torta

→ English: torta

desctree

→ German: Torte, Tarte (obsolete, but borrowed anew from Modern French), Turte (obsolete)
→ Czech: dort
→ English: torte
→ Estonian: tort
→ Hungarian: torta
→ Japanese: トルテ (torute)
→ Macedonian: торта (torta)
→ Polish: tort
→ Romanian: tort
→ Russian: торт (tort), тортъ (tort) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Armenian: տորթ (tortʻ)
→ Kazakh: торт (tort)
→ Yakut: торт (tort)
→ Serbo-Croatian: torta / торта
→ Ukrainian: торт (tort)

→ Turkish: turta

From Latin turta. Thought to derive from Latin tŏrta f (“twisted”), which yielded tòrta in Italian.

(heraldry) roundel (of a tincture; see bisante)


torta

Back-formation from torto, past participle of torcere (“to twist”).


croissant

it-noun

croissant m (usually invariable, plural croissants)

Unadapted borrowing from French croissant, present participle of verb croître (“to grow”). Doublet of crescente.


zabaione

→ Chinese: 薩巴里安尼 (sàbālǐ'ānní)

→ English: zabaglione

desctree

→ French: sabayon
→ English: sabayon
→ Finnish: sabayon

→ Portuguese: zabaione

Possibly from Latin sabaia (“Illyrian barley beer”, from an Illyrian word probably from Proto-Indo-European *sab- (“taste”)) + -one (augmentative suffix).

af

sabaia<t:Illyrian barley beer><pos:from an Illyrian word probably from Proto-Indo-European <i class="Latn mention" lang="ine-pro">*sab-</i> (“taste”)>

(usually uncountable) zabaglione (custard-like dessert made with egg yolks, sugar and Marsala wine)


brioche

Borrowed from French brioche, from Old French brier (“to break”).

a croissant, Danish pastry, or other sweet bun


zuccotto

a type of chocolate-flavoured/flavored ice-cream dessert


cornetto

From corno (“horn”, from Latin cornū) + -etto (diminutive suffix).

suffix

from Latin <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">cornū</i>


pandoro

From pan(e) (“bread”) + d'oro (“golden, of gold”).

compound

pandoro (Christmas sweet bread loaf in the shape of a star)


panettone

→ English: panettone

→ Portuguese: panetone, panettone

→ Spanish: panetone, panettone, panetón

From Milanese Lombard panaton, an augmentative of pan (“bread”). In sense 2, for its shape.

[…] oggi s’è fatto baldoria: il signor Cattaneo—e il professore Mangili—sono stati a desinare con noi: e noi col rito degli avi abbiamo trinciata una pollastra arrosto, e distribuito a’ nostri ospiti il panettone

1808 December 26, Ugo Foscolo, [untitled letter]; published in “154. Al medesimo, a Milano - Pavia, lunedì 26 dicembre 1808 [154 - To the same [Ugo Brunetti], in Milan (Pavia, Monday 26 December 1808)]”, in Epistolario di Ugo Foscolo [Letters of Ugo Foscolo], volume 1, Florence: Felice Le Monnier, 1852, page 190:

[…] today we celebrated: mister Cattaneo, and professor Mangili, have had lunch with us: and we, through the ritual of our forefathers, have cut up a roasted chicken, and shared out the panettone to our guests.

PANETTONE, pane grande fatto per lo più con pasta assai lievitata fatta con fior di farina, entrovi uova, zucchero e burro, uve di Smirne, cedro, pistacchio e altro.

[1868, Giacinto Carena, “Panettone”, in Nuovo vocabolario italiano d’arti e mestieri, 1ˢᵗ Milanese edition, Milan: Francesco Pagnoni, page 342:

Panettone - large bread chiefly made with long-leavened dough made with top-quality flour, inside of which [are] eggs, sugar, and butter, sultana, citron, pistachio, and more.

