A perfect dish for appetizers and birthdays, or for a quick lunch, but do you really know everything about the sandwich? Today we reveal 6 facts you might not have known.
1. First a sandwich, then a tramezzino
Before becoming what it is today and adopting this name throughout Italy, the tramezzino was originally a sandwich.
In the 1700s, John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, during a card game, to avoid leaving the game, ordered one of his servants to bring him roast beef between two slices of soft bread buttered and crustless. The gesture was immediately copied by his fellow players, and thus, the habit of consuming sandwiches during other activities quickly spread throughout Europe, especially among the upper classes.
2. The tea sandwiches
Its spread in Europe and evolution, however, is credited to the Duchess of Bedford, Anna Maria Stanhope, who in the 1800s, too hungry before dinner, decided to accompany the classic 5 o’clock tea with small sandwiches. White bread cut into triangles, with butter and cucumbers. By 1850, the practice had spread throughout England, with the addition of the first cold cuts and cheeses, becoming known as “tea sandwiches“.
3. The tramezzino appears in Italy
But how did this dish arrive in Italy? It arrived in 1926 when Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, together with her husband, returned from America, bought the Caffè Mulassano, in Piazza Castello in Turin, bringing with them a toaster and starting to produce what was then a novelty: toast and tramezzini.
The establishment was an immediate success, particularly these two dishes, which were simply called paninetto by the workers of Via Roma and Via Po.
4. Gabriele D’Annunzio coins the term tramezzino
Gabriele D’Annunzio, attracted by this new delicacy, decided to try it. The response was positive, so much so that he felt it necessary to give it a new name, as sandwich seemed too un-Italian. Thus, since the dish is eaten between meals, in an interlude, the decision for the name fell on “tramezzino”.
5. The Venetian tramezzino
It is in Venice that the tramezzino reaches its peak success. The trend spreads in all the chic bars of the center, and the dish is always paired with a glass of Spritz or wine. The tramezzino in Venice also undergoes an evolution as the filling is much more generous, placed in the center, while the edges are pressed. Finally, it has a greater softness, conferred by both the mayonnaise and the use of damp cloths.
6. The main fillings
The most common fillings for tramezzini are:
- Ham and mushrooms
- Ham and artichokes
- Ham and cheese
- Mozzarella and tomato
- Tuna and eggs
- Tuna and onions
- Shrimp and cocktail sauce
- Chicken and lettuce