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  1. HomeChevron Right
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  3. Our 32 Best Italian Desserts

Our 32 Best Italian Desserts

By Food & Wine
Updated July 30, 2018
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Goat Milk–and–Corn Panna Cotta with Blackberries
Credit: Christopher Testani
From pumpkin-gingersnap tiramisù to creamy rose panna cotta, Italian desserts can give a lovely sweetness to the end of your meal. Here are some of our favorite Italian desserts.
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Goat Milk-and-Corn Panna Cotta with Blackberries

Goat Milk–and–Corn Panna Cotta with Blackberries
Credit: Christopher Testani
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This delicately sweet and tangy panna cotta from Top Chef winner Brooke Williamson is the perfect way to showcase plump summer fruits.

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Strawberry Gelato

Strawberry Gelato
Credit: Victor Protasio
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To guarantee homemade gelato’s luscious consistency and purity of flavor, Jon Snyder suggests thickening gelato with cornstarch rather than eggs.

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Mixed-Nut-Milk Panna Cotta

Mixed-Nut-Milk Panna Cotta
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These delicate custards are a great way to showcase the subtle, nutty flavor of homemade nut milk.

  • Easy Dessert Recipes

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Chocolate-and-Pistachio Biscotti

Chocolate-and-Pistachio Biscotti
Credit: © John Kernick
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Kevin Sbraga varies these wonderful nutty biscotti, sometimes dipping them in melted dark chocolate for an extra layer of flavor.

  • More Chocolate Cookie Recipes

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Sweet Corn Panna Cotta with Fresh Blueberry Compote

Day 28: Sweet Corn Panna Cotta with Fresh Blueberry Compote
Credit: Con Poulos
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Using sweet corn in a creamy, silky panna cotta makes for an unexpected and delicious summer dessert.

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Pumpkin-Gingersnap Tiramisù

Pumpkin-Gingersnap Tiramisu
Credit: © Lucy Schaeffer
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Pumpkin pie meets tiramisù, with layers of pumpkin-mascarpone custard and gingersnaps brushed with Calvados syrup. In the freezer, the flavors and textures meld to form a deliciously creamy dessert.

  • Pumpkin Recipes

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Torrone Semifreddo

Torrone Semifreddo
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Torrone is an Italian nougat made with honey, egg whites, sugar and nuts. It can be soft and chewy or hard and crunchy. The recipe here calls for folding crunchy store-bought nougat into whipped cream and honey, then freezing the mixture. What emerges is an utterly delicious, wonderfully simple ice cream-like dessert.

  • More Semifreddo Recipes

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Zabaglione with Strawberries

Zabaglione with Strawberries
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Here we serve the zabaglione hot when it's just made, but if you want to prepare the dish ahead of time, mix the zabaglione with whipped cream and refrigerate it as described in the first variation below.

  • Dessert Recipe Cooking Guide

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Honey-Sweetened Mascarpone with Berries and Pistachios

Honey-Sweetened Mascarpone with Berries and Pistachios
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Dahlia Narvaez adored the deliciously rich mascarpone cheese she ate in Umbria. "It’s such a great backdrop for all the different honeys made in Italy," she says. She made this dish with delicate Umbrian wildflower honey but says stronger honeys like chestnut would also be terrific.

  • F&W's Cheese Guide

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Cherries Poached in Red Wine with Mascarpone Cream

Cherries Poached in Red Wine with Mascarpone Cream
Credit: Ben Dearnley
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Thick mascarpone cheese mixed with honey makes a luscious topping for poached cherries. You can serve the dessert either warm or cold. We love it both ways.

  • More Ideas For Cooking with Red Wine

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Creamy Rose Panna Cotta

Creamy Rose Panna Cotta
Credit: PHOTO © ANNA WILLIAMS
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Erin Eastland’s supereasy and beautiful dessert isn’t just garnished with rose petals—it’s also accented with rose syrup.

  • More Panna Cotta Recipes

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Almond Cake with Pears and Crème Anglaise

Almond Cake with Pears and Crème Anglaise
Credit: © Simon Watson
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For a simple but elegant dessert, Countess Florence Daniel Marzotto chose to serve a basic sponge cake baked with fragrant almond flour, split in half and filled with a layer of tender pears. Cooked in butter in a covered pan, the pears steam in their own juices, releasing a syrupy sauce all their own.

  • More Beautiful Desserts

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White Peach Tart

White Peach Tart
Credit: © John Kernick
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"This crust is not what you’d expect," Marco Canora says. "Instead of being crunchy, it’s puffy and cakey." The dough is terrific for impromptu baking, because it doesn’t need to be chilled before it’s rolled out. For the filling, Canora recommends using peaches that are ripe but still firm, as drippy fruit will make the soft crust soggy.

