One Scoop or Two? Trivia Quiz

Answer: coffee

Tiramisu is an Italian dessert made with coffee and mascarpone cheese among other ingredients, with a dusting of cocoa powder. Like many other desserts it has been adapted into an ice cream variant. Other well-known examples of such adaptations to recipes for ice cream are chocolate brownie, cheesecake and lemon meringue ice creams; meringue goes well in ice cream as it keeps its consistency and freezes well. There are so many ice cream flavours available today we sometimes seem to be spoilt for choice!

Answer: gelato

Gelato is the ice cream among these Italian foods. The name gelato comes from the Latin word gelatus, which simply means 'frozen'. The origins of Italian frozen desserts go back to ancient Rome and Sicily, where snow and ice were harvested from the mountains and brought down to be stored in underground chambers to keep foods cold. The same practice was also used in ancient Egyptian, Asian and many other cultures, so frozen desserts are nothing new! Sales of gelato increased the 1920s and '30s with the invention of the gelato cart in the Lombardy city of Varese, which meant it could reach more of the population.

Grissini are Italian bread sticks, gnocchi are small dumplings made from semolina, and garganelli is a type of egg-based pasta, a similar shape to the more familiar penne.

Answer: Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster consists of bananas poached in a sweet buttery sauce, served with vanilla ice cream, and flambéed with rum and banana liqueur. It was invented by chef Paul Blangé in New Orleans in 1951.

Galliano is an Italian liqueur, which can either be drunk on its own or as ingredient in the cocktail Harvey Wallbanger, which consists of Galliano, vodka and orange juice. It is named after the Italian military hero Giuseppe Galliano (1846-1896). The drink called after American golfer Arnold Palmer is made of iced tea and lemonade, and Carpaccio is an appetiser made from raw meat or fish, named as a tribute to the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio.

Answer: O Sole Mio

The 'O Sole Mio' adverts were very successful for Wall's Cornetto, so much that they ran for more than ten years. The original words were changed to suit the product, starting with the words 'Just one Cornetto'. There were various different adverts in the campaign, probably the most well-known featuring a gondolier in Venice, although 'O Sole Mio', as in the other choices above, is actually a traditional song from Naples. Still, with a Cornetto on offer, who's complaining?

Answer: mint and pistachio

Mint and pistachio ice creams are both pale green in colour, so this would be my best choice. The strawberry/coffee and chocolate/raspberry combinations would both be a mixture of brown and pink in varying shades, and blueberry/vanilla would of course be light purple and white.

The pistachio is not a true nut, but what is known as a culinary nut; it is, botanically speaking, a stone fruit or drupe. A lovely soft green colour, the 'nuts' are abundant in the Middle East and other countries where growing conditions can be met, and are a valuable food crop. The main commercial producers in the world are Iran, the USA and Turkey; in the USA they are grown mainly in California. The attractive pistachio colour is also popular in clothing and in the home for decorating schemes, furnishings and accessories, so much so that many paint manufacturers produce paint in shades named 'pistachio green'!

Answer: sponge cake and meringue

The secret of not melting the ice cream inside this delectable dish is to make sure the ice cream is completely covered with the outer meringue layer, which insulates it; not even the tiniest gap can be allowed or it will be ruined. It is then baked in a very hot oven for the shortest possible time to set the outside of the meringue and brown it slightly. Baked Alaska was created in honour of the new Territory, and there is even a Baked Alaska Day, which is celebrated on 1 February in the USA. There are some variations on the original Baked Alaska dish, including a rather striking-looking one called Bombe Alaska, which is served flambéed with rum.

Answer: Kümmel

Bombe Grimaldi has a Kümmel-flavoured filling surrounded by vanilla ice cream. Its origins are uncertain, but it believed to have been named after an ancestor of the ruling Grimaldi family of Monaco.

Kümmel is flavoured with caraway seeds and fennel. Cointreau is orange-flavoured, and Tia Maria is flavoured with coffee beans. Benedictine's flavour is herbal, the exact recipe a closely-guarded secret.

Answer: kulfi

Kulfi (sometimes spelt qulfi) is a spiced dessert similar to ice cream, but with a thicker consistency. It is available in many flavours including mango, lychee, vanilla and rose. Cardamom, which comes from the same botanical family as ginger, is generally used in the milk-based recipe, and it can be garnished with nuts.

Paneer is an Indian cheese similar to cottage cheese. Chana is a dish made from chickpeas, and luchi is a very tasty fried flatbread.

Answer: chocolate

Neapolitan ice cream consists of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice creams, so the colours are brown, pink and white. Traditionally the three ice creams used were pistachio, vanilla and cherry, which represented the Italian flag colours of green, white and red, but nowadays vanilla, chocolate and strawberry are the norm. Pizza Margherita, on the other hand, does represent the Italian colours with its ingredients of tomato, mozzarella and basil.

Answer: Yes

Sorbet is made from fruit juice or pulp, sweetened, with added water, so it is dairy-free. Any fruits can be used, according to your own preference, or a mixture of fruits such as orange and lemon, mixed summer berries etc. It is different from the American iced dessert called sherbet, which does contain milk or cream and can not therefore be classed as non-dairy. Sorbet used to be served as a palate-cleansing course between courses of a large meal, but nowadays it is more often served as a light and refreshing dessert.