Se proprio vuoi che io riceva qualche cosa da te per Natale, data la possibilità concessa, ti prego di essere molto parca e limitata. […] Se vuoi sapere i miei desideri, eccoli: un po’ di panettone e, se è possibile, qualche vasetto di quell’estratto concentrato di brodo vegetale che una volta mi mandasti.

1932 December 12, Antonio Gramsci, [untitled letter]; published in Antonio Santucci, editor, Antonio Gramsci - Lettere dal carcere [Antonio Gramsci - Letters from prison], volume 2, Cles: Editrice L'Unità S.p.A., 1988 February 14:

If you really want me to have something from you for Christmas, considering the chance offered, I beg you to be very frugal and restrained. […] If you want to know my wishes, here they are: a bit of panettone, and—if it is possible—a few jars of that concentrated vegetable broth extract you once sent to me.

Il segreto di un buon panettone è dunque nella lievitazione, rigorosamente naturale (niente lieviti chimici) e nel doppio impasto.

2004, Dino Galiazzo, “Panettone”, in La guida del consumatore [The consumer's guide], Novara: De Agostini, →ISBN, page 377:

The secret of a good panettone is therefore in the strictly natural leavening (no chemical yeast), and the double kneading.

Negli anni ’80 Nicola sfornò i primi duemila panettoni artigianali. Oggi, nel laboratorio di duemila metri quadrati (mille per la produzione, altrettanti per il confezionamento), lavorano circa 130 persone nei periodi di massima produzione a Natale 2019 sono stati sfornati (e venduti) più di un milione di chili di panettoni.

2020 March 12, Laura Mari, “Fiasconaro, il pasticciere che ha conquistato il mondo con colombe e panettoni [Fiasconaro, the pastrymaker who has conquered the world with colomba cakes and panettoni]”, in La Repubblica:

In the 80s, Nicolà produced the first two thousand homemade panettoni. Today, in the periods of peak production, about 130 people work in the two-thousand-square-meters laboratory (a thousand for production, and as many for packaging); in Christmas 2019, more than a million kilos of panettoni have been produced (and sold).

panettone (Christmas brioche with candied fruit)


tiramisù

→ Bulgarian: тирамису́ (tiramisú)

→ English: tiramisu

→ Finnish: tiramisu

→ French: tiramisu

→ German: Tiramisu

→ Japanese: ティラミス

→ Polish: tiramisu

→ Portuguese: tiramisu

→ Romanian: tiramisu

→ Spanish: tiramisú

→ Turkish: tiramisu

Univerbation of tira + mi + su, literally “pick me up”, from tira su (“pick up”, second person singular imperative of tirare su) + mi (“me”, unstressed first person singular object pronoun). Cognate to Venetan tiramesù.

affix

second person singular imperative of <i class="Latn mention" lang="it">tirare su</i>


torta della nonna

it-noun

torta della nonna f (plural torte della nonna)

a soft flat cake made with ricotta (or custard) and flavoured/flavored with pine nuts


cantucci e vin santo

a dessert consisting of a glass of Vin Santo and a selection of almond biscotti to be dunked in the wine and eaten


cannolo

From canna (“cane, tube”) + -òlo (diminutive suffix).

af

(usually in the plural) cannoli (tube of fried pastry filled with ricotta)


panpepato

a baked dessert containing nuts, spice, cocoa etc.; many regional variations


cassata

Borrowed from Sicilian cassata, possibly from Vulgar Latin *cāseāta, from cāseus (“cheese”), since ricotta is its main ingredient.


pastiera

From pasta (“pasta, dough”) + -iera (“-er, -or”).


cassata siciliana

it-noun

cassata siciliana f (plural cassate siciliane)

cassata siciliana
cassata siciliana#English


panna cotta

(usually uncountable) panna cotta (Italian dessert made from double cream)


frappa

Borrowed from Old French frape, of uncertain origin.

