tiramisù is a dessert made of coffee-soaked ladyfinger cookies (savoiardi) with mascarpone cheese, cocoa powder, eggs, liqueur, and sugar. Its name, tiramisù (tira mi sù), means “pick-me-up,” perhaps a reference to the effect of the caffeine in the espresso and cocoa powder used in the recipe. The dessert is made in nearly a hundred variations, and although it is a kind of zuppa inglese, an old dish related to the trifle, in its present form tiramisù is a relatively recent invention—the first written mention by name in any language dates only to the 1980s. See zuppa inglese.
