In the early 20th century, many ambitious young men and women from the villages of central Italy set sail for a better life abroad. The Adriatic coastline and Apennine mountain valleys of their birthplace were ripe with breathtaking scenery, but employment prospects were thin on the ground. Many of those who left went on to thrive where they ended up, bringing with them their love of fine food, wine and music. Perhaps the most famous scion of these intrepid adventurers was Dean Martin, the great Italian-American singer and actor, who brought his laidback charm into American households via albums, movies and a long-running TV show. Dubbed ‘the King of Cool’, he was christened Dino Crocetti — his father, Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti, was a barber from Montesilvano, Pescara —and Dino would find fame with Italian-tinged tunes such as Volare, Buona Sera and Luna Mezzo Mare. At around the same time that the Crocettis were settling in L’America, another Italian clan — the Morellis from the province of Frosinone, southeast of Rome — were also seeking a place to call their own, with songs of the old country ringing in their ears. The Morellis grew olives on smallholdings but the meagre profits couldn’t sustain Barbato Morelli and his eight brothers, Giacomo, Vincenzo, Annunziato, Antonio, Giuseppe, Constantino, Domenico and Pietro (or Peter, as he would later be known). Pietro Morelli made the trek from the small village of Casalattico to bustling Paris at the beginning of the 1900s. After a short career as a glass-blower, he arrived in Northern Ireland where his brother Giuseppe (Joe) had set up in business. Pietro realised that something from home might be the key to making a living in this new land... and that something was gelato (ice cream) and la gelateria (the ice cream parlour).

SWEET SWEET MEMORIES

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The full scoop Above: the family’s shop on Stone Row in Coleraine; Below: Nino Morelli, Angelo’s eldest son, in the kiosk outside their Portrush shop in the 1950s

Savour the heartwarming delights of this family-run Irish dessert business, sprinkled with love and tradition

Discover the Simply Better range

Little nougats of genius

When Westport-born restaurateur Paul Cadden needed to assemble a kitchen team for his Saba restaurant, he embarked on a quest akin to that of gunfighter Yul Brenner’s mission to corral his cowboy crew in The Magnificent Seven. Instead of traversing dusty Wild West towns, however, Paul hit the bustling streets of the Thai capital, eventually finding his crack team of seven culinary virtuosos in a waterfront restaurant on the Chao Phraya River in downtown Bangkok. With their skills and authentic knowledge of Thai cuisine, the best possible foundation was laid for Saba's magnificent culinary mission. The Chao Phraya River is an apt setting for someone whose own food journey began on the waterfront, albeit along the chillier, greyer coast of an Atlantic inlet in the West of Ireland. Paul is the eldest of three boys, whose parents were hoteliers. “My dad was the general manager of the Breaffy House Hotel in Castlebar, then they went on to buy the Asgard in Westport. They were there for more than 25 years, so we grew up in the business,” he says. Having been instilled with a passion for hospitality, Paul took the Shannon College of Hotel Management course, which included a year in the exclusive, five-star Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken, Switzerland, one of the world’s great hotels, built in 1865 and still going strong today. From there, he moved to the UK and continued learning his trade. “In London I worked in Italian restaurants, I worked in French restaurants, I worked a day job in accounts and would moonlight as a chef in various kitchens,” Paul recalls. The day job in question came about thanks to the accountancy qualification he picked up while working for the Trusthouse Forte Group in the 1990s. His eminently sensible father had encouraged him to secure an accountancy qualification and given the volatility of the restaurant world, it was sound advice. “I trained as a chef all the way up and kept my hand in it. I absolutely love the kitchen but I think, when you are front of house, general manager or owner you’re a jack of all trades. I love marketing. I love the business side of it. I'm obviously an accountant too, and that's great when you're going to the bank with a business plan.” Following time spent in consultancy roles with various hotels and a three-month secondment with Diep le Shaker (which turned into a five-year stint), illness intervened, forcing Paul to take a year out. Once recovered and refreshed, he was soon on the lookout for a new challenge in a new location.

Thailand is an exotic, scenic country that Irish people love, and one of the things that draws people to that beautiful destination is its food. Often, people who dine at Saba are recreating a memory of an incredible Thai holiday through their taste buds. Now, thanks to a brilliant new collaboration with Dunnes Stores, they can do so in the comfort of their own homes. Saba’s carefully curated range of curry pastes, wok sauces, simmer sauces and more are about to hit the shelves of Dunnes Stores.

Delectable imaginings

The Morelli ice cream, now available as part of the Simply Better range, came about after meetings between the Morellis and the Donegal chef, food consultant and gourmand Brian McDermott. There were numerous tastings and discussions to whittle down the range from 12 potentials to the five flavours now on the shelves. All of the emphasis is on texture and flavour. “We’re very passionate about our Morelli-branded ice cream. So when Dunnes first came to see us, we weren’t sure if we could get as passionate about another label as we do about our own. But, I think the Simply Better range is a different sort of animal in that it’s jointly branded. They like to publicise the producer and when we knew that our name would be on the packaging, I think that allowed us to get more enthused about it”. The key is in the use of the finest ingredients available. Double cream and butter from the local creamery formed the basis for the various ice creams, and when it came to formulating the products, they were encouraged to explore the Simply Better stable of producers. “We liked the idea that they wanted us to use existing Simply Better products in the ice cream to complement it. In two of the flavours we use Wexford strawberries and mixed berries, and we use What’s for Pudding’s butterscotch sauce. All these ingredients combine to make up a range that includes the luxuriant Strawberries & Cream, Butterscotch, Caramelised Hazelnut, Madagascan Vanilla and Mixed Irish Berry flavours. Each unique variety is perfect enjoyed on its own, scooped over a piping hot apple pie, fresh fruit or wedged between two old-fashioned wafers. Within a year of launching the Butterscotch and Caramelised Hazelnut varieties, Morelli picked up two gold Irish Quality Food Awards and two Great Taste Awards. They are always formulating and testing new products and later this year, they plan to introduce two additional flavours to the range: Triple Chocolate and Jamaican Rum & Raisin. “One of the flavours — the caramelised hazelnut — is our own recipe and one of our most successful. We won a Golden Fork in the Great Taste Awards for it. It’s quite a luxury flavour, so we didn’t sell it in a retail pot but we said to Dunnes that we’d be willing to introduce it as a Simply Better product. And they were delighted because it won a Golden Fork and three stars.” In a sign that quality sells, Caramelised Hazelnut has gone on to become the most successful flavour in the range (and, as he will freely admit, Arnaldo’s personal favourite).

