Italian Dessert Recipes


Liguria is famous for its lemons, and I made this lovely light version of tiramisù for my friends Lise and Bartolo, who own a vineyard in the hills near the Cinque Terre town of Vernazza. I used lemons harvested from their back garden and their homemade limoncello, which was superb. This dessert really tastes of Terre town of Vernazza.

Fresh fruit pavlova is ultimately versatile. You can use seasonal fruits and be as creative as you like. I have added hazelnuts to this meringue to give it more texture, but, of course, if you are allergic to nuts, or prefer a traditional pavlova, just eliminate them. Be really gentle when putting the cream on top, but don’t panic if it all breaks, you can just make an Eton Mess instead!

Sorbets have to be one of the easiest recipes to make. You take your chosen fruit – I have used mango in this recipe, but pineapple and mixed berries are also great – blitz in a food processor with the other ingredients and freeze. All done in five minutes. It is a fantastic dessert if you are trying to be healthy, and no one will even notice. It has a really refreshing flavour, which is great...

Close your eyes and this cake will transport you to Sorrento, where the famous lemons feature in anything and everything. I first tried this as a young boy with my mother; we had visited Pompeii (definitely a must-see if you can), then travelled on to Sorrento for some lunch. We passed an amazing bakery and she bought this cake to bring home for my dad, sister, nonna and nonno. It’s the best memory...

This is my Italian version of bread and butter pudding, served with chargrilled fruits and sweetened ricotta cheese. In Italy the ricotta is very creamy and rich, and I just added honey to sweeten it, but in Britain you might like to add a few drops of vanilla extract to give depth of flavour.

When I was a child I always gravitated towards mint choc chip. Now when I taste this flavour I am often disappointed by the artificial toothpaste-like flavour of the mint. I wanted to make a fresh-tasting ice cream that reminded me of my childhood, so the colours and flavours in this recipe are completely natural. Only use the leaves of the mint. The ice cream will become very fibrous if the stalks...

The Aperol Spritz, sometimes called the Spritz Veneziano, is a refreshing orange cocktail made from Aperol and prosecco. It’s extremely popular across Italy, particularly in Venice, and is fast becoming a drink of choice in Britain, too. So what better way to do it justice than to make it into a beautiful sorbet to enjoy on a hot summer’s day? For an added twist, place a scoop of sorbet into a...

Yes it’s a soufflé recipe, but please don’t panic! These aren’t like any other soufflés – they’re super easy to make and you really can’t go wrong. The quantities given here are for quite large soufflés, as I love them so much, but if you’re serving them at the end of a large meal, you might prefer to make them in slightly smaller ramekins (around 250ml/300ml capacity), in which case...

This chocolate cheesecake is extremely easy to prepare, yet looks so impressive. I got my inspiration for the recipe when visiting the town of La Morra, near Cuneo, in Piedmont. I met a doctor called Roberto, who travels on horseback to visit his patients in their homes. After a long day of horse-riding, he told me that the area was famous for its hazelnut trees, so I decided to include hazelnuts in...

The digestivo limoncello, made from lemons, has been produced in Italy for centuries, particularly in the south, where the winters are milder. This limoncello and berry ice cream is the quickest ice cream you’re ever likely to make. You can use any kind of frozen berries; I usually use cherries, strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants. If you prefer, you can use freshly squeezed lemon juice or...

Tiramisù (which translates as ‘pick me up’) is a modern version of a dessert first created in Tuscany, where it was known in the 19th century as ‘zuppa inglese’ (English soup), because of the popularity of the dessert among the English living in the region. The original dessert had a custard base, but this was later replaced with mascarpone. There are often variations in the liqueur used....

Blackberry sorbet is always my flavour of choice and brings back memories of foraging with friends when I was a little boy. We’d pick and eat our way through the bushes, and our purple-stained mouths and fingers were always a huge source of amusement – until my mum scrubbed me clean later that evening, practically scraping off the top layer of my skin in the process! This sorbet is perfect served...

Some of the best chocolate in Italy comes from the northern city of Turin, the capital of Piedmont, where chocolate-making has been established since the late 18th century. At this time, Italy exported their chocolate to France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland; indeed, it was the famous Turinbased firm Caffarel that inspired the Swiss to start making chocolate on a commercial scale. Rich chocolate...

Italy is the world’s second largest producer of hazelnuts after Turkey, and Piedmont – home of Nutella (see page 208) – is the main hazelnut-growing area in Italy. Like the Piedmontese, I love the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate so have created this semi-frozen dessert for you. It has a soft, velvety texture and – unlike ice cream – semi-freddo (meaning ‘half cold’) never freezes...