Stracciatella refers to three different Italian foods, all involving "little shreds," which is what the word stracciatella literally means in Italian:

1. Stracciatella Gelato: A popular Italian gelato flavor made by drizzling melted chocolate into milk or vanilla ice cream during churning. The chocolate solidifies and breaks into fine shards or shreds mixed throughout the gelato. It was invented in 1961 in Bergamo, northern Italy, inspired by stracciatella soup.
2. Stracciatella Soup: Also known as stracciatella alla romana, this is a traditional Roman egg-drop soup where beaten eggs mixed with grated cheese are drizzled into hot broth, forming shreds of cooked egg.
3. Stracciatella Cheese: A rich, creamy Italian cheese made from shredded fresh mozzarella curds mixed with fresh cream. It is the creamy filling inside burrata cheese and originates from the Apulia region of southern Italy. The cheese has a stringy, luscious texture with fine shreds of mozzarella.

So, stracciatella can mean a gelato flavor, a soup, or a cheese, all named for the shredded texture characteristic to each food.