Italian Tiramisu Recipes: The Most Famous Italian Dessert in the World
Italy is a country rich in culinary tradition. The richness of the agri-food heritage distributed throughout the country’s regions has meant that in every city, in every valley, in every mountain, unique recipes with an unmistakable flavor have developed. The excellent ingredients are at the base of this heritage, the rest is done by the taste and the expert hands of those who have always used them, discovering their potential even in combination with other ingredients.
Together with the infinite heritage of savory recipes based on pasta, bread, pizza, vegetables, meat and fish, especially in some regions, an enormous variety has also developed in the field of pastry. Think of Sicilian pastry, based on almonds, pistachios, ricotta and granita, or Neapolitan pastry with its creams, puff pastry and leavened dough. Moving to northern Italy, in the mountains where cows that produce exceptional milk are raised, the pastry culture has partly hybridized with the French and Central European one. Great leavened products such as Panettone and Pandoro and large cakes for the sideboard, puddings and high-quality milk-based creams were born. A milk derivative, typical of Lodi, near Milan, became in the second half of the twentieth century the protagonist of what in a few years became the king of Italian desserts: we are talking about mascarpone and tiramisu.
Mascarpone and other ingredients for tiramisu recipes
Mascarpone has always been used to prepare desserts, but it was thanks to the creation of tiramisu that its use spread throughout the peninsula. This dessert was created in Veneto, probably near Treviso, no more than 60 years ago, as a breakfast dessert, since it was supposed to “pick up” those who had just woken up in the morning and had to get going for the day’s work. In fact, in addition to mascarpone, it includes all the typical ingredients of the traditional Italian breakfast: coffee, biscuits (ladyfingers), eggs and sugar. The egg and sugar in fact formed the zabaglione (often together with a drop of sweet wine such as Marsala), the typical food of the peasant breakfast. To these ingredients is then added cocoa or chocolate and, in the most used variant, fresh cream. The taste of tiramisu is unmistakable, yet it is very simple to make quickly even at home, without using the oven or pans: no cooking, just a few hours of rest in the refrigerator.
The success of this simple dessert has been overwhelming, so much so that it has quickly spread throughout the world and every person who comes to Italy for tourism or work tries to taste it in all the bars, pastry shops and restaurants they visit. Yet sometimes one might be still surprised to find differences in tiramisu recipes prepared in different places. How many tiramisu recipes are there? Which is the original one? Let’s immediately clarify the fixed points for the tiramisu recipes:
- the original tiramisu recipe only includes the following ingredients: mascarpone, sugar, eggs (yolk and egg white), espresso coffee, biscuits (ladyfingers), cocoa powder and a pinch of salt.
- As you can see, there is no trace of alcohol or particular aromas. Many tourists and foreign guests of the Insideat cooking classes in Rome in which we prepare tiramisu are surprised by the fact that we do not include any type of alcoholic beverage in the recipe. Yet this is the tradition, the alcoholic variant is only the result of changes made outside Italy. In bars, pastry shops and quality Italian restaurants, tiramisu is alcohol-free and for everyone.
- The most popular version is the one that involves the use of fresh cream instead of egg white; this happens mainly for two reasons, namely because cream is much easier and more stable to whip than egg white and its flavor is more suitable for all palates, whereas some might find raw egg white rather cloying.
- Other tiramisu recipes meet the needs of those who do not like or cannot drink coffee; therefore they replace this drink with fruit-based syrups (cherry, strawberry, orange, raspberry) and include a topping made with fresh or syruped fruit and chopped dried fruit, such as hazelnuts and pistachios. In our tiramisu cooking classes in Rome we make many of these ingredients available to our guests, to satisfy every palate … oh and for those with a sweet tooth there is also Nutella.
Here is the recipe for a perfect tiramisu
Ingredients – Servings: 8
- 8 (130 gr) egg yolk
- 750 gr of mascarpone cheese
- Ladyfingers
- 350 ml of whipping cream
- 160 gr of sugar
- Cold espresso coffee
- Salt as required
- Cocoa powder as required
Instructions:
- In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar.
- Add the mascarpone cheese to the egg yolk and sugar cream and beat until smooth and well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture until smooth. Be careful not to deflate the whipped cream.
- Dip each ladyfinger into the espresso coffee quickly (about 2 seconds), making sure not to soak them too much.
- Arrange a layer of dipped ladyfingers on the bottom of a serving dish or individual serving glasses.
- Spread half of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers layer.
- Repeat the process with another layer of dipped ladyfingers and the remaining mascarpone mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate the tiramisu for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight, to allow the flavors to meld and the dessert to set.
- Before serving, dust the top with unsweetened cocoa powder using a fine sieve.
Watch the tiramisu video recipe prepared by our chef on our YouTube Channel
Tiramisu class in Rome to make it according to the rules of art
Thousands of people from all over the world turn to us at Insideat because they are looking for the perfect tiramisu class in Rome. Every day we hold cooking classes at our locations in which our guests, Italians and foreigners, prepare with their own hands the tiramisu that they will eat shortly thereafter, made to perfection with quality ingredients and under the supervision of our Chefs.
The preparation of the tiramisu will be for them the conclusion of a gastronomic journey of about 3 hours that will see them also prepare fresh egg pasta made by hand, according to recipes handed down by generations of Italian grandmothers. Together they will prepare fettuccine and stuffed ravioli closed by hand. The pasta will then be served with the great sauces of the Italian tradition, such as carbonara, fresh pesto, fresh tomato sauce with basil and cacio e pepe sauce.
If you have less time available, you can book a shorter experience in which you can prepare and taste only fettuccine and tiramisu in less than two hours.
If you also want to spend a few hours discovering real tiramisu and authentic Italian cuisine, you can book your tiramisu class in Rome directly here on the Insideat website.
