In the course of my
''virtual culinary travels" I recently came across mention of a
fascinating cookbook on Italian Jewish cuisine and its links with Jewish migration from many of the above countries (except Israel, of course - being a relatively new country in this region): "Cucina Ebraica:
Flavours of the Italian Jewish Kitchen" by American writer and
food historian Joyce Goldstein. The
introduction to the book looks at the migration and history of the Jewish people living in
various regions of Italy and the food and recipes that developed over time with
the meeting of these two cultures.
There has been a
Jewish presence in Rome, southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia since the before
the 2nd Century BC with waves of Jewish migrants from different parts of the
world settling in Italy over the coming centuries. Whilst many were forced to leave the country during the Inquisition (those
Catholics again!!), by and large they co-existed and integrated with the local
communities (well, ok there WAS the Jewish Ghetto in Venice!) till the country
was unified as one nation in 1848. This
rich blending of cultures continued through the 20th century until 1938 when
Benito Mussolini joined forces with Hitler and his Italian fascist party
suddenly embraced a policy of anti-Semitism almost as enthusiastically as the
Nazis. Porca Miseria!!
As a consequence many members of the Jewish
community were either killed or fled their homes and migrated to safer havens
in other parts of the world. Today the
comparatively smaller Italian Jewish community mainly lives in areas around Rome,
Milan and Turin but their history and influence within their adopted country
can be still be seen quite dramatically in the legacy of a distinctive Italian Jewish cuisine.
I have only just
begun to explore Cucina Ebraica ... there are fabulous and unusual
recipes for antipasti, meat & poultry and fish dishes. But one recipe that immediately attracted
me was in the Dolci or Desserts section ... a spice and fruit laden cake made with
pumpkin puree, almonds, cinnamon and lemon zest. I had never used pumpkin in a dessert
before; perhaps I was put off by those sickly sweet sounding pumpkin pie recipes you read about in the US south?! But as author Joyce Goldstein tells
us, Torta di Zucca Baruca is a cake recipe "from the town of
Treviso in the Veneto" and the use of pumpkin indicates Sephardic origins. (Sephardic Jews arrived in Italy starting in
the 1490s when they were expelled from Spain.)
The recipe is surprisingly simple to make once
you have pureed the pumpkin. I had to
make some substitutes due to lack of availability of some ingredients in India:
no candied citron so I left this out but increased the amount of dried fruit
and lemon zest. I also substitued dried cranberries for raisins (didn't have any in
my cupboard!) and I used brandy instead of wine as it's too expensive to cook
with in India!
The result was an
impressive looking golden-hued cake with a lovely moist texture and a very
subtle spicy - citrus taste ... goes perfectly with mangoes that were in season here the past few months.
Cucina Ebraica was published in 1998 and is now
unfortunately out of print. You can still get a copy on Amazon India for close
to R10,000; but I managed to get a good second hand copy on the abebooks.com
website (a second hand book portal with 35 million volumes) for US$5.00 plus postage to India. A bargain if I ever saw one!
Torta di Zucca
Barucca (Pumpkin cake from the Veneto)
Ingredients: I pumpkin or
butternut squash around 1kg, 3/4 C unsalted butter, 3/4 C sugar, 1/2 C ground
almonds, 1/2 C candied citron - minced, 1/3 C raisins soaked in 3T grappa or
wine (I used cranberries soaked in brandy), grated zest of 2 lemons, I/2 C
flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 t ground cinnamon, pinch of salt, 3 eggs -
separated
Method: Preheat oven to 160 dgrees C. Butter a 9 inch cake pan & line base with
parchment paper.
Peel and chop the
pumpkin into 1/2 inch dice, discading seeds and fibres. Should have about 4
cups. Melt butter in pot add pumpkin
and cook covered for 25 mins till it is soft.
(At this stage I used a hand blender to puree it.)
Put in mixing bowl
& whisk in sugar, almonds, citron, raisins (I chucked in the brandy too!)
and lemon zest. In another bowl sift
together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Add flour mixture to
the pumpkin mixture and blend together ... then add 3 egg yolks until
thoroughly combined. Whisk the egg
whites in separate clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold the whites thoroughly into the pumpkin
mixture and pour into prepared cake tin. Don't over beat!
Bake 45 to 60
minutes till cooked. (We currently have
a small dodgy Indian electric oven so I cooked it the full hour.) Remove to rack to cool, then invert onto
plate, remove parchment paper and turn back upright onto a serving platter.
As my Italian-Australian friend Josephine would have said: Bello gusto!!!
