A bar in Trastevere, Rome.; Photo: Izzet Keribar / Getty Cicchetti in Venice. Photo: iStock / Getty The love story started with a paper bag.
It was the thick of the pandemic, and Stef Ferrari had just moved to Italy to study the country’s history and culture at the Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence. She stopped by a historic cafe for a drink and was surprised when the server handed her a bag along with her paper cup (the cafe was serving takeout only while the world waited for a vaccine). “I was like, ‘I didn’t order anything, this must be for someone else,’” remembers Ferrari, an Emmy-winning producer and food writer - no relation to the racing family.
But the server at Caffe Gilli insisted. Inside the bonus bag was a tray of bite-size snacks: a paper cup of green olives, homemade crackers and brioche sandwiches with garlicky goat cheese to go along with her drink. That was Ferrari’s introduction to stuzzichini, the complimentary snack that often comes with your drink at a bar in Italy.
As she saw it, the appetisers represented “a gesture of hospitality and care,” and the beginning of an obsession. Like tapas in Spain, stuzzichini can be simple or elaborate, from a bowl of peelable lupini beans to a fancier spread - like her Florentine experience - just a small something to whet the appetite. The tiny acts of kindness sparked a years-long investigation into the custom that led to Ferrari’s new book, Stuzzichini: The Art of the Italian Snack .
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