Tiramisu[a] is an Italian dessert made of ladyfinger pastries (savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks, sugar, and mascarpone, and flavoured with cocoa powder.

[16] Obituaries for the restaurateur Ado Campeol (1928–2021) reported that it was invented at his restaurant Le Beccherie in Treviso on 24 December 1969 by his wife Alba di Pillo (1929–2021) and the pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto (1943–2024).

[23] It has been claimed that tiramisu has aphrodisiac effects and was concocted by a 19th-century Treviso brothel madam, as the Accademia Del Tiramisù explains, to "solve the problems they may have had with their conjugal duties on their return to their wives".

[27] On 29 July 2017, tiramisu was entered by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies on the list of traditional Friulian and Giulian agri-food products in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.

Over time, replacing some of the ingredients, mainly coffee, there arose numerous variants such as tiramisu with chocolate, amaretto, berry, lemon, strawberry, pineapple, yoghurt, banana, raspberry, and coconut.

[35] Bakers living in different Italian regions often debate the use and structural qualities of utilising other types of cookies, such as pavesini for instance, in the recipe.

Marsala wine can be added to the recipe, but other liquors are frequently substituted for it in both the coffee and the cheese mixture, including dark rum, Madeira, port, brandy, Malibu or Irish cream and especially coffee-flavoured liqueurs such as Tia Maria and Kahlúa.