Cream of the Crop

Madagascan vanilla bean An indulgent ice cream made with double cream and Madagascan vanilla

In the cooking process, everything is done to replicate the style of pizza you’ll find in a downtown Neapolitan osteria or a rural roadside restaurant. The oven, for example, has to be Sorrentino-style, and there are rules that govern the type of stone that can be used and under what conditions the pizza must be cooked. “The cooking and baking has to be very fast; between 60 and 90 seconds at a temperature of 520 degrees,” Mauro says, pointing to the oven that was handmade by a local blacksmith. The intense heat, airy dough and delicious premium toppings make for a filling, and yet light, repast. “I always say to my customer that you can have three or four Mauro’s pizzas – Simply Better pizzas – at ten o’clock in the night and then you can sleep like an angel. That is just because of the quality of the raw materials and, especially, the fermentation of our pizza. It’s unique – believe me,” Mauro says. The dough is hand-stretched by a master pizzaiolo, ensuring that there is enough aeration in the base. This results in the crunchy light crust and the familiar air bubbles that characterise the true Neapolitan style. After this, the passata tomato sauce from pulped San Marzano tomatoes is ladled onto the awaiting pizza bases. No other tomatoes will do. “San Marzano is famous for wine but also a style of tomato; the long one, not the round, sweet one. San Marzano is very acidic. It is orange. If you see our pizzas, you will see that it is different because the tomato is more orange than red.” This sun-ripened, acidic note from the tomatoes contrasts perfectly with the sweet creamy elasticity of the warm Fior di Latte mozzarella, the pesto, fresh basil and other ingredients to create the unique taste experience.

In a stone groove

Churning Love

Parlour Games

1950s and 1960s, ice cream parlours came into their own. Angelo had taken control of the shop in Stone Row, Coleraine and also opened a new shop in Portrush, originally called Shamrock Corner and later renamed The Savoy. These were chrome-filled palaces where teens could hang out on long idyllic summer days and flirt over knickerbocker glories and ice cream sundaes. “The shop in Portstewart goes back to the 1930s and it’s a real landmark. There’s a great tradition here, especially on a Sunday, where people go for a drive and they stop in for ice cream.” The move into mass production was a natural process. “Each part of the business operates individually,” Arnaldo says. “I run the ice cream factory where all the ice cream is made. Then we supply our own shops with our ice cream. So, there are two branches of the family who own ice cream parlours, my side and my uncle’s family.”

Mixed irish berry An indulgent ice cream made with double cream, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants

Caramelised hazelnut An indulgent ice cream made with double cream and caramelised hazelnuts

strawberries & cream An indulgent ice cream made with double cream and strawberries

butterscotch An indulgent ice cream made with double cream and butterscotch sauce

And so the Morellis began making ice cream. “It was very different then,” says Arnaldo Morelli, Managing Director of the company today, and a fifth-generation descendant. “It was all made by hand; they had hand-cranked freezers and they would get ice delivered by train to the local station. They used to tell the story of going to the station and picking up the ice off the train from Belfast. The freezer was like a barrel, basically. You put ice and salt in the chamber between the two bits of wood. You churned the mixture by hand and made the ice cream that way. So, it was very laborious.” Today the Morelli family — Marino, Romeo, Tania, Arnaldo and Daniela — continue to use recipes handed down through the generations. In the early days, however, there was a more limited range of flavours to choose from compared with the variety on offer today. “There was only one flavour, basically. And I don’t think it was even vanilla — it was just flavoured with the milk and cream they used to buy off the local farmers.”

The links between the Irish branch of the Morelli clan and those in the old country are as solid as ever. The Morellis regularly return to their roots, according to Arnaldo, and often bring back a little taste of Ireland. “In Casalattico, our village in Italy, they have an Irish festival every year because there’s so many Irish people from that area. The local council — il comune — hold it in August every year, a traditional month for holidays in Italy, and we’re sending over our ice cream this year, so there will be Morelli ice cream in Casalattico for those going to the festival.” Irish people too can enjoy Italian style ice cream at home, with a range that has proved to be a big hit, like one of Dean Martin’s singles. Dino famously sang that ‘Everybody Loves Somebody (Sometime)’ but, fortunately for the Morellis, most of us love ice cream all the time. And now, you can indulge in a tub of silky smooth premium ice cream from the Simply Better Range at your local Dunnes Stores.

Ritorna A Me (Return to me)

All in the family Daniela, one of the Morelli clan who still run the business today

Madagascan vanilla bean An indulgent ice cream made with double cream and Madagascan vanilla

Anyone for pizza?