Tiramisu, to the surprise of many, is a relatively young dessert. The recipe was first published in the second half of the twentieth century, but there are many stories about its origin.
The first rather prosaic opinion: the Italians simply dipped stale cookies in coffee, and a little later they began to add cream cheese. At the same time, our enterprising housewives, in times of shortage, prepared a similar dessert with a cream of sour cream and sugar, which was soaked in ordinary sugar cookies.
Romantics claim that the first tiramisu was prepared at the end of the 17th century in northern Italy for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III Medici, who had a passionate sweet tooth. The duke’s wife, Marguerite Louise, loved to travel and learn something new, constantly educating herself. On one of these trips to Siena, the local chef Gualtiero prepared a new dish for the duke, “zuppa del duca” (the duke’s soup). Dessert really liked Cosimo, he ate it to the last spoonful. Margherita Louise asked the chef to cook this dish again for her. As a result, the wife’s recipe was taken with them to Florence, and there he quickly gained fame among artists, sculptors, poets and other representatives of the creative elite. A high-calorie dessert supported strength and inspired refined natures.
From Florence, the recipe spread to Treviso, then to Venice. The Venetian priestesses of love, who also needed physical strength, noticed that they fell in love with dessert and often used it before important love dates. Then tiramisu got its name, consisting of three Italian words “tira mi su” – “lift me up.”
The official version of the origin of the tiramisu recipe says that it belongs to the Le Beccherie restaurant in the city of Treviso in Italy, where it was cooked and served for the first time in the late 60s and early 70s.
Tiramisu ingredients
“Tiramisu” consists of three Italian words: tira mi su, which can literally be translated as “pull me up.” However, this does not mean that this cake contains some kind of magical growth vitamin – the Italians mean an emotional state, a mood that will certainly rise, as soon as you bring a spoonful of airy dessert to your mouth.
Who was the first lucky person to taste tiramisu? Tuscan Archduke Cosimo III de Medici. When he arrived in Siena, local chefs decided to impress the famous sweet tooth with something completely unique and unforgettable. And they invented tiramisu, however, at that time it was called “zuppa del duca” – “duke’s soup”. The latter liked the sweet “soup” so much that he found out the recipe and passed it on to the Florentine chefs. However, tiramisu received real recognition already in Venice, where it got thanks to the ubiquitous Venetian merchants.
According to one legend, courtesans especially liked the “duke’s soup” here, who noticed that the dessert invigorates and cheers up. It was they who came up with its modern name for the cake.
Without the most delicate mascarpone cheese, modern tiramisu is unthinkable. That is why, unfortunately or fortunately, you can try real tiramisu only on the Apennine Peninsula, namely in Lombardy. The best cheese with a fat content of 55% is produced here. If other cheeses are made from milk, then mascarpone is exclusively made from cream (which makes tiramisu so high in calories). He got his name from the word mascherpa – from the local dialect it is translated as “cottage cheese”.
Another important component of tiramisu is the exquisite savoiardi biscuits. Not having this particular cookie at hand, cunning confectioners are inventing themselves in search of a worthy replacement. But remember – without savoiardi, the cake can be very tasty, but it no longer has the right to be called tiramisu. The next ingredient is Marsala wine. It began to be produced in Sicily at the end of the 18th century, and since then it has been extremely popular with culinary specialists.
Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese from the Lombardy region. It was first made in the late 16th – early 17th century. Mascarpone is similar to very fatty sour cream and butter, has a neutral taste. Mascarpone is a product of cream processing, not milk, like all other cheeses. Delicate mascarpone is the basis for many desserts.
Translated from Italian, Savoiardi means “Savoy”, in the common people one can often hear such a name as “lady fingers”. Elongated biscuit cookies easily absorb liquid and become incredibly tender and soft. The cookie recipe first appeared at the end of the 15th century at the court of the Duke of Savoy Amedeo VI – then Savoyardi was prepared on the occasion of the visit of the King of France. A few years later, the dessert became the official Savoy cookie, hence the name.
Some modern recipes are undergoing a number of changes. So, cocoa is replaced with chocolate, savoiardi – baked biscuit, coffee – wine, rum, cognac or liqueurs.
The use of marsala wine, “culinary wine”, as confectioners call it, gives the dessert a taste of caramel, nuts with a barely noticeable bitter aftertaste. Fruit wines are also popular – orange, banana, which also affect the taste of tiramisu itself.
Italian liqueur Amaretto with hints of almonds and apricot makes tiramisu unlike any other dessert. By the way, it is customary to add the liqueur itself to the cheese mass, and not to soak the savoyardi with it.
Externally, modern desserts also try to stand out in form and presentation. So, tiramisu is served in bowls, glasses, in the form of a cake, pudding, cupcake, ice cream. Desserts are decorated with fruits and berries, citrus, coconut, nuts and other fantasies of confectioners. Japanese chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa invented a recipe for tiramisu with green tea, which won the hearts of many gourmets.
In 2009, French confectioners prepared the largest tiramisu dessert in the world – it weighed over a ton. Before that, Swiss culinary specialists were in the lead – their dessert, made in the form of outlines of the borders of Italy, weighed about eight hundred kilograms.