Easy Dessert Ideas to Serve After Italian Meals

No Italian meal would be complete without a traditional Italian dessert. Most Italians end their meal with a cup of coffee or a smaller cup of the stronger espresso. Along with your coffee, you can serve a simple dessert of fruit and cheese or you can serve something a little sweeter and more elaborate.

Biscotti

Biscotti are traditional Italian hard cookies that are oblong in shape. Biscotti are such hard cookies because they are baked twice. This makes them an excellent pairing with after-dinner espresso or coffee since the traditional way to enjoy biscotti is to dunk them in a beverage. For adults, you can also dunk your biscotti in vin santo, a dessert wine. Biscotti can be plain or have fruit, nuts and spices baked in. You can find biscotti in most grocery stores in the gourmet aisle or even with other types of cookies.

Gelato

Gelato is Italy's answer to ice cream. It is a mixture of milk, water and sugar and typically lighter than ice cream. Some gelato is fruit-flavored but you can find chocolate- and vanilla-flavored gelato as well. There are just as many flavors of gelato as there are of ice cream. Gelato is complicated to make at home, but it is common to find in the frozen food section of your local grocery store.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu is a layered dessert consisting of ladyfinger cookies, coffee liqueur, coffee or espresso and cocoa. Most tiramisu also contains either whipped cream or a mascarpone and sugar mixture. The ladyfinger cookies soak in the coffee liqueur and then layer upon layer of the different flavors is built up until the dish is complete. Sometimes tiramisu is made in one large container, sometimes it is made in individual dessert cups. Although it is easy to make, most people still prefer purchasing ready-made tiramisu. Many deli departments offer a version of tiramisu that you can bring home to serve after your Italian dinner.