Review: Cooking alla Giudia
Jan. 27th, 2023 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is one of the cookbooks that we got with holiday money. Neither of us had heard of Italian Jewish cooking before, although we're familiar with Italian and Jewish cuisines separately. This book makes a nice introduction to that, with bright pictures and charming recipes.
Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta
The front matter includes an introduction, A Brief History of Jews in Italy and Their Cuisine, What Makes Food Jewish Italian, My Mission, Ingredients, Tools and Utensils. The laws of kashrut forbid several things common in Italian cuisine, such as pork and shellfish, so Italian Jews have come up with their own versions, like goose prosciutto (which I would love to try). Because they avoid mixing meat and milk the same meal, dairy-based recipes often have a nondairy version, making this a good resource for people who avoid dairy for whatever reason. Some features that caught my eye were combining raisins with pine nuts (both of which we like) and using cinnamon to flavor beef.
The chapters are Antipasti (Starters), Zuppe e ministre (Soups), Pasta e Riso (Pasta and rice), Pollame e pesce (Poultry and Fish), Manzo, Vitello e agnello (Beef, Veal, and Lamb), Contorni (Sides), Dolei (Desserts), Biscotti e dolcetti (Cookies and Sweets), and Pane (Bread). Scattered throughout the middle of the book are entries about Jewish Italian locations, holidays, and customs. This makes a nice cultural overview if you are curious about Jewish history in Italy. Bear in mind that both Italian and Jewish cuisine use alcohol in cooking, primarily wine, which not everyone likes to do. If a recipe has other flavors and not much wine, you can just omit it; other times, you can replace it with another liquid in the recipe, like broth; but in some it's the main flavoring agent so those won't work as well. Another point: many recipes that used to be made with schmaltz (chicken fat) are now made with olive oil. That's going to make a huge difference in flavor and perhaps texture, so if you don't like one, consider trying the other.
The recipes range from simple to complicated. Some were things we'd be happy to try in a restaurant but consider too fussy to attempt at home. One recipe we really want to try is Pollo alla romana con i peperoni (Chicken with Tomatoes and Peppers). Around here we can get mixed cherry tomatoes with spectacular flavor that would be perfect for this, but it'll have to wait for summer. No point trying to cook it with styrofoam produce. :/ Pharaoh's Wheel is one of the raisin and pine nut dishes, similar to a noodle kugel. There are some promising party recipes like Pâté di Tonno (Tuna Pâté) and Charoset (a sweet paste made of nuts and dried fruits). A couple of ricotta desserts sound very tempting: Cassola (Ricotta Cheesecake) and Crostata di ricotta i visciole (Ricotta and Sour Cherry Crostata). One that's perfect for Pagan rituals, among other occasions, is Mezzaluna di Rosh Hashana (Sweet Half-Moon Pie); if you can't find good candied fruit, use dried fruit. I am imagining this with candied Buddha's hand. Bulo (Raisin Rolls) do not contain pine nuts in the original recipe, but I think they'd work well there.
The back matter offers Resources, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, Kashrut Index, and General Index. So if you are cooking according to Jewish traditions, there's a quick way to sort Basari (Meat), Halavi (Milk), and Pareve (Neither Meat Nor Milk). If you avoid dairy, just skip the Halavi (Milk) category and use the other two. The general index lists recipe names, some ingredients, and some tools but is not comprehensive. Neither raisins nor pine nuts were cited as ingredients with recipes featuring them, which is annoying since that pairing is one of the signature features of Italian Jewish cuisine. Beef is a cited ingredient but cinnamon is not.
On the whole, we really enjoyed reading this cookbook. I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes. Highly recommended.
Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta
The front matter includes an introduction, A Brief History of Jews in Italy and Their Cuisine, What Makes Food Jewish Italian, My Mission, Ingredients, Tools and Utensils. The laws of kashrut forbid several things common in Italian cuisine, such as pork and shellfish, so Italian Jews have come up with their own versions, like goose prosciutto (which I would love to try). Because they avoid mixing meat and milk the same meal, dairy-based recipes often have a nondairy version, making this a good resource for people who avoid dairy for whatever reason. Some features that caught my eye were combining raisins with pine nuts (both of which we like) and using cinnamon to flavor beef.
The chapters are Antipasti (Starters), Zuppe e ministre (Soups), Pasta e Riso (Pasta and rice), Pollame e pesce (Poultry and Fish), Manzo, Vitello e agnello (Beef, Veal, and Lamb), Contorni (Sides), Dolei (Desserts), Biscotti e dolcetti (Cookies and Sweets), and Pane (Bread). Scattered throughout the middle of the book are entries about Jewish Italian locations, holidays, and customs. This makes a nice cultural overview if you are curious about Jewish history in Italy. Bear in mind that both Italian and Jewish cuisine use alcohol in cooking, primarily wine, which not everyone likes to do. If a recipe has other flavors and not much wine, you can just omit it; other times, you can replace it with another liquid in the recipe, like broth; but in some it's the main flavoring agent so those won't work as well. Another point: many recipes that used to be made with schmaltz (chicken fat) are now made with olive oil. That's going to make a huge difference in flavor and perhaps texture, so if you don't like one, consider trying the other.
The recipes range from simple to complicated. Some were things we'd be happy to try in a restaurant but consider too fussy to attempt at home. One recipe we really want to try is Pollo alla romana con i peperoni (Chicken with Tomatoes and Peppers). Around here we can get mixed cherry tomatoes with spectacular flavor that would be perfect for this, but it'll have to wait for summer. No point trying to cook it with styrofoam produce. :/ Pharaoh's Wheel is one of the raisin and pine nut dishes, similar to a noodle kugel. There are some promising party recipes like Pâté di Tonno (Tuna Pâté) and Charoset (a sweet paste made of nuts and dried fruits). A couple of ricotta desserts sound very tempting: Cassola (Ricotta Cheesecake) and Crostata di ricotta i visciole (Ricotta and Sour Cherry Crostata). One that's perfect for Pagan rituals, among other occasions, is Mezzaluna di Rosh Hashana (Sweet Half-Moon Pie); if you can't find good candied fruit, use dried fruit. I am imagining this with candied Buddha's hand. Bulo (Raisin Rolls) do not contain pine nuts in the original recipe, but I think they'd work well there.
The back matter offers Resources, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, Kashrut Index, and General Index. So if you are cooking according to Jewish traditions, there's a quick way to sort Basari (Meat), Halavi (Milk), and Pareve (Neither Meat Nor Milk). If you avoid dairy, just skip the Halavi (Milk) category and use the other two. The general index lists recipe names, some ingredients, and some tools but is not comprehensive. Neither raisins nor pine nuts were cited as ingredients with recipes featuring them, which is annoying since that pairing is one of the signature features of Italian Jewish cuisine. Beef is a cited ingredient but cinnamon is not.
On the whole, we really enjoyed reading this cookbook. I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes. Highly recommended.
