Sweet Italian

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 eating until it is filled completely. However, if you remember not to save some space, you can miss out on the best part: dessert. No desserts as the Italians do. From simple fruity to savory layered tortes snacks, Italian desserts made for each pallet. 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 the dessert table my grandmother on holiday dinners for as long as I remember. The best part is that it's something I've always been able to help. Stuffed dates were always a task that the kids could do, by simply taking the dates previously sliced ​​and stuffed with a teaspoon full of cream cheese with them and then they tapping each with a nut, we would be happy to know that we had helped. Even if we ate a date or two along the way.

A variation of this dessert, which is popular in Milan takes a little more grown up help. After the dates are stuffed with cream cheese, grown up can dip the date into a mixture of bittersweet chocolate and milk and then let them harden. The product is a delicious blend, almost like candy 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 extra cinnamon and dried cranberries. Another simple that many people forget, or maybe even hate, is the Panettone, otherwise known as fruit cake. A staple on many Christmas tables, the Panettone has become a bad reputation in the United States, perhaps because of its strong flavor of anise. When done right though, a panettone can be truly delightful.

Besides pasta, the most popular Italian dessert is undoubtedly Tiramisu. This alcoholic spongy cake has taken the world by storm with relatively young origins. Nobody seems to know exactly how the Tiramisu was invented, or by WHO. What seems to be agreed is that it was invented sometime in the sixties in the Veneto region of Italy. The ingredients of Tiramisu are basic, but everyone seems to do it a little differently. Mascarpone cream, espresso and zabaglione make the free tastes of this delicious dessert, but it would be impossible to create without the base of the cake savoiardi, also 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 it.