Wander the narrow alleyways of the Roman Jewish Ghetto with Sara Povancello in the debut of this 7-part docuseries. Brave a cacophony of flavor and animated culture, and top it off with a helping of the Ghetto’s storied street-food along the way.
https://www.kosher.com/shows/tasting-italy
[Music] welcome to Italy an ancient country with a rich history and culture who has given us some of the most delicious food in the world we’re here with tuscanini a kosher brand that’s dedicated to bringing those authentic Flavors of Italy right to your table with the help of some culinary Artisans and amazing chefs we travel through Italy exploring all the different regions and sampling all the amazing Foods this beautiful country has to offer hey everybody I’m your culinary host Roberto serini and in this episode we’re going to the former Roman Jewish ghetto and try some delicious Roman Jewish street food with our local guide Sarah panelo and if you aren’t hungry trust me you’re going to be let’s check it [Music] out ah Rome from its possibly narrow streets to its sprawling piia this is the home of Vespas tiny cars and amazing food without a doubt Ro is a foodie Paradise reflected even in its street art while every neighborhood has its own character there is one very special corner of roome that has a rich culinary history not to be overlooked so we met up with our local guide Sarah ponelo to discover all the delicious Treasures the ancient Roman ghetto neighborhood has to offer this is the street of the kosher restaurants kosher Sushi Kosher meat kosher pasta really whatever you are looking for is here now we get into this Bakery and you are going to to see how they make the typical Pizza Bianca and pizza Rosa the pizza made in this F is made the same way they have it making it for Millennia dough is naturally cold fermented in large volumes to create amazingly complex flavors you can smell the ferment it’s amazing even raw then on a well flowered surface the dough is rolled out almost impossibly thin a style typically only found in Rome and extremely difficult to do which is why I have to ask our piz YOLO how long he’s been at [Music] this you can see the Adoration his work as he rolls out a canvas stretcher where the pizza will proof with just some olive oil and salt when ready it goes into an ancient oven built into the wall and becomes the ambrosia in just each one an absolute Masterpiece where anything could be used as a topping to enjoy after a few selfies there was no question we had to try some and for that Sarah brought us to her favorite place we are at Bon that’s a ker pizza place here where you can get any kind of koser pizza by weight what I love to do with my family and with my my friends is uh sharing many different slices and so I can eat as much as I can but what I want to show you here is the typical snack that locals in Rome have and it’s the pizza Rosa and the pizza bianka don’t you dare naming this fuka because it’s not fuka and the crunchiest it is the better it is for us among the meals that they offer you can see that there are the Pomodori col Rizo so Tomatoes filled with rice and this is one of the most typical Jewish Roman recipes for Passover cuz the Jewish community of Rome is Italian and most of us have sephardi ancestors so during Passover we can eat rice so we don’t keep a any kind of diet during Passover during PES and we have any kind of rice that we want so the chori is one of the most typical uh Roman vegetables and it’s very bitter but it’s delicious my husband always makes fun of me because the most typical uh Roman and Jewish recipes always have oil salt and pepper that’s all and then it’s delicious hi guys uh here you see my cousin is he’s here he’s my cousin and he they are his friends what are you going to get I the best you see pizza bianka and pizza Rosa so where these kids are having the snack is the meeting spot of our Elder ladies of the former ghetto if you are a teenager M Shabbat you come here you believe that nobody is looking after you but there is for sure somebody in the area having dinner in one of the scottian restaurants then can keep an eye while there are spies everywhere there are also restaurants everywhere proof that Jewish Roman Cuisine is thriving in the Eternal City of Rome and something that Chef Giovani has a lot to say about I am Italian and I am Jew my family name it’s uh means that my family it’s in Rome since 1,555 when the pope decid to tell to all to all the Jews that live in the in the Roman neighborhood to come in Italy to be closed on the ghetto for 500 years that was a very bad period of course but in every in every bad things there is always something that is good for instance the the Jews that live in Rome in a ghetto they start to a tradition of food is so good that the culinary culture of the Jews just became Italian and Roman kopa Juda the Roman Jews aroke is something that every Roman feel like on even if is it from the Jews and the nice things is that some of those recipe now are well known all over the world also because of tuscanini making it kosher and give us the possibility to use it and to to continue the tradition of these recipe that are from thousand of year ago most of the Jewish Roman recipes uh uh date back the ghetto times Jewish people were oppressed most of them were very poor secondhand ingredients but they made them taste delicious and the best example to me is the fried arti choke and with everyone in agreement that