(usually in the plural, central Italy) type of dessert in the form of fritters dusted with sugar, eaten during Carnival time; similar to angel wings


budino

From French boudin (“blood pudding”), from Vulgar Latin *botellinus, from Latin botellus (small sausage).


bugia

Borrowed from Old Occitan bauzia, from Old Frankish *bausī (“deceit”) (possibly through a Vulgar Latin *bauscia (compare also Friulian bausie, Dalmatian bosca, Old French boisie), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bausuz (“puffed up, arrogant, bad”). Cognate with Dutch boos, German böse, English boast.

der

(usually in the plural, northern Italy, chiefly Piedmont) type of dessert in the form of fritters dusted with sugar, eaten during Carnival time; similar to angel wings


cencio

Uncertain: possibly from Vulgar Latin *centium, from Latin centō, from Ancient Greek κέντρων (kéntrōn).

(usually in the plural, Tuscany) type of dessert in the form of fritters dusted with sugar, eaten during Carnival time; similar to angel wings


colomba

a traditional Italian Easter cake baked in the shape of a dove


profiterole

Borrowed from French profiterole. The nonstandard pronunciation with -tt- is due to influence of profitto.


sorbetto

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish شربت (şerbet) (Turkish şerbet), from Persian شربت (šarbat, “sharbat”), from Arabic شَرْبَة (šarba, “drink”); unrelated to sorbire, despite phonetic and semantic similarities, but partly influenced by it. Doublet of sciroppo.


cavalluccio

a traditional anise cookie from Siena typically consumed at Christmas


uovo di Pasqua

it-noun

uovo di Pasqua m (plural uova di Pasqua f)


montebianco

After Monte Bianco (“Mont Blanc”, literally “white mountain”), because of its appearance. Calque of French mont-blanc.

a dessert made from chestnut purée and whipped cream


fior di latte

mozzarella (made from cow's milk, rather than that of water buffalo)


chiacchiera

Deverbal from chiacchierare (“to chat, talk”) + -a.


ciambella

Uncertain. Possibly from Latin cymbula. Compare Sicilian giammella.


buccellato

either of two traditional cakes from either Lucca or Sicily


cartellata

Borrowed from Tarantino carteddàte, Salentino Sicilian cartiddhrate. .

(usually in the plural) a Christmas pastry, typical of Apulia, made from deep-fried curly ribbons of dough


zeppola

Possibly from Zeppe, a southern pet form of Giuseppe (“Joseph”), as in some areas they are prepared on St. Joseph's Day.

zeppola (any of several varieties of fried pastry from southern Italy)


mandorlato

it-adj

mandorlato (feminine mandorlata, masculine plural mandorlati, feminine plural mandorlate)

mandorlata (feminine)
mandorlati (masculine plural)
mandorlate (feminine plural)

(relational) almonds (mainly referring to food made with almonds)


maritozzo

From marito (“husband”) + -ozzo (augmentative suffix), possibly because it used to be given to a girl by her fiancé.

affix

(central Italy, chiefly Rome) maritozzo (type of sweet bun)

central Italy; chiefly Rome; central Italy; chiefly Rome


pasticcino

petit four (small cake generally eaten at the end of a meal)


migliaccio

any of several forms of Neapolitan cake made from millet or maize flour


sfogliatella

Diminutive form of sfogliata, singular feminine past participial of sfogliare.


cedrata

a Sicilian dessert made with citron peel


lingua di gatto

it-noun

lingua di gatto f (plural lingue di gatto)

a cat's tongue: a buttery cookie shaped like a cat's tongue


millefoglie

millefoglie m or (less common) f (invariable)

From mille (“a thousand”) + foglie (“leaves, layers”), modeled on French mille-feuille.

compound

mille-feuille, vanilla slice or cream slice


cuneese

a chocolate filled with a rum-flavored cream, typical of Cuneo


brigidino

(desserts) a very thin, crispy aniseed wafer produced in the Pistoia area


spumone

English: spumoni

Catalan: spumone

French: spumone


pandispagna

Albanian: pandispanjë

French: pain d’Espagne

Greek: παντεσπάνι (pantespáni)

