Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen

I’ve been writing about global Jewish cuisine for more than 15 years–from Lithuania to Ethiopia and India to Morocco. But Rome’s Jewish community, which is over 2,000 years old (the oldest in Europe), captivated my heart and inspired my palate more than any other community.

When my husband and I first got married, we traveled to Rome (I had been before and was excited to share it with him.) We spent a lot of time in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto neighborhood, eating our weight in Carciofi alla Guidia (Jewish-style fried artichokes), and sour cherry and ricotta pie–two specialties from Roman Jewish cuisine. 

We also had a Shabbat dinner there at a kosher caterer’s home that changed the course of my life. The dinner was delicious (naturally), but absolutely nothing he served was familiar to me. Instead of brisket, chicken soup, and gefilte fish, he served Stracotto di Manzo–a rich beef stew made with red wine, and veal and chicken meatballs in a tomato and celery sauce. But while I had never eaten any of those dishes before, in the context of a Shabbat table they immediately felt familiar. At that dinner, I realized that Jewish cuisine was even deeper and more diverse than I’d ever realized, and I wanted to spend my life learning more about it. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but I became a Jewish food writer at that dinner table.