A famous British chef declared tiramisù to be a version of English trifle although I don't believe he meant Italians stole the recipe. And even if they did borrow some of the rules for making a quick dessert, Italian-style trifle is certainly more exciting (tiramisù means 'lift me up').
Now there is a lot of debate about the origins of tiramisù. Food dictionaries insist that it appeared in the 1960s and several restaurants in northern Italy, mainly in the region of Veneto, claim to have developed tiramisù. Perhaps they did, inspired by old-fashioned Italian recipes that use biscuits, sweet wine and custard, like zabaione. Meanwhile, other people claim that Giovanni Comisso (1895-1969), Italian author from Treviso who fought in the Great War and travelled as far as the Far East, mentioned tiramisù as his grandmother's favorite dessert. Moreover, there are stories about tiramisù dating from even before the Risorgimento (19th century movement for the unification of Italy) when a dessert called tiremesù was served in a house of ill-repute. Whatever its origins, tiramisù is something of which Italians are righly proud.
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| Serafino de Tivoli, Il ponte di legno (1857-1859) |
Although old-fashioned Italian recipes in the category of trifle occasionally use pan di Spagna or panettone, tiramisù is always made with ladyfingers (savoiardi). The main idea is to dip the biscuits in strong coffee and/or Italian wine (marsala) or liqueur (Amaretto etc.), place on a dish, cover with mascarpone that's beaten with yolks and sugar, repeat with more layers of base and filling, and dust with cocoa-powder. Savoiardi were introduced from Savoy/Savoie, the part of France that rivalled the Italian north for centuries but they are omnipresent in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891) by Pellegrino Artusi - which makes them almost Italian.
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