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Related: About this forum(Jewish Group) A Taste of Tuscan Summer
When the Medicis imposed a ghetto on the Jews of Florence, Siena, and Rome in 1577, many Jews fled to Pitigliano, a hill town in southern Tuscany that was not under Medici rule. Jews flourished in this little Jerusalem; at one point, of the 4,000 people in Pitigliano, 30% were Jewish. In 1598, they built a beautiful synagogue. But the Medicis eventually took control of Pitigliano a few decades later, and Jewish life grew more restricted.
On a recent trip to Italywhere I was leading a New York Times Journey trip featuring Jewish food and heritageI visited Pitigliano. The synagogue is now fully renovatedalthough the original ark was brought to Israel after WWII, when the building was in a state of disrepair and neglect. Beneath the synagogue is the old mikveh, a slaughterhouse, and a matzo bakery with great photos of what the town looked like when Edda Servi Machlin, author of The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews, lived there before WWII and described the life and the recipes so lovingly.
We ate lunch at Hostaria del Ceccottino, where the menu includes food eaten by the now very tiny Jewish community. One of those recipes was made by roasting zucchini, pepper, onion, and eggplant (recipe here), which has become a regular dish at my home this summer with vegetables picked from the garden.
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elleng
(130,865 posts)Sharing the recipe!
Behind the Aegis
(53,951 posts)I don't post in the cooking group often, but I read it often. I know you are active there and figured you would share (you did!).
elleng
(130,865 posts)NEXT, maybe I'll COOK!
Happy to hear her story, about Italy.
Behind the Aegis
(53,951 posts)Hey, you might be interested on this: https://100jewishfoods.tabletmag.com/ I just stumbled across it!
elleng
(130,865 posts)EllieBC
(3,013 posts)I love food with a story.