A Familiar Tradition: Italian Jewish Food

This article reminds me greatly of my Italian Jewish family. Mrs. Machlin, an Italian Jew herself, speaks about her traditions, specifically when she celebrated Passover in Italy. She ate gefilte fish and motzoh ball soup, while drinking sweet wine. This is particularly interesting to me because my grandfather’s favorite food is gefilte fish, my grandmother’s favorite food is matzoh ball soup, and my mother’s favorite wine is the special sweet wine that she only drinks during Passover! Mrs. Machlin is actually an author who created the book “The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews.” She writes about ways to add Italian into a Passover Seder, such as making matzoh balls with olive oil instead of chicken fat. She also created her own styles of traditional Passover foods, such as charoses. There is a restaurant in Italy called Piperno’s that has a vegetable dish with baby artichokes that are difficult to find in our country, but this inspiring author/cook figured out a way to save time by “using regular artichokes by peeling off a significant portion of the outer, tough leaves and removing the choke.” Mrs. Machlin is trying to spread her knowledge of food all over the world, while combining her traditions and past experiences into new and improved recipes.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/31/garden/distinctive-foods-of-the-italian-jews.html?pagewanted=1

 

Whitney Punzone