Italian restaurants around the world are popular for their mouth-watering pizza and tasty pasta dishes. When it comes time for dessert, tiramisu is at the top of the list. It is believed that this sweet cake-style treat was first created by a head chef in the town of Treviso, Italy in 1969. The word tiramisu translates into pick me up in English. This is probably because of its high-energy main ingredients, coffee and cacao. Its other ingredients include mascarpone cheese, Marsala wine, and ladyfinger cookies that are soaked in espresso.
Important for its place in modern-day festivals and culture, tiramisu is also associatedwith tales of love, devotion, and even royalty. One such story involves an Italian soldier heading off to war. Before his departure, his wife used all the remaining ingredients she had to make a dessert for him to take and named it tiramisu. When the soldier finally tasted the creamy dessert, he thought of his beloved wife. No matter the origins, tiramisu has come to define Italians almost as much as pizza and pasta.
