The sandwich originates in ancient Rome with the term Panic ac Perna, a small-sized stuffed sandwich, open horizontally and stuffed with slices of seasoned lean ham or ham cooked in fig water. The city markets of the ancient Romans were full of stalls that prepared sandwiches of this type for breakfast, which they accompanied with dried figs. The filling of Caupona included hard-boiled egg, olive epiterium, escarole and Cato’s libium, known today as primo sale, served with strips of chicken flavored with raw ham and Apicius spice sauce. For those who are passionate about archeocucina, you can try the cuisine of chef Giovanni Elefante who offers some versions upon reservation. We can trace some forms of bread in the ruins of Pompeii where we can collect about eighty: the most common type of loaf was the Panis Quadratus or also called Panis Siligineus made with water, soft wheat flour and mother yeast, circular and divided vertically in eight segments and has a horizontal groove along the entire circumference. The function of the incision on the side helped transport the bread with the use of a string. The bakeries, as discovered in thirty-five sites, were places of luck and abundance, as shown by the engraving of the bakery N Popidius Priscius “hic habitat felicitas”. The refined menus of the time of Tiberius by Marco Gavio Apicius as we can admire in the De Re conquinaria show the use of legumes and vegetables, long-cooked pork and chicken or cheeses as a delicious accompaniment to these breads. The whole was always washed down with Pompeianorum,
Fralernum and Mulsum, spiced wine with ginger and honey.
Since its birth, over the centuries the sandwich has evolved several times, including the Tea Sandwich, by its inventor John Montagu IV, Count of Sandwich, born at the end of the 19th century to meet the food needs of the English nobles who had to long distances. on the train. In Italy, the sandwich has been an expression of popular culture without ever having a strong identity of quality and is soon overwhelmed by the arrival of American fast food. Today it has definitely evolved, today a recent Doxa study has shown that 80% of Italians are regular consumers of this delicious dish. The variations are different, starting from the traditional burger to the chicken burger or the cheeseburger up to the vegetarian or vegan burgers, including avocado and quinoa burger to finish with sweet burgers.
According to a Doxa research, Italy ranks third among hamburger consuming countries after England and France. In fact, the author’s sandwich is born, a real revolution in the world of sandwiches. A journey that began in 2000 with Giacomo Ballarini, owner of Buns, author of the perfect Burger who led the way in the quality sandwich movement in Italy. The movement passes through big names like Blend in Paris and Honest Burger in London, where the tendency to tell a story of raw materials and gastronomic research dominates.
From the first experiences to today, in the last five or six years, a movement has developed like wildfire in part to that of the Neapolitan pizza, which from an absolutely poor and pop food, is now in full revaluation. The meaning, today “is no longer that of simply creating a quick meal, but a gastronomic experience. We will never be a real kitchen, but surely ours are not simple sandwich shops”, but “restaurants serving hamburgers” as a gloss. Gennaro Cariulo from Da Gigione, in Pomigliano d’Arco (NA). From Ballarini’s Veronese recipes revisited in a sandwich key, to the ultra-selected meat of Cariulo, this new way of understanding this food passes through some key points. Advanced cooking techniques, certainly, but above all a real creative process and a movement of gastronomic research that has common cornerstones throughout Italy. And beyond.
The obsessive attention to the raw material – and to cooking -. Having surpassed the step of “any meat in any bread”, in this historical moment the simple side dish has become something more. “The hamburger – explains Cariulo – is the center of our research, and it is a 360 ° work. We started from the study of the simple hamburger, now six years ago, starting to raise the size, and then marry it with a type of bread. Neapolitan revisited, to bring it closer to our culture “. A work on ingredients, regional roots and cooking techniques, which the Neapolitan Da Gigione has in common with many locals throughout Italy. Starting with the Savoy Divin Panino, which cleared through customs the steamed sandwiches in the shadow of the Mole, a few steps from La Farcia, a project that aims to combine a quick snack, with high quality ingredients and Piedmontese meat. Movement, that of the sandwich, which has also taken root in Bologna, with the WellDone Gourmet Burger, where meats from non-intensive Italian farms are combined with self-produced sandwiches with only organic flours. Signature sandwiches, which can also be recognized in small “special” places such as the Miles in Bologna, with a jazzy feel and the Public House in Caserta, run by an all-female force and inspired by haute cuisine. Or who make belonging to the eco-sustainable philosophy the pivot of their business, such as Sciuè il panino vesuviano, from Pomigliano d’arco, member of the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance and with a passion for signature cuisine, so much so that on paper, in rotation, there are “starred” recipes, such as Terno Secco, signed by Michele Deleo and the master pizza maker Gianfranco Iervolino.
