| by: Anna Maria Volpi
Open an old Italian cookbook, browse through the index and…
surprise! No Tiramisu’. My first encounter with Tiramisu’ was in
1985. I was in Italy at that time: A friend of mine told me about
this new recipe she got. She was so enthusiastic about it that I
felt compelled to try it immediately. The taste was unbelievably
good, as never I had tasted before. Since then I fell in love with
this dessert.
Everybody knows by now that Tiramisu’ means “pick-me-up” in
Italian, for the high energetic content (eggs and sugar) and the
caffeine of the strong espresso coffee. There are many different
stories about the origin of Tiramisu’. It is a layered cake;
therefore some place its origin in Tuscany, where another famous
layered Italian dessert is very popular. It is called “Zuppa
Inglese” (English Soup). It is not English and it is not a soup.
Instead is a simple cake of ladyfingers or sponge cake, soaked in
“alkermes” liquor, and alternated layers of chocolate and egg
custard. Layered cakes have been around for long time. The
brilliant idea in Tiramisu’ is not in the technique of layering,
but in the components. The great invention of combining together
coffee, zabaglione cream, and chocolate: This is the true
innovation in Tiramisu’.
I love to study history of food. In my book “The Timeless Art
of Italian Cuisine – Centuries of Scrumptious Dining”, there is
extensive information about culinary history of the various
regions of Italy. I tried to trace the origin of Tiramisu’
investigating many Italian cookbooks. The first clue is by the
famous Italian gastronome Giuseppe Maffioli. In his book “Il
ghiottone Veneto”, (The Venetian Glutton) first published in 1968,
he talks extensively about Zabaglione custard. The name of this
cream originates from Zabaja, a sweet dessert popular in the
Illiria region. It is the coastal area across the Adriatic Sea
that was Venetian territory for long time during the golden age of
the “Repubblica Serenissima” (The Most Serene Republic) of Venice.
Zabaglione was prepared in those times with sweet Cyprus wine.
“The groom’s bachelor friends”, says Maffioli, “at the end of
the long wedding banquet, maliciously teasing, gave to him before
the couple retired a big bottle of zabajon, to guarantee a
successful and prolonged honeymoon”. “The zabajon”, Maffioli
continues, “was sometimes added of whipped cream, but in this case
was served very cold, almost frozen, and accompanied by the
baicoli, small thin Venetian cookies invented in the 1700’s by a
baker in the Santa Margherita suburb of Venice”. As we can notice,
the addition of whipped cream, the serving temperature, the
cookies, all these elements are close to the modern Tiramisu’
recipe. And even the allusion to the energetic properties of the
Zabaglione, seem to refer to the Tiramisu’ name.
Later in my research the oldest recipe I could find was in the
book by Giovanni Capnist “I Dolci del Veneto” (The Desserts of
Veneto). The first edition was published in 1983 and has a classic
recipe for Tiramisu’. “Recent recipe with infinite variations from
the town of Treviso”, says Capnist, “discovery of restaurants more
then family tradition”.
But the final word on the origin of Tiramisu’ is from the book
by Fernando e Tina Raris “La Marca Gastronomica” published in
1998, a book entirely dedicated to the cuisine from the town of
Treviso. The authors remember what Giuseppe Maffioli wrote in an
article in 1981: “Tiramisu’ was born recently, just 10 years ago
in the town of Treviso. It was proposed for the first time in the
restaurant . The dessert and its name became immediately extremely
popular, and this cake and the name where copied by many
restaurants first in Treviso then all around Italy”. Still today
the restaurant “Le Beccherie” makes the dessert with the classical
recipe: ladyfingers soaked in bitter strong espresso coffee,
mascarpone-zabaglione cream, and bitter cocoa powder. Alba and Ado
Campeol, owners of the restaurant regret they didn’t patent the
name and the recipe, especially to avoid all the speculation and
guesses on the origin of this cake, and the diffusion of so many
recipes that have nothing to do with the original Tiramisu’.
I tried countless different recipes form the infinite
variations of Tiramisu’, but the classic one, (the recipe I show
on my website), the recipe from the “Le Beccherie” restaurant, is
still the one I prepare today and the one I prefer.
As an example of one of the many delicious variation of
Tiramisu’ I am showing on my website a step-by-step recipe for the
“Tiramisu’ with Mixed Berries” that is quickly becoming a new
classic.
Anna Maria Volpi
Nov.20, 2003 |