the Roman Jewish artichoke is the Hallmark of this unique culinary history we had to try it and Restaurante Nona does it better than perhaps anyone first of all the way you clean it the correct way to do it is uh by using this really sharp and really short knife yeah what you do is slide this blade under each leave if you’re not very delicate and very precise you’re going to break the fibers in a way that it releases a lot of the iron inside and it oxidize really fast wow so once it’s done it looks like a a blossom and and uh it’s ready to be thrown into boiling oil the first time it’s for 15 to 20 minutes it’s what softens the arch joke and when someone orders an arch joke you’re then throwing it back in a deep fryer and it’s 1 to 2 minutes and that’s what makes it crispy outside while it stays soft inside in the ghetto imagine it was not a nice place to be so frying was a good way of cooking food that might not have been the best and still making it t was my compliment that’s it but it stayed because it’s delicious it’s one of the best things you can e it’s funny how nowadays many of the best offers of all around the world Cuisine are what once was believed to be poor kitchen really poor yeah yeah that’s amazing I mean there’s a lot of ways to you LS but I’m going to say this is the best B darks is this your favorite food I love it I love it they’re so good mean favorite food is a big statement oh yeah I I I would know I wouldn’t know what to choose but it’s definitely in in the top five I don’t know I could put this up it’s like a potato chip on the outside and then inside it’s like a filet I don’t even know yeah it’s delicious having delighted myself on this ancient dish it was time for a little dessert so Sarah once again came to the rescue and brought us to one of the most characteristic Jewish bakeries in the world you see us keep the line don’t tell anybody okay so here we are in front of the most famous ker Bakery of Roma it name is Bon there is not even there is not even the need of the sign everybody knows where Boon is and this is the same family that the same business from almost 300 years they don’t share their recipes with anybody but with members of their own family and I totally understand right the most famous thing that they have is the pizza EA pizzaa is a giant biscuit that has inside almonds pine nuts raisin and Candi fruit another typical dish that you should get here is the ricotta cheesecake with chocolate or with ch with fresh rot having obtained our treasure and retreating back to the Piaza Sarah says a little prayer before diving into the sweet delights which left her well understandably speech stricken do I have chocolate on my face no okay you are teasing me yeah it’s still hot please take one please oh I mean even the sound guy couldn’t resist this lighter than air cheesecake a characteristic Jewish recipe like others that Sarah says comes from a very unique set of circumstances from Middle Ages till 1890 this area was the area of the fish market of Rome so the fact that Jewish people had fish market next door to their ghetto doesn’t mean that they could have eat any fish they wanted not at all and it’s not just because of cashroot restrictions it’s because of the Pop’s restrictions and one of them was that we as Jews didn’t deserve the big kind of fish but just the small ones Anchovies and sardines so one of the most typical Jewish Roman recipe is Al fortunately Chef Giovani has us covered as he goes over the right way to make this ancient and delicious recipe that isur to the light now we are very very important to check the leaves uh because it’s for the Judaism if you eat three wors it’s like one Pig wall so you have to cut it and clean very very very very very well you put it in water you add some salt or take off eventually the the worms the bugs so this is very very very easy it’s in IND indivia fresh anchovy salt pepper and olive oil very very very easy so this is a a very old recipe that is from the old ghetto when the juice was in the ghetto for 500 years and they cannot use anything than the poor fishes and poor vegetable in the old ghetto area there is a sign on the wall that it’s the maxing leg of the fish can use it so they start to eat small one so here we have very very very simple it can be amazing for the Shabbat dinner that you will use to eat fish also because you can have it cold or hot in this case we are making mono portion but you can do it also multi- portion one it’s up to you a little bit of salt a little bit of ground pepper and some olive oil no matter if you’re making these sing serving portions or decide to make a larger format for the family the process is exactly the same layering escarole and fillets on top of each other with some salt oil and pepper from there they all go in a 350° oven for about an hour halfway through you’ll want to extract any cooking liquid that has formed and return them to the oven to crisp up only thing left to do is plate them up with a light drizzle of tuscanini extra virgin olive oil over the top feel free to garnish them as you like either with some fresh tomatoes and basil or even a Twist of citrus to add a bit of brightness again no matter if it’s just you or a plate for the entire family this unique ancient dish is amazingly simple to make and will surely be enjoyed by everyone connecting present flavors to an amazing history bone apptio [Music]
2 Comments
Mmmmmmm.
Very nice! the Jewish Ghetto in Rome is awesome!