A new bread. “Before even thinking of opening Buns – says Ballarini -, I became passionate about leavened products and white art and I began to study one of my recipes, now entrusted to a Veronese craftsman who works for us”. “Bread is a base, it is not the center of work, but it must still have personality”, capable of holding up, according to a general voice from Milan to Sicily, the great game of balance that is the contemporary sandwich. Golden rule wherever you approach a signature sandwich, as in the case of Ino in Florence, by Alessandro Frassica, who dedicated spring 2018 to a series of meetings on bread as the protagonist or even 200 degrees of Rome, which concludes baking bread in the oven from which the place takes its name, 50panino, a Neapolitan place born from the idea of a master of dough like Ciro Salvo. Or Zia Rosetta, also in the capital, who has dedicated its entire format to a format of bread. Many, more and more, are those who make bread “at home”, such as the Burgheria of Turin, Tricolore Panini, which in Rome moved from Monti to Testaccio and one of the precursors of the movement, Ham Holy Burger in Milan.
Two slices of bread, some compote. The sandwich, reduced to the bone, is something simple capable of bringing together very different food cultures; from the hot dog to the Sicilian “pani ca meusa”, passing through the Neapolitan “marenna”, ending with the hamburger, born in Germany, which became famous in America and then adopted by the whole world. A food by now universal synonymous with sandwich, of which today is the world celebration: the International burger day, born in New Zealand and gone viral in just a few years.
But where does the sandwich come from? Born in ancient Rome, with panic ac perna (bread with must and ham cooked in fig water), much loved by the crowd of games organized by the emperor, it has changed many times over the centuries. It was the famous Tea Sandwich (name borrowed from its inventor, John Montagu IV, Earl of Sandwich) and the almost namesake Club Sandwich, born at the end of the 19th century to meet the food needs of the noblemen who covered long journeys by train. In Italy it has been everything and nothing, an integral part of our popular culture, at the same time mistreated because it is synonymous, in the collective imagination, with a fast and low quality meal. Cleared in the 1980s, with the era of sandwich bars and fast food restaurants, when it became part of the rebellion of a generation, today it has definitely evolved.
According to a recent Doxa study in collaboration with Deliveroo, a home delivery company, almost all Italians are habitual consumers of this dish, with a third of the sample declaring to eat it almost every day. In the average of our choices, the variants of the more classic recipes continue to dominate, with the ultra-traditional burger that is popular in Rome, while in Milan it is usual to prefer the chicken burger or the cheeseburger; a traditionalist panorama, which however reserves a good slice of the market, in line with world trends, for the big news such as vegetarian and vegan burgers – among them the avocado burger and quinoa burger – and sweet burgers.
According to Doxa research, we are third among the countries most fond of burgers, behind only England and France. Not surprisingly, given that it is in these three countries that the signature sandwich movement was born, a real revolution in the sector that continues today. A journey that began a long time ago, “between the early 2000s and the new decade” says Giacomo Ballarini, owner of Buns, a Veronese pub among the pioneers of the quality sandwich movement and author of Perfect Burger (Gribaudo, 144pp, 14 ,30 EUR). A movement born thanks to big names like Blend, in Paris, and Honest Burger, in London. Radical choices, such as those of putting a story and a tale on the plate, different raw materials and doing real gastronomic research, which have made school, paving the way for a real movement. Movement started in Italy with Al Mercato, a Milanese place that defines itself as a burger bar, where “the sandwiches were designed not so much to combine something between two slices of bread, but were inspired for the first time by something else. In their case, from travel experiences “.
From the first experiences to today, in the last five or six years, a movement has developed like wildfire in part to that of the Neapolitan pizza, which from absolutely poor and pop food, is now in full revaluation. The meaning, today “is no longer that of simply creating a quick meal, but a gastronomic experience. We will never be a real kitchen, but surely ours are not simple sandwich shops”, but “restaurants serving hamburgers” as a gloss. Gennaro Cariulo from Da Gigione, in Pomigliano d’Arco (NA). From Ballarini’s Veronese recipes revisited in a sandwich key, to the ultra-selected meat of Cariulo, this new way of understanding this food passes through some key points. Advanced cooking techniques, certainly, but above all a real creative process and a movement of gastronomic research that has common cornerstones throughout Italy. And beyond.
