Tiramisù

Savoiardi biscuits dipped in strong coffee, alternated with a cream of mascarpone, egg yolks and sugar, chilled for several hours and finished with a dusting of cocoa: tiramisù is assembled, never baked, and it comes from north-eastern Italy. The name means pick me up, a nod to the coffee and sugar. It is young by Italian standards. Treviso, in the Veneto, has the strongest documented claim, with the restaurant Le Beccherie serving it from the early 1970s and the first printed recipe appearing in 1981, though Friuli Venezia Giulia argues for earlier versions under other names. Both regions agree on the structure, which is what matters to anyone eating one: coffee-soaked biscuit, mascarpone cream, cocoa, nothing else. Alcohol, cream and chocolate shavings are later additions.