Ricotta cheese cake. Pasta and chickpea stew. Anchovies with endive. All of these dishes are commonly spotted on menus throughout Rome, yet people may not realize they trace their origins to the city’s Jewish Ghetto, and the community that has called it home for more than 2,000 years. (Just look to the beloved fried artichoke, carciofi alla Giudia, which literally means Jewish-style artichokes.)
There are three distinct groups of Jewish communities in Rome, each of which has contributed immensely to the city’s cultural and culinary treasure trove. The Italkim arrived back in the second century BCE, and have remained in the area ever since; the Sephardim of the Iberian Peninsula escaped to Rome during the Spanish Inquisition; and the Libyans moved here in the 1960s, when Jews were fleeing many Arabic-speaking countries (a large number of whom immigrated there because they already spoke Italian, given Libya was once a colony).
On August 29, this history will be celebrated in Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen, a new cookbook exploring just that: la cucina Ebraica Romana. Written by Jewish food expert Leah Koenig (who has also authored the tomes The Jewish Cookbook and Modern Jewish Cooking), the book goes deep on the history, culture, and food of the community that helped shape so much of Roman cuisine.
We spoke with Koenig, who is based in Brooklyn, about the inspiration for the book—and her very favorite spots in the Jewish Ghetto.
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How did you decide on Jewish Rome as the focus for this cookbook?
My previous book was The Jewish Cookbook, a 400-recipe behemoth spanning the entirety of the Jewish food world. So when I was thinking about what I wanted my next book to be, I knew I wanted it to be more personal and more focused on a specific part of Jewish cuisine.
I’m not Roman, but Rome, in many ways, is responsible for my being a Jewish food writer. When I first started writing full time, it was around the time that I got married, and we went on our honeymoon in Rome. I had been to Rome a few times prior to that, but I had never meaningfully connected with the Roman Jewish ghetto.
We met all of these people, and had Shabbat dinner at this kosher caterer’s house. I came across all of these foods that were completely unfamiliar to me, as someone who had grown up eating Ashkenazi Jewish foods. And yet, when I ate them, I immediately connected to them. So, I wanted to write a love letter to Jewish Rome because it gave so much to me and I want to give something back to the community.
Were you concerned about tackling this subject as someone who isn’t Roman?
