The real history of Tiramisu
Tiramisu is maybe the most famous cake in the world that you can find in the restaurants all over Europe and America. Different Italian regions always compete for its origin, but the true history of this soft dessert has no doubt: it was born in the kitchens of a historical Osteria in Treviso.
The origin of Tiramisu
In 1970 the cook and confectioner Roberto Loli Linguanotto, enter the kitchens of Beccherie, a typical and traditional trattoria situated in Piazza Ancilotto, in the heart of Treviso.
Loli, a man with venetian origins, just came back from an experience as a cook in Germany, where he discovered the tradition, widely spread in Bavaria, of the soft desserts; once he came back he remembered the simple and home made desserts of his childhood and what gave him the brilliant idea was the easiest dessert: the whipped yolk with sugar, that every child was used to eat at breakfast, from Treviso to Venice. Each grandmother perfectly remember the sound in the morning of the whipped egg with sugar, in dialect “l’ovo col sucaro”, the so-called “sbatudin”.
Loli, being a good confectioner, melts his culinary roots together with what he learned in Germany; thus, adding mascarpone cheese to the “sbatudin”, he invented the famous cream and the Tiramisu.
The success of Tiramisu
Loli continued his carrier travelling and leaving Treviso, however he often came back to Beccherie to observe, proudly, the success of his Tiramisu, year after year. From the tables of that trattoria in Treviso, where the dessert was well-known and great demanded, it spread all over Italy, and then in the recent decades outside the national borders and all over the world as well.
The real recipe of Tiramisu of Treviso
500gr of mascarpone cheese
6 yolks
200gr of sugar
Ladyfingers (about 300gr)
Bitter coffee
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Preparation
The original recipe doesn’t foresee whipped cream, an ingredient introduced years later. The cream has to be soft, almost liquid, sweet but not too cloying and the ladyfingers have to be wet perfectly in the coffee, but not too much, because they don’t have to flake off or leave liquid on the cream.
To prepare the traditional Tiramisu, beat the eggs with sugar until they became spumy, mix the mascarpone cheese, blending gently. Prepare coffee with a moka and cool down on a dish. Dip quickly the ladyfingers (in a homogenous way and without exceed), place in a pan, cover with a generous layer of cream and repeat with a second layer. Finally, sprinkle with the unsweetened cocoa powder.
Tiramisu has to strain and it has to be eaten with a teaspoon, no slices cut with a knife!
