Jewish Style Artichokes
Carciofi alla Giudia
 Like many Jewish travelers, I have a tendency to seek out the Jewish connections in any city I visit. Stumbling across a generations-old deli, say, or a stone building etched with a Star of David from its former life as a synagogue, helps me feel at home when I am abroad. For Jews spending time in Rome, no trip is complete without a trek to the Roman Ghetto and a taste of Carciofi alla Guidia, literally "Jewish-Style Artichokes."
Known for their delicate chrysanthemum shape and crispy, salt-kissed taste, fried artichokes are a popular dish in restaurants across Italy's largest city. Their history however, stems back to 16th century, when Roman Jews were confined to an overcrowded, impoverished ghetto. Deep fried artichokes might seem like a delicacy now, but according to Matthew Goodman who authored, Jewish Food: The World at Table, "food [in the ghetto] was scarce [and] frying was the cheapest and easiest option of food preparations." jewish style fried artichokes
Goodman says that today, visitors to Rome can dine at Al Pompiere and La Taverna del Ghetto (kosher), which capitalize on the historical tourism industry by serving carciofi alla guida, along with other traditional Jewish Italian dishes. For cooks feeling adventurous enough to try this at home, Joyce Goldstein's celebrated cookbook, Cucina