It’s Professor Dave, who likes tiramisù?
If you’ve ever been to an Italian restaurant and opted for some dessert after your meal,
you probably noticed tiramisù on the menu.
If you’re not familiar with what this is, it’s a coffee-flavored cake, consisting
of special cookies dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar, and
mascarpone cheese, flavored with cocoa.
Tiramisù literally means “pick me up”, and this proverbial pick me up cake is extremely
popular in America.
Actually, it’s much more popular in America than in Italy, where it is just one of many
delicious desserts that are available, but Italians do appreciate a good tiramisù as
well, so let’s learn a little about the history of this heavenly treat.
One might expect that tiramisù would have a rich history going all the way back to Roman
times, but in fact, this is not the case.
There is no mention of this dessert in any culinary book prior to the twentieth century.
Actually, the first literary mention goes back only to 1980.
This may seem incredible, since it pairs so flawlessly with the most beloved Italian flavors,
like coffee, mascarpone cheese, and wine.
But even if Italians feel like tiramisù has been around forever, it simply did not exist
prior to the mid-twentieth century.
There are old legends that state otherwise, but we should be very skeptical.
One such legend places the birth of this dessert in Siena, around the occasion of a visit of
Cosimo the third dei Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the late seventeenth century.
A dish referred to as “the Duke’s soup” was developed that some imply is the prototype
of tiramisù.
And although coffee had already made its first appearance in Italy, it would seem impossible
for mascarpone to have been available, as it is a highly perishable cheese that came
from Lombardia, and would not have made it to Tuscany safely.
Also, the cookies used in this dessert, known in America as Lady Fingers, in Italy are called
Savoiardi, which means originating from the Savoy region, and this would seem rather suspicious
in a Tuscan dessert for that era.
Not to mention the fact that raw eggs are used in the making of the custard, and for
those times, this procedure would have to have been considered dangerous and unhealthy
because of the spreading of salmonella.
So it would seem that this myth can be safely rejected.
Another equally dubious myth is the one supporting the idea that this cake was prepared in order
to be offered to Count Cavour when he was planning to unify Italy.
Again, this myth can also be rejected due to the difficulty in preserving the freshness
of the necessary ingredients.
So let’s get real.
The true birth of tiramisù was in Treviso, Veneto, which is close to Venice, in around
1970 or so.
The creator was Roberto Linguanotto, who wanted to prepare a local dessert for his wife.
The dessert was called “sbatutin”, which comes from sbattere, which means to beat.
This is because it consisted of beaten egg yolk combined with sugar and wine until it
became a velvety sweet sauce, similar to zabaglione, in which cookies were dipped.
One day, Linguanotto, in order to please his wife, put together a more elegant cake with
some of these same ingredients, and added a few more, one of which was mascarpone.
The result was something delicious, and from there, the battle of paternity for the dessert began.
Many different restaurants claimed to have invented it, in Treviso, Al Camin, and Al
Fogher, all displaying creations with the use of the same ingredients, but without the
popular name.
One other restaurant, “il Vetturino”, had been using the name tiramisù, but for
a dish with ingredients that are rather different from what we know now.
Finally, the name started to be associated with the current recipe, and it stuck, as
the ingredients of tiramisù do indeed create a formidable pick me up.
Now let’s talk about the appearance of this dish.
The original cake was definitely round, even though today we are used to seeing it as rectangular.
This is strictly due to convenience, as the Savoiardi cookies are rectangular, so they
fit better in a rectangular cake mold.
The classic recipe includes the cookies, egg yolks, sugar, coffee, mascarpone, and cocoa powder.
Today, egg whites are sometimes added to the mascarpone mixture to make the sauce even fluffier.
In addition, the original recipe didn’t use wine, but the use of sweet Marsala wine
has now become the norm.
The rest is all about making layers with the cookies dipped in coffee, then covering with
the egg sauce, and repeating.
The egg sauce is prepared on a double boiler, to prevent salmonella.
The cake is refrigerated for some time and eaten cold, sprinkled with cocoa powder.
The flavor is heavenly, and today we can find many variations, with berries, lemon, pineapple,
banana, and coconut, with many restaurants and bakeries all over the world coming up
with their own concoctions.
But we shouldn’t forget about the original tiramisù, and for that we have
to say, thank you, Roberto Linguanotto.