Customer Reviews

The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews: Traditional Recipes and Menus and a Memoir of a Vanished Way of Life

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When I opened The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews, I was enchanted to learn about a culture I had only heard of in passing. As I began to cook from the recipes, I began to learn about Italian Jewry from the flavors, textures and aromas of the foods. Machlin's descriptions of the Holidays in Pitigliano are beautiful and the Holiday foods that she teaches to reader to make only enhance the image of a vivid, unique and beautiful culture we can only seek to admire from afar in our time.

Classic dishes, such as roasted chicken for Shabbat and Challah have become weekly staples at our house. Mushroom risotto and onion foccacias are so simple and so good. While it is possible to admire Machlin's writing in private, her story and her cuisine must be shared to be fully appreciated.

A beautiful book, with stories of the writer's community, and the life of Jews in Italy before WWII. Her recipes are clearly written, and, having had and used the book for years, I can say that I never found a bad recipe.

Her vegetable dishes are the best, kosher tuscan cuisine. I learned a new and optimum way of preparing spinach from this book that I use frequently. And also this book has been a good source for new holiday food.

I do not actually own this book, as I bought it for a friend of mine.

However, I had it in my hands a few times: Edda Machlin Servi is (was?) the last representative of a once flourishing jewish community in Pitigliano, on a pitoresque cliff at the very bottom of Toscana.

Machlin Servi has done her best to preserve the excellent recipes from olde times, as well as the magic spirit of Pitigliano (this town was once a prominent centre of learning for italian jewry. Wanna know more? Google it and you will find a good site with pics).

Great cuisine and great history: a combo worth having.

PS The pics are good too.

A wonderful introduction to the history of the Italian Jewish communities and their cuisine. I bought this book to learn more about the history and culture of the Italian Jewish Community. It so stimulated my appetite for more learning that I have now purchased a second book, "The Guide to Jewish Italy" by Annie Sacerdoti. If you have an appetite for more about the Jewish Community in Italy over the the last 600 years, this 2nd book provides serious food for thought. It also is a guidebook for visiting the remnants of what were flourishing Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities started by those fleeing the Inquisition and oppression elsewhere in Europe.