  • More Peaches Recipes

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Raspberry Jam Bomboloni

Raspberry Jam Bomboloni
Credit: © Quentin Bacon
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Kate Neumann reports that whenever she offers bomboloni (Italian donut holes) on the dessert menu at MK The Restaurant in Chicago, they inevitably sell out. She sometimes makes them at home, too: "They are easy to prepare in advance and then fry at the last moment," she explains, "and they are also quite easy to dress up." Neumann fills the donut holes with fruit jams or chocolate ganache, then rolls them in sugar and spices like anise and cardamom as soon as they come out of the frying pan.

  • Doughnut Recipes

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Vanilla-and-Cider Panna Cottas with Spiced Ginger Cookies

Vanilla-and-Cider Panna Cottas with Spiced-Ginger Cookies
Credit: © John Kernick
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Shawn McClain tops his cinnamon-and-vanilla-flavored panna cotta with an elegant apple-cider gelée. He equates the dessert to a Creamsicle because it successfully combines creamy and tangy flavors.

  • More Cider Recipes

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Lemon-Honey Semifreddo

Lemon-Honey Semifreddo
Credit: © Hallie Burton
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Inspired by the semifreddos at restaurants like Cut in Beverly Hills, F&W's Grace Parisi creates her own version of this frozen mousse—an easier-to-make alternative to ice cream.

  • Frozen Dessert Recipes

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Italian Trifle with Marsala Syrup

Italian Trifle with Marsala Syrup
Credit: © John Kernick
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In Italy, Fabio Trabocchi makes this dessert with Alchermes, a bright-red cinnamon-scented liqueur rarely seen in the States. The Sicilian fortified wine Marsala is a good substitute: It has a subtler color but a similarly spiced flavor, perfect for drenching squares of soft sponge cake layered with vanilla-infused pastry cream.

  • More Cake Recipes

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Torta Della Nonna

Torta Della Nonna
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"Grandmother’s cake" is a traditional Tuscan dessert, though everyone’s nonna makes it slightly differently. In his version, Joe Sponzo combines a delicate pastry crust with a silky pastry cream, which he flavors with vanilla and lemon zest (other Tuscan cooks add ricotta cheese). He tops the tart with pine nuts, another regional staple.

  • More Italian Food Ideas

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Almond Semifreddo with Caramelized Apples

Almond Semifreddo with Caramelized Apples
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Karen DeMasco, who cowrote The Craft of Baking is known for recipes that are classically elegant yet approachable, like this supercreamy almond semifreddo ("half-frozen") topped with warm caramelized apples.

  • More Easy Desserts

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Fig-and-Raspberry Tart with Chestnut Honey

Fig-and-Raspberry Tart with Chestnut Honey
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A Tuscan classic, chestnut honey or miele di castagno has an unusually potent, savory flavor that gives this fall fruit tart a spicy kick. The bay leaves and rosemary sprigs on top perfume the tart beautifully (they are not meant to be eaten). A man of few superstitions, Peter Pastan always uses 11 bay leaves and 13 rosemary sprigs because odd numbers are lucky.

  • Pies and Tarts

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Vanilla Zabaglione with Raspberries

Vanilla Zabaglione with Raspberries
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The ethereal Italian dessert sauce zabaglione (known in French as sabayon) consists of egg yolks beaten with sugar and the Sicilian fortified dessert wine Marsala. Steeping vanilla seeds in the Marsala adds lovely flavor; folding in whipped cream increases the decadence factor.

  • French Recipes

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Concord Grape Granita

Concord Grape Granita
Credit: © Tina Rupp
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This icy dessert gets its sweet, tangy taste from Concord grape juice, which has three times the antioxidant power of orange and grapefruit juices.

  • Granita Recipes

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Italian Almond Tart

Italian Almond Tart
Credit: © John Kernick
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This rustic dessert is from the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, where it's called sbrisolona. It's crumbly, buttery and nutty; Suzanne Goin thinks of it as a cross between biscotti and shortbread. She recommends dipping chunks of it into the Champagne-spiked sabayon, an airy dessert sauce made with whipped egg yolks.

  • F&W's Guide to Champagne

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Chocolate Panna Cotta with Spiced Pepita Brittle

Chocolate Panna Cotta with Spiced Pepita Brittle. Photo © Con Poulos
Credit: © Con Poulos
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This light, silky panna cotta tastes a lot like hot cocoa in custard form. The brittle is easy to make; heat sugar and water on the stove, swirl in butter and spiced pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), then let cool.

  • More Chocolate Desserts

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Frozen Chocolate-Chip Meringata

Frozen Chocolate-Chip Meringata
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Meringata—Italian for "meringue cake"—is an elegant yet homey frozen dessert of whipped cream sandwiched between meringue rounds. Rolando Beramendi slices the meringata and serves it with a warm chocolate-espresso sauce.

