Italian desserts

Italian dessert is regional to the point of mutual incomprehensibility. Sicilian sweets (cassata, cannoli, granita, ricotta-stuffed everything) bear the strong mark of Arab and Norman influence. Tuscan sweets (cantucci, panforte, ricciarelli) hew closer to dry, nut-rich biscuits. Lombard sweets (panettone, sbrisolona) lean butter-rich and northern. Roman sweets (maritozzo, pangiallo) are their own canon again.

The shared instinct is restraint: most Italian desserts are less sweet than their American or Middle Eastern counterparts, and many are designed to be eaten with strong coffee or sweet wine. The pantry runs on almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, ricotta, mascarpone, chocolate, candied fruit, and a great deal of eggs (zabaione is, in essence, sweet wine and yolk).

Gelato is its own deep tradition — denser and less aerated than American ice cream, with intense single-flavour scoops of pistachio from Bronte, hazelnut from Piedmont, fior di latte, or stracciatella.