Panino con tartare di carne (Gigione) The obsessive attention to the raw material – and to cooking -. Having surpassed the step of “any meat in any bread”, in this historical moment the simple side dish has become something more. “The hamburger – explains Cariulo – is the center of our research, and it is a 360 ° work. We started from the study of the simple hamburger, now six years ago, starting to raise the size, and then marry it with a type of bread. Neapolitan revisited, to bring it closer to our culture “. A work on ingredients, regional roots and cooking techniques, which the Neapolitan Da Gigione has in common with many locals throughout Italy. Starting with the Savoy Divin Panino, which cleared through customs the steamed sandwiches in the shadow of the Mole, a few steps from La Farcia, a project that aims to combine a quick snack, with high quality ingredients and Piedmontese meat. Movement, that of the sandwich, which has also taken root in Bologna, with the WellDone Gourmet Burger, where meats from non-intensive Italian farms are combined with self-produced sandwiches with only organic flours. Signature sandwiches, which can also be recognized in small “special” places such as the Miles in Bologna, with a jazzy feel and the Public House in Caserta, run by an all-female force and inspired by haute cuisine. Or who make belonging to the eco-sustainable philosophy the pivot of their business, such as Sciuè il panino vesuviano, from Pomigliano d’arco, member of the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance and with a passion for signature cuisine, so much so that on paper in rotation, there are “starred” recipes, such as Terno Secco, signed by Michele Deleo and the master pizza maker Gianfranco Iervolino.
Il pane è fondamentale e merita la stessa ricerca della carne. (foto: Buns)A new bread. “Before even thinking of opening Buns – says Ballarini -, I became passionate about leavened products and white art and I began to study one of my recipes, now entrusted to a Veronese craftsman who works for us”. “Bread is a base, it is not the center of work, but it must still have personality”, capable of holding up, according to a general voice from Milan to Sicily, the great game of balance that is the contemporary sandwich. Golden rule wherever you approach a signature sandwich, as in the case of Ino in Florence, by Alessandro Frassica, who dedicated spring 2018 to a series of meetings on bread as the protagonist or even 200 degrees of Rome, which concludes the baking of bread in the oven from which the place takes its name, 50panino, a Neapolitan place born from the idea of a master of dough like Ciro Salvo. Or Zia Rosetta, also in the capital, who dedicated all of her format to a format of bread. Many, more and more, are those who make bread “at home”, such as the Burgheria of Turin, Tricolore Panini, which in Rome moved from Monti to Testaccio and one of the precursors of the movement,Ham Holy Burger in Milan.
12 morsiFish, not just on the plate. But also in the sandwich. “One of the new frontiers – according to Scognamiglio, of 12 bites in Naples – is precisely that of opening up to new types of ingredients, despite a still refractory public”. To overcome resistance “I try to bring all the hints into a bite, from acid to bitter, passing through sweet, savory, astringent. Only by focusing on the 360 ° flavor, regardless of the protein , we will be able to clear customs something different from the classic hamburger “. A job that unites many locals throughout the country, from big names such as Pescaria, which from Polignano a Mare has now also opened in Milan, bringing its sandwiches with cuttlefish, swordfish, tuna and the flavor of that Puglia to the north. this pairing is born. Panini di mare is from Vieste, in the Gargano, which is also expanding its franchise in cities like Milan and Turin, while it was born in Trani Peschef, specializing in gourmet fish-based sandwiches, both cooked and raw. A bond that tastes of the sea, which reaches up to Mestre, where Mr. Fish heads, and to Milan and Udine, where you can taste Shi’s rice and sushi burgers
Like veggie burgers, the last frontier of the sandwich world that opens up to what is an increasingly large slice of people with different needs and food choices. Matteo Toto, founder of the Flower Burger chain, the first one dedicated to the vegan world in Italy, has chosen to bet everything “on the fact that vegan does not mean sad”, first of all, but above all that “vegan does not mean tout court imitation of a dish that in reality it is part of another food culture “. “I don’t need to sell my sandwiches to fill them with a cheese that is not made of milk,” he says confidently. Our work is all about flavor as such, without thinking about the names of the ingredients. ” Therefore, the ban on substitutes of various types and the green light for a new vegetable culture, for an increasingly widespread work, so much so that veggie sandwiches are found in traditional burgers, as a minority proposal, and in specialized burgers. This sector of the market includes names such as VeGusta, in the capital, which works with entirely organic material, the franchising present throughout Italy – including Sardinia – Universo Vegano, or Vegan World, a Milanese restaurant dedicated to vegan cuisines from all over the globe, panini “American style” included. Or even the first veggie sandwich shop in the land of Fiorentina, or Vegan come Koala.
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