  • More Frozen Desserts

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Cartellata Cookies

HD-fw200701_cartellata.jpg
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The recipe for these crisp, deep-fried spiral sweets comes from Elena D’Orazio, Palma D’Orazio's cousin. In their native Puglia, cartellate are traditionally made at Christmas by bakers and home cooks alike. The cookies are usually drizzled with honey, but for parties D’Orazio simply sprinkles them with lemon zest and cinnamon sugar.

  • More Cookie Recipes

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Cranberry Panna Cotta

Cranberry Panna Cotta
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This elegant, low-fat panna cotta requires only five ingredients: cranberries, sugar, gelatin, water and buttermilk (instead of the usual cream).

  • Easy Recipes with Five Ingredients

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Brutti Ma Buoni

brutti ma buoni
Credit: © John Kernick
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These crunchy-chewy cookies, sold at bakeries all over Lazio, are called brutti ma buoni in Italian, or "ugly but good." The name pretty much says it all. Antico Forno Molinari, in operation in the town of Frascati since the 1800s, makes this delicious and effortless four-ingredient version.

  • F&W's Ultimate Guide to Italian Food, Wine, Travel and Style

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Umbrian Apple-Walnut Roll-Ups

Umbrian Apple-Walnut Roll-Ups
Credit: © Dana Gallagher
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Called la rocciata (roughly meaning "the round dessert" in Italian), this classic Umbrian pastry is similar to a strudel. It’s made from a type of pastafrolla (a rich short pastry), and rolled around a delicious filling of apples and walnuts. For best results, use firm, sweet-tart apples, such as Staymans or Winesaps.

  • More Apple Recipes

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Chocolate Bread Parfaits

Chocolate-Bread Parfaits
Credit: © Antonis Achilleos
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With a hot brewed espresso and a few tablespoons of dark rum supplying a sinful kick, this bread pudding parfait is the perfect dessert.

  • More Bead Pudding Desserts

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Stone-Fruit Panzanella with Zabaglione

Stone-Fruit Panzanella with Zabaglione
Credit: © Cedric Angeles
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A classic Italian panzanella (bread salad) combines juicy tomatoes and bread cubes. Here, Chris Cosentino swaps in stone fruits like apricots and peaches for the tomatoes. Then he pushes the dessert over the top by dolloping the "salad" with an airy zabaglione, a frothy sauce of egg yolks whipped with sweet dessert wine.

  • A Summer Guide to Tomatoes

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Tiramisu Icebox Pie

Tiramisu Icebox Pie
Credit: Eric Wolfinger
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Pastry chef Mathew Rice of Pastaria in Nashville takes the familiar elements of a classic tiramisu—ladyfingers, coffee, and mascarpone—and reimagines them as an icebox pie. The dessert is full of playful textures and flavors, including a dense coffee mousse and salty-sweet coffee crunchies.

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    1 of 32 Goat Milk-and-Corn Panna Cotta with Blackberries
    2 of 32 Strawberry Gelato
    3 of 32 Mixed-Nut-Milk Panna Cotta
    4 of 32 Chocolate-and-Pistachio Biscotti
    5 of 32 Sweet Corn Panna Cotta with Fresh Blueberry Compote
    6 of 32 Pumpkin-Gingersnap Tiramisù
    7 of 32 Torrone Semifreddo
    8 of 32 Zabaglione with Strawberries
    9 of 32 Honey-Sweetened Mascarpone with Berries and Pistachios
    10 of 32 Cherries Poached in Red Wine with Mascarpone Cream
    11 of 32 Creamy Rose Panna Cotta
    12 of 32 Almond Cake with Pears and Crème Anglaise
    13 of 32 White Peach Tart
    14 of 32 Raspberry Jam Bomboloni
    15 of 32 Vanilla-and-Cider Panna Cottas with Spiced Ginger Cookies
    16 of 32 Lemon-Honey Semifreddo
    17 of 32 Italian Trifle with Marsala Syrup
    18 of 32 Torta Della Nonna
    19 of 32 Almond Semifreddo with Caramelized Apples
    20 of 32 Fig-and-Raspberry Tart with Chestnut Honey
    21 of 32 Vanilla Zabaglione with Raspberries
    22 of 32 Concord Grape Granita
    23 of 32 Italian Almond Tart
    24 of 32 Chocolate Panna Cotta with Spiced Pepita Brittle
    25 of 32 Frozen Chocolate-Chip Meringata
    26 of 32 Cartellata Cookies
    27 of 32 Cranberry Panna Cotta
    28 of 32 Brutti Ma Buoni
    29 of 32 Umbrian Apple-Walnut Roll-Ups
    30 of 32 Chocolate Bread Parfaits
    31 of 32 Stone-Fruit Panzanella with Zabaglione
    32 of 32 Tiramisu Icebox Pie

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