Pizzo Truffle

The Pizzo truffle is a typical Calabrian pastry product. It is a hazelnut ice cream that is molded, strictly in the palm of the hand, into the shape of a hemisphere with a heart of melted dark chocolate and covered with a sprinkling of bitter cocoa powder and sugar. It was invented in the 1950s. Back in 1940, master pastry chef Dante Veronelli from Messina took over the Gran Bar Excelsior from the Napitino Jannarelli in the center of Pizzo, which later changed its name to Gelateria Dante in honor of its first owner.To continue the entrepreneurial activity, he enlisted the collaboration of a young pastry chef of good hopes also from Messina, Giuseppe De Maria, known as "Don Pippo." The two, thanks to the production genius of the latter and the entrepreneurial genius of the former, succeed in a short time in attracting attention for the great quality and taste of their products. The genius of the two artisans was expressed within the production workshop at the end of World War II. Following Veronelli's death, De Maria remained the sole owner of the business. The truffle, in its present form was born in Pizzo (in about 1952) by pure chance, the creator of this innovation being precisely "Don Pippo" who, on the occasion of a patrician wedding, having run out of molds and shapes to make bulk ice cream to supply the many wedding guests, superimposed in the hollow of his hand a portion of hazelnut ice cream on a layer of chocolate ice cream, then inserted melted chocolate inside and wrapped the whole thing in a sheet of food-grade sugar paper giving it the typical shape of a truffle, the whole thing was put to cool. The success achieved earned him immediate notoriety. The original recipe is still jealously guarded by master "De Maria's" grandchildren. In 1950, Giorgio Di Iorgi, who had begun his working career inside the ice cream shop as a waiter, began to learn the art of making ice cream; ten years later, following the retirement of master De Maria, he took over the business.

From this time on, the business is family-run, handing down from father to son the secret recipe for making ice cream products.