How to pronounce Babà

In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is /baˈba/. In plain English letters that is bah-BAH, with the stress on the syllable in capitals. There is no recording by a native speaker yet, so use the spelling and the IPA.

What is Babà?

Babà is a dessert of Italy. Where it comes from: Naples. People usually eat it at teatime. Its main ingredients are wheat & flour and egg. It tastes sweet.

Where Babà comes from

Babà is one of 141 signature dishes of Italy on this map. See all dishes from Naples.

• Pizza napoletana · Bread & pastry · Naples

  Flatbreads with toppings were sold on the streets of Naples by the 18th century as cheap food for the city's poor, eaten folded and on foot.

• Sfogliatella · Dessert · Naples

  A sfogliatella is a shell-shaped pastry of many thin, crisp layers, filled with semolina, ricotta and candied orange peel, flavoured with cinnamon and vanilla.

• Spaghetti alle vongole · Noodles & pasta · Naples

  Spaghetti alle vongole is spaghetti cooked with fresh clams, olive oil, garlic, parsley and sometimes chilli and white wine.

• Pastiera · Dessert · Naples

  Pastiera is a Neapolitan Easter tart of shortcrust pastry filled with wheat grains cooked in milk, ricotta, eggs, candied fruit and orange-flower water, topped with a lattice of pastry strips.

• Mozzarella di bufala · Snack · Caserta and Battipaglia

  Mozzarella di bufala campana is a fresh cheese made from the milk of water buffalo, raised in the plains of Caserta and around Battipaglia and Paestum, south of Salerno.

• Genovese napoletana genovese · Noodles & pasta · Naples

  Genovese is a Neapolitan pasta sauce, not from Genoa: a huge quantity of onions and a piece of beef cooked together very slowly for hours until the onions melt into a sweet, golden cream.

Food of Italy

Dishes like Babà in other countries

Same type of dish and similar main ingredients as Babà:

• Kaiserschmarrn · Dessert · Austria

  Kaiserschmarrn, "emperor's mess", is a thick, fluffy pancake torn into pieces in the pan, caramelised with sugar and butter, often with raisins, dusted with icing sugar and served with plum compote or apple sauce.

• Pastel de nata · Dessert · Belém, Lisbon, Portugal

  The pastel de nata is a small tart of crisp, flaky pastry filled with egg custard and baked at very high heat until the top is scorched in spots.

• Bint al-sahn بنت الصحن · Dessert · Sanaa, Yemen

  Bint al-sahn, "daughter of the plate", is a round cake of many thin layers of buttery dough, baked until golden and served warm, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with black seeds.

• Chajá · Dessert · Paysandú, Uruguay

  Chajá is a cake of sponge, meringue, whipped cream and peaches, sometimes with dulce de leche or strawberries, covered with crushed meringue pieces.