Italian gelato comes in a huge variety of flavors, and one of the most classic is stracciatella, a milk-based gelato with shavings of dark chocolate. However, stracciatella isn't just an ice cream flavor; the word means "little rags" in Italian, and also refers to two other foods that involve small pieces of ingredients suspended in a larger base.

In the Italian region of Puglia, "stracciatella" refers to the center of burrata, a ball-shaped cheese with a thin, fresh mozzarella-like "skin" on the outside and a gooey, creamy center with more small shreds of fresh cheese mixed in. Instead of small bits or "little rags" of chocolate, this kind of stracciatella contains "little rags" of cheese.

Meanwhile, stracciatella soup hails from Rome; it's a type of egg drop soup made by whisking eggs and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese into meat stock, creating delicate bits of eggs suspended in broth. These three foods seem very different, but they're united by a common name and theme, and are all delicious and worth seeking out.