Alas, many of the most vibrant Jewish communities were north of the Front on Spetember 8, 1943, and therefore fell into Nazi hands following the Fascist collapse -- up until then Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and minister of the Interior, had systematically stymied German attempts at deportation by having his bureaucrats find fault with the requests or tell the Germans that the necessary papers had expired or were missing (there was a war on, after all). The Germans were incensed and Himmler accused Ciano of subversion, but there wasn't much they could do until they had direct control.
Mira Sacerdoti and her family were among the fortunate; they managed to get to Korcula, an island in the Adriatic off Yugoslavia, and though German airplanes occasionally strafed their town they were otherwise left alone. After the war she returned to a changed land -- families were scattered and entire communities had vanished. With time however many of the survivors returned and established families; the reconstruction began.
One unexpected victim of the tragedy was Italian Jewish cooking; it was primarily family oriented, and almost entirely passed on from mother to daughter, aunt to niece. Many of the younger women establishing families had been too young to cook before the war and now had nobody to turn to. Mira, on the other hand, still had her mother to learn from and remembered the dishes prepared by her aunts and neighbors. Once her children were grown they asked her to write down the recipes they had loved in childhood. She did, under the title Italian Jewish Cooking (Hill of Content Publ., Melbourne Australia -- I have an Italian translation).
The book is delightfully written, with lots of recipes and menus for the major Jewish holidays. During Hanukkah week, she notes, it's the custom to serve sweets and other foods fried in oil, as the oil used in the frying also commemorates the miraculous oil that kept the sacred flame of the Temple alight for 8 days following the victory of the Maccabeans over Antiochus of Syria in 165 BC.
She suggests:
- As a first course:
Salame di spinaci, a pasta roll stuffed with spinach, or
Risotto con le uvette, risotto with raisins. - As a Second Course:
Pollo Fritto Hanukkah, Fried Chicken Hanukkah style.
Melanzane alla giudea, Jewish-style eggplant, as a side dish. - For Dessert:
Precipizi, fritters that bring Neapolitan struffoli to mind.
Wishing you the best of Hanukkahs,
Kyle Phillips
