Tiramisù

No comprehensive Italian cookbook would be complete without a recipe for tiramisù, even though this dessert was born relatively recently, around the mid-twentieth century in Venice. There are innumerable interpretations but two elements are always present. The first is mascarpone, a creamy, sweet, almost buttery cheese now available in most gourmet specialty shops and many grocery stores. The second is coffee; after all in Italian, tirami sù means “pick me up.” The flavor of Italian