Cooking alla Giudia
A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Cooking alla Giudia is the ultimate tribute to the wonderfully rich, yet still largely unknown, culinary heritage of the Jews of Italy. From Roman deep-fried artichokes (carciofi alla giudia) to Venetian sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour sardines), Apulian orecchiette pasta, and Sicilian caponata, some of Italy’s best-known dishes are Jewish in origin. But little is known about the Jewish people in Italy and their culinary traditions. It was the Jews, for example, who taught Italians to eat the eggplant, and thus helped inspire the classic eggplant parmigiana and many other local specialties. With a collection of kosher recipes from all regions of Italy, including plenty of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, author Benedetta Jasmine Guetta is on a mission to tell the story of how the Jews changed Italian food, to preserve these recipes, and to share with home cooks the extraordinary dishes prepared in the Jewish communities of Italy. Highlighted throughout the book are menus with regional Italian specialties, along with short, useful guides to the Italian cities with Jewish history. The book will show how to integrate the recipes into your everyday meals and holiday traditions as well.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Guetta, creator of Labna, a kosher cooking blog specializing in Italian recipes, makes her U.S. debut with this fascinating deep dive into Jewish Italian food, a cuisine that reaches as far back as 66 CE when Jews arrived in Italy as slaves during the Jewish-Roman wars. Among their culinary contributions is the use of eggplant, exemplified here in appetizers including fried eggplant with melon, as well as a stew of eggplant and other vegetables. Jewish settlers of the 12th century imported orecchiette from France; the from-scratch version here is paired with a sauce of broccoli rabe, anchovies, garlic, and olive oil. Choices like chickpea soup with tendons and gristle embrace the centuries-long history of the Jewish ghetto, while more celebratory recipes geared toward holidays include Passover lamb with artichokes and fava beans, the Tuscan Hanukkah meal of fried chicken, and a variety of cookies and biscotti suitable as Purim treats. Following strictly kosher guidelines means an absence of pork and shrimp, nor can cheese or cream be included in any meat dish. As a result, there is goose prosciutto and salami, spaghetti carbonara with either dried beef or turkey bacon, and dairy-free lasagna with a béchamel sauce of olive oil and vegetable broth. Two cultures, each steeped in culinary tradition, complement each other in this insightful guide.
