Salvatore Lezza. Lezza’s spumoni can still be had on Chicago’s Upper West Side. I filled many a cup with my own homemade ice cream in my early restaurant days, in the seventies, but spumoni is still delicious when made with good store-bought ice cream as well. Here rum gives the spumoni an extra layer of flavor, but the juice of the sour cherries is a great alternative.

　　

Ingredients

serves 8 or more

　　1 pint pistachio ice cream

　　1 pint vanilla ice cream

　　1 pint strawberry ice cream

　　8 sheets chocolate graham crackers

　　1/4 cup rum (or juice from sour cherries; see below)

　　1/4 cup finely chopped unsalted pistachios

　　One 15-ounce can pitted sour cherries, drained, juice reserved if desired (see above), cherries roughly chopped

　　

Step 1

Remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 to 15 minutes before beginning, to let it soften. Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, letting about 3 or 4 inches hang over each edge.

　　

Step 2

Put the graham crackers in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to make fine crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a medium bowl, drizzle with the rum or cherry juice, and add the pistachios. Toss to combine and moisten the crumbs with the rum or juice.

　　

Step 3

Sprinkle about a third of the crumbs in an even layer in the bottom of the loaf pan. Spread the pistachio ice cream on top in a flat, even layer. Sprinkle with half of the chopped drained cherries, then layer on another third of the crumbs. Spread the vanilla ice cream on top of the crumbs in a flat, even layer. Sprinkle with the remaining crumbs, then the remaining cherries. Spread the strawberry ice cream on top in a flat, even layer. Cover the top of the ice cream with the overhanging plastic wrap, and freeze overnight, or until firm throughout.

　　

Step 4

To serve: Let the spumoni sit out of the freezer for about 5 minutes. Unwrap, and cut into slices with a serrated knife dipped in hot water.

　　Reprinted with permission from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Copyright © 2011 by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.