Italian Food &
Drink contents page
Italian
Sweets
(pictured - 'Crostata')
The regional cuisine of Italy is surely a delight to the
senses. With the pasta, seafood,
savory meats and cheeses, and delicious crusty breads,
it is hard to stop yourself from eating until you are
packed full. However, if you do not remember to save a
little room, you may miss out on the best part: dessert.
No one does desserts quite like the Italians. From
simple fruity finger foods to savory layered tortes, the
Italian’s make desserts for every palette. From the
chocolate lover to someone looking for something lighter
and more refreshing, you are sure to find something to
your looking in an Italian bakery.
One of my favorite Italian desserts has been a staple of
my Grandmother’s dessert table at holiday dinners for as
long as I can remember. The best part is that it is
something that I was always able to help with. Stuffed
dates were always a task that the kids could do, by
simply taking the pre-sliced dates and stuffing about a
tea spoon full of cream cheese into them and then
dotting them each with a pecan, we could be happy to
know we had helped. Even if we ate a date or two along
the way.
A variation on this dessert, which is popular in Milan
takes a little bit more grown up help. After the dates
are stuffed with the cream cheese, a grown up can dip
the date into a mixture of bittersweet chocolate and
milk and then let them harden. The product is a
delicious, almost candy-like concoction that appeals to
the sweet and the salty taste buds.
There are desserts that many people take for granted. Rice pudding,
for example, is one of the simplest pleasures for
Italian households. Milk, sugar, rice, and cinnamon are
the staples of this favorite, but it can be substituted
to taste with extra sugar, honey, nutmeg, or raisins. My
personal favorite is with extra cinnamon and dried
cranberries. Another simple that many people forget
about, or perhaps even loathe, is the Panettone,
otherwise known as fruit cake.
A staple on many Christmas tables, the
Panettone has
gotten a bad rep in the United States, perhaps because
of its strong Anise taste. When done right though, a
Panettone can be truly delightful.
Other than the cannoli, the most popular Italian dessert
is undoubtedly Tiramisu. This alcoholic spongy cake has
taken the world by storm with relatively young origins.
No one seems to know exactly how the Tiramisu was
invented, or by who. What does seem to be agreed upon is
that it was invented sometime in the 1960s in the Veneto
region of Italy. The ingredients of Tiramisu are basic,
but everyone seems to do it a little bit different.
Mascarpone, espresso and zabaglione cream make up the
complimentary tastes of this delicious dessert, but it
would be impossible to create without the base of
savoiardi cake, otherwise known as lady fingers. These
spongy biscuits make trouble for pastry servers with
their delicate spongy nature, but like all Italian
desserts are well worth the trouble.
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