11 June 2015, The Tablet

Letter from Rome

by Michael Canaris

 
No sweltering summer day in Rome is complete without a guilt-ridden stop at a gelateria. And while coconut, pistachio or anything related to Nutella are reliably delicious options, one of my go-to flavours (you always order two dollops) is zabaglione, the frozen version of the classic Marsala wine and eggnog-style dessert.And does Catholic history wind its way even into the ice cream here? But of course. One legend has it that zabaglione traces its name and history back to Saint Paschal Baylon. In the Piedmontese dialect – which the Bergoglio family spoke at home as immigrants to Argentina – he’s known as San-Bajon, which eventually morphed into Zan-bajione. Baylon was a Franciscan friar who supposedly came up with the concoction in the 1500s to revive strength and &ldqu
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