The Italian treat known as tartufo—small, hand-shaped balls of ice cream dotted with flavorful candies, nuts, or fruit, and dipped in melted chocolate or cocoa powder—uncannily resemble the small, knobby, earth-buried fungus of which they’re named after. In truth, it’s one of the easiest—and most fun—ways to elevate and customize any store-bought ice cream. Vanilla and chocolate is a classic, timeless combination, but choose any of your favorite varieties for the ultimate experience. The possibilities are limitless!

Ingredients

• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• 1 pint chocolate ice cream
• 12 candied cherries, plus more for garnishing
• 2 tablespoons candied citrus, like grapefruit or lemon
• ¼ cup pistachio paste (or similar, like Nutella)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• Flaky sea salt, to finish

Directions

1. Coarsely chop the candied citrus peel. Slice the candied cherries in half.
2. Cut 12 small pieces of plastic wrap, about 4” wide. Line each cup of the All-Clad Pro Release Muffin Pan with a piece of the plastic wrap.
3. Let the ice cream stand about 10 minutes at room temperature to slightly soften. Spoon about three tablespoons of the vanilla ice cream into the bottom of each plastic wrap-lined muffin cup. Scatter the chopped candied fruit on top, pressing it into the ice cream to stick. Drop a spoonful of pistachio paste into the center.
4. Top with about three tablespoons of chocolate ice cream.
5. Transfer to the freezer and let rest until the ice cream is rock solid, about 2 to 3 hours.
6. Sift the cocoa powder into a wide, shallow mixing bowl. Pull the muffin tin from the freezer and pop out the plastic wrap-covered frozen ice cream pucks. One by one, use your hands to gently shape each puck into a lumpy ball. Carefully peel back the plastic wrap and discard.
7. Drop the ice cream into the bowl of cocoa powder and use a spoon to rock it back and forth, completely coating it in cocoa powder. Serve immediately, or transfer the tartufo back into the muffin tin to keep in the freezer.
8. Top each tartufo with a small pinch of flaky sea salt and serve with more candied cherries, if desired.

Pro Tip

Further customize the cocoa powder coating, if you like — try adding a teaspoon of instant coffee to the mix, or half a teaspoon of vanilla powder, or replace a third of the cocoa powder with powdered sugar. Have fun with the tartufo inclusions, too — soften a pint of ice cream, then stir in half cup of fruit preserves, like apricot or orange marmalade; finely chop candied peanuts or sesame brittle, and stir that in too. This would also be lovely for refreshing, dairy-free sorbets, too — try coconut sorbet or a sheeps' milk yogurt.

RECIPE BY

Chef Natasha Pickowicz

Natasha Pickowicz is a New York City–based chef and writer. She is a three-time James Beard Foundation Award finalist. Much of her pastry work explores the relationship between baking and social justice, including ongoing collaborations with seminal New York City institutions like Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, God’s Love We Deliver, the Brigid Alliance, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, for whom she produced a massive city-wide bake sale, raising more than $150,000 between 2017 and 2019. Currently, Pickowicz runs the pastry pop-up called Never Ending Taste, which has been held at NYC’s Superiority Burger, Brooklyn’s the Four Horsemen, the American-Vietnamese bakery Ba. n B., the Taiwanese tearoom T. Company, Los Angeles’s Kismet, and the legendary Chino Farm in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Pickowicz’s recipes and writing have been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bon App.tit, Saveur, Food & Wine, New York magazine, Cherry Bombe, and many other publications. Follow her on Instagram at @natashapickowicz.