Some History

I did say I was going to try to give a bit of history as well as recipes. You just thought you would get off easily! So… If we are going to talk of food, we absolutely must understand its origins, the past. This is just slightly simplistic but I think the general point comes across:

In biblical times, the Temple was central in Jewish life. Because of the oppression inflicted on the tribes of Israel by invaders, we can date the beginning of the Diaspora to the year 70 BCE. The Jewish people began their worldwide wandering and, in following centuries, scattered north to the Germanic states. They were known as Ashkenazi Jews. Those who went to Spain were called Sephardic Jews. In a few instances, a city might be settled by both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Venice is one fine example. Jewish food is therefore Ashkenazi or Sephardic, more or less.

A few years before the Diaspora, however, there was a community living in Rome. Yes… some of my ancestors had started building the Coloseum. This is the oldest continual Jewish settlement in the history of Europe, always part of the cultural landscape, always living in isolation of some kind or another. Jewish food was, is, and always will be Italian food. Today, within the world of Jews in Italy (all 65000 of them), there are several smaller worlds; the native Italkim, the Sephardim driven out of Spain, the Mizrahim from North Africa, and of the Ashkenazim moving down from Germany and Eastern Europe. Ah, but Italian food prevails!

Sepharad is the Hebrew word for the Iberian peninsula that includes Spain and Portugal. And Jewish cooking adapted to the circumstances. Jews lived in Spain long before the Visigoth (Germanic) tribes invaded in 412 ACE; after the Moorish invasion of Spain in 700 ACE, there was a massive influx of Jews into Spain. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Spanish Judaism flourished under Muslim rule, producing poets and scholars. This is what is known as "the golden age of Jewry." Yes… we all got along just fine. What happened? 

Well... By the mid-thirteenth century, the Christians controlled the entire Peninsula except for a small area from Granada to the Mediterranean. In March 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decreed the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain. The Jews had to convert or leave; some went to Portugal, where Judaism could still be practiced freely. But Portugal expelled the Jews in 1497, and the tiny kingdom of Navarre followed in 1498. Judaism could be practiced nowhere openly in the Peninsula. Driven from their homes, the Sephardim established their own congregations in such places as Morocco, Italy, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Eretz Israel, and elsewhere.

To the Food

Herbs and generous use of spices makes the Sephardic Jewish cooking most aromatic. We use a lot of lemon, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil (by the gallon!), cumin, turmeric, zahtar, sumac, and more. Sephardic Jews are known for their love of cooking vegetables. Everything from salads to vegetables stuffed with meat and/or rice, and pies or Burekas, which have Feta, Haloumi (my sister calls this "squeeky cheese"), Ricotta, or Pecorino cheese, spinach, or potato fillings. Sephardic Jews from Morocco and other North African countries enjoy cumin, ginger, and saffron & chilies.

Jewish cooks from the eastern end of the Mediterranean have adapted their food and cooking as well. They make heavy use of cinnamon in their cooking, so much so that it is used as a savory accent for meat dishes. The kebabs, pilafs, and dolmades (stuffed vegetables) of Turkish Jews are still some of the most recognizable Sephardic dishes. Fruits, vegetables, spices, and grains were plentiful in the Mediterranean climate, and therefore plant foods figure quite heavily into Sephardic Jewish cooking.

A Quote: Israeli Cooking “A Food Mosaic”

“The Israeli table is composed of all the dishes from around the globe where Jews have passed through, lived, and still do today. New ways of preparing old recipes combined with the ability to adopt new ingredients to old alters the food for contemporary Israel. To these cooking styles and more, Jews from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yemen etc., have each made unique contributions to the national table. All Arab countries have more or less the same dishes only sometimes different names and adding this or that herb or spice. It has such an influence on Israeli table that even the original names stayed the same.”

from Elinoar Moore

TOMORROW... CARPACCIO!!!