Find out desserts traditions and history in Italy!
This is your new excuse to try all the desserts you can when you are visisting Italy. Desserts, even more than regional dishes, tell us a lot about the history of Italy. The sweet tooth varies person-to-person, but as a community, it is also shaped by tradition, history, climate and the raw products found in each land. So here’s our dive into the most famous desserts in Italy, from North to South!
“Food is not just food, it’s a story that is told through flavors.”
All about the cream
The North of Italy, the borderland. Despite the high mountains, foreign folks managed to arrive in Italy and leave their marks in language, customs and the cuisine. France and Austria are the closest neighbours. France’s pastisserie is known all over the world and therefore left its print. The use of butter (instead of the classic Italian olive oil) the love for creams and milk-based desserts, eventually brought us the one and only tiramisù. Together with mascapone, zabaione, pannacotta, they define the typical Northern Italian dessert.
Proud wine-lovers
Going south, to the Center of Italy, one may notice one common thread: wine, especially red wine, has its main production here on these hills, and inspired cookies and desserts such as cantucci. This kind of biscuits need to be consumed with sweet wine, by dipping them like cookies in milk in the morning. Another way to use wine in desserts is by using the mosto (the wort of grapes’ skin) by mixing it with chocolate and dry fruits like hazelnuts, to make a tasty compund for pies and similars.
Sweetes contrasts
South of Italy, especially the islands, have crazy stories to tell. Here it’s the Greeks and the Arabs that passed by these shores and left their marks in the architecture, the monuments and the cuisine. Combined with the warm weather these regions experience, desserts are fresh in their heaviness. Not creams, but ricottas, not coffee or chocolate, but fruits and nuts, honey and sugar. So you’ll find the cassata siciliana (in the picture) or the seada in Sardinia.
Start planning your visit to try them all!
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