diminutive of tramezzo, “in between”, and

it denoted the “new” sandwich’s function

as a snack to nibble at between meals.

In modern Italian, any sandwich

made with any bread – be it a roll or a

bun or ready-sliced from the supermarket

• is a panino, in turn the diminutive of
  pane, bread. There’s also an older word,
  “companatico”, from the medieval Latin
  “companaticum”, “that which one eats
  with bread”. The question is, when did
  human beings start eating companatico
  between slices of pane as opposed to with
  it? Around the Italian regions there are
  proto-panini that evoke a remoter,
  pre-Earl of Sandwich past.
  The pitta ripiena of Calabria is what
  it says on the label – “filled pitta bread”


• and is likely a throwback to the Middle
  Ages, when the region was frequently
  raided and briefly occupied by the

Onorino Demichelis returned to their

native Turin and used their savings to buy

the pretty little rococo Caffè Mulassano

on the city’s central Piazza Castello. With

them they brought back an electric toaster

and used it to serve punters toasted

sandwiches. They then had the brainwave

of not toasting the bread at all and using

it just as it was. The tramezzino was born!

Inside the Caffè Mulassano, there’s even a

plaque to commemorate the masterstroke.

“Here in 1926 Signora Angela Demichelis

Nebiolo invented the tramezzino,” it says.

It all seems like a roundabout way of

replicating the British tea sandwich, a bit

like inventing the cart before the wheel.

At a time when the order was to

Italianise English words, it was Italian

poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, a founding

father of Fascism, who coined the name

tramezzino to replace “sandwich”. It’s the

Leave it to Italy to elevate the humble sandwich

to glorious heights. JOHN IRVING investigates

the evolution and diverse region-by-region

repertoire of the panino.

O

Saracens. It’s run through the middle by

a squelchy seam of soppressata, pecorino

and hard-boiled eggs. The Saracens would

have frowned on the soppressata, salami-

like ground pork, whose presence also

belies another myth. Namely that Italians

adhere to a healthy Mediterranean diet, all

cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, fresh fish

and fruit and vegetables.

Salubrious panino-like concoctions do

exist: pizza con i tanni, for instance, typical

of the Ciociaria district of Lazio – two

discs of focaccia filled with broccoli rabe,

garlic and peperoncino; or pani cun

tamatica, typical of Sardinia – leftover

bread dough stuffed with fresh tomato

and baked in the oven; or the Sicilian pani

cunzato, a long bread roll stuffed with

tomato, sardines, and grated pecorino.

But, save for a few virtuous pockets,

mostly along the coast or on the islands, ➤

Illustrations DAWN TAN

Panino con la

porzina

Pani ca’

meusa

Mozzarella in

carrozza

GOURMET TRAVELLER 85