The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews; Traditional Recipes and Menus and a Memoir of a Banished Way of Life

New York: Everest House, 1981. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Susan Gray (Illustrations) and Deborah B. Siegel (. The format is approximately 7.75 inches by 9.5 inches. 254 pages. Some pages in multi-column format. Footnotes. Illustrations. Index of Text and Photographs. Index of Recipes and Menus. Index of Dairy, Meats, and Pareve Recipes. Decorative dust jacket. The dust jacket has some wear and soiling. This combines kosher recipes used by the Italian Jews with a loving description of Jewish life in Pitigliano, the "little Jerusalem of Italy". Edda Servi Machlin (1926-2019), who came from a vibrant Italian Jewish community that was shattered by World War II, introduced her cuisine to Americans when Jewish food was thought to be something else. Ms. Machlin described the village of her childhood as marked by tolerance and cooperation between Jewish and Christian residents, but that began to change in 1936 when Benito Mussolini entered into a pact with Germany. In 1943, her parents and youngest brother were sent to a concentration camp in northern Italy and she, two brothers and a sister fled into the hills of Tuscany. "We found safety in the ranks of the partisans," she wrote, "and with those generous farmers who risked their own lives to shelter us." The family reunited after the war. In 1958 Ms. Machlin moved to New York,. In 1960 she married Eugene Machlin. Her cookbook-writing career was set in motion by friends who would take her to the city's Italian restaurants. "‘Italian' food was mediocre, to put it mildly," she wrote. She started inviting these friends to dine at her home instead, preparing recipes for them that she remembered from Italy. She began writing the recipes down. From a 2019 NYT obituary by Neil Genzlinger. Friends urged her to write down her recipes, and in 1981 she brought a little-known side of Jewish food to the public. Edda Servi Machlin, who survived the harrowing World War II years in Italy by hiding out with anti-Fascist partisans, then immigrated to the United States and wrote a definitive cookbook on Italian Jewish food, died on Aug. 16 at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She was 93. In 1981, when Ms. Machlin published "The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews," few people were aware of the distinctive Jewish culinary traditions of that part of the world, or of the centuries-long history behind them. Especially in the United States, where dishes from Central and Eastern Europe dominated Jewish cuisine, many Jewish readers were surprised to learn that instead of hamantaschen, the triangular pastries associated with Purim, her book offered a fried pastry known as Haman's ears. The book did more than just offer recipes; it recounted her memories of growing up in Pitigliano, a town in Tuscany that was known as the little Jerusalem because — at least until World War II — it had a vibrant Jewish community and culture, one that had been there for centuries. She told of an underground communal oven that, when she was young, was used only for baking matzo at Passover.
Edda Debora Rafaella Servi was born on Feb. 22, 1926, in Pitigliano. Her father, Azeglio, was the village rabbi. Her mother, Sara (DiCapua) Servi, provided the example and knowledge that later turned up in her cookbooks. From the Publisher: This book started a genre and created a sensation in the media. It has become a classic; its recipes have inspired the establishment of new restaurants, its pages have been quoted in Judith Rossner's novel "Olivia", and many of its recipes have been inserted into a host of cookbooks. Extracted from a review by Anthony Dias Blue, Sausalito Revue: When you think of the term "Jewish food" the immediate image is of massive beef flanden, potato latkes, stuffed derma, and chicken fat. But there other Jewish foods - cuisines from wherever Jews who observed dietary laws happened to settle. Edda Servi Machlin was born in Pitigliano in Italy's Tuscan hills. A Jewish population had thrived in that ancient town for more than two thousand years. The continuity of this community was broken tragically by the Nazi's, and its residents were scattered throughout the world. Mrs. Machlin escaped to the United States and brought with her a deep and loving understanding of the wonderful Italian Jewish cooking of her childhood. She has graciously shared her memories with us in this lovely cookbook, which is full of fond, bittersweet memories and splendid recipes. All the dishes are kosher and have been adapted to the American kitchen. This is a sensitive and delectable book for Jews and non-Jews alike.