The history of tramezzino

The tramezzino is now widespread throughout Italy so that many people think it was born in our country but not. As for the sandwich, we owe the creation of this type of sandwich to the creativity of an English nobleman. In this case it is Anna Maria Stanhope, Duchess of Bedford, who in the early 1800s, tired of having to wait for dinner, decided to accompany cups of tea typical of the British afternoon, small sandwiches. It was white bread cut into a triangular or rectangular shape and inside it was customary to put butter and cucumbers. When the practice of "tea sandwiches" began to take root throughout England around 1850, inside the tramezzini also began to appear meats and cheeses. The idea of these mini-sandwiches was so successful that it began to spread throughout Europe. In Italy it was Caffè Mulassano in Turin that was the first to imitate this type of snack. It is to the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio that we owe the invention of the word "tramezzino" since the term "sandwich" was too little Italian for the time. The English recipe for tramezzino always requires the use of cucumber.

History and curiosity of Caffè Mulassano: a small container of beauty and goodness! In Turin it is located in the elegant Piazza Castello, about thirty square meters of history, mirrors and artifacts: a small and precious treasure chest that gave birth in 1926 to one of the most popular snacks of all time and still highly appreciated today, the tramezzino. In fact, it was born from Mulassano and to testify to this inside the Caffè there is a plaque that reads "In 1926, Mrs. Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, invented the "tramezzino". The invention of the "tramezzino" is due to Angela and her husband Onorino, two Turin expatriates in America who, returning to their hometown in 1925, bought the place that the Mulassano family had offered for sale. The couple changed the face of the place introducing new proposals for the aperitif: first the toast (from America had brought a machine to toast bread), then the same slices of untoasted bread stuffed in various ways. And this was the winning and highly appreciated formula that soon became a proposal for lunch. The name "tramezzino" belongs to Gabriele D'Annunzio, who invented the term to replace the English sandwich. At least 30 different varieties of tramezzinos are available at Mulassano and the majority of them are prepared at the moment. As far as tramezzinos are concerned, you can find the usual classics: anchovies and butter; robiola cheese, celery and walnuts; raw ham; calf tonnage...

A "Snack" that has almost a century of life, but is still very relevant.