Macedonian: пандишпа́н (pandišpán)

Turkish: pandispanya

Literally, “bread of Spain”, as it was originally conceived by a Genoese confectioner in Spain (whence also the English name genoise).

sponge cake (as an ingredient in trifles or other desserts)


pangiallo

From pane (“bread”) + giallo (“yellow”).

a form of Christmas cake, from Rome, made using maize flour


ricciarello

a traditional almond cookie from Siena typically consumed at Christmas


chifel

From German Kipfel, from Old High German kipfa, chipf, from Latin cippus (“post”).

kipfel (crescent-shaped biscuit or bread roll from Trentino)


sbrisolona

From sbrisolare (“to crumble”, northern dialectal variant of sbriciolarsi, from briciola “crumb”, after its texture) + -ona. Cognate with Venetan sbrixołona.

affix

a type of crumbly cake made with nuts or almonds, typical of Mantua


crostolo

From Latin crustulum (“confectionery, sweet”), diminutive of crustum (“cake”). By surface analysis, crosta + -olo. Cognate to Venetan gróstoło, whence Portuguese grostoli.

inh

(usually in the plural, Venice) type of dessert in the form of fritters dusted with sugar, eaten during Carnival time; similar to angel wings


galano

Borrowed from Spanish galán (“gallant”), from French galant. Doublet of galante.


pazientina

a type of rich cake, from Padova, having layers flavoured/flavored with almonds, chocolate and zabaglione sauce


cagionetto

a type of pastry from Abruzzo eaten especially at Christmas; fillings vary according to locality


bocconotto

a type of pastry from Abruzzo and surrounding regions


plumcake

it-noun

plumcake m (usually invariable, plural plumcakes)


cassatella

From cassata + -ella (diminutive suffix). Cognate to Sicilian cassatedda.

a deep-fried sweet type of ravioli from Trapani in Sicily


torta al cioccolato

torta al cioccolato f (plural torte al cioccolato)


torta di compleanno

torta di compleanno f (plural torte di compleanno)


pasticciotto

From pasticcio (“pie”) + -otto (diminutive). Compare pasticcino.

pasticciotto (Italian pastry filled with custard or ricotta)


torta di zucca

torta di zucca f (plural torte di zucca)


montblanc

Borrowed from French mont-blanc, after mont Blanc (“Mont Blanc”, literally “white mountain”), because of its appearance.

a dessert made from chestnut purée and whipped cream


gubana

Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friuli-Venezia Giulia

a kind of dessert typical of Friuli-Venezia Giulia


bonet

Borrowed from Piedmontese bonet (“bonnet, cap”, after its shape), from Middle French bonet (Modern French bonnet), from Old French bonet (“material from which hats are made”), from Frankish *bunni (“that which is bound”), from Proto-Germanic *bundiją (“bundle”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”).

der

a traditional Piedmontese pudding prepared with cocoa and amaretti


pasticceria mignon

it-noun

pasticceria mignon f (plural pasticcerie mignon)


tartufo al cioccolato

tartufo al cioccolato m (plural tartufi al cioccolato)


crostatina

From crostata + -ina (diminutive suffix).


torta quattro quarti

torta quattro quarti f (plural torte quattro quarti)


grattachecca

Verb-object compound, composed of gratta (“to scratch, to scrape”) + Checca (hypocoristic form of the given name Francesca).

it-verb-obj

Checca<pos:hypocoristic form of the given name <i class="Latn mention" lang="it">Francesca</i>>

(Rome) dessert originatied in Rome, consisting in hand-grated ice flavored with sweet syrup, handed in tall glasses and enjoyed with spoon and straw, usually on the beach. Often compared and confused with the Sicilian granita.


ventaglietto

From ventaglio (“fan”) + -etto (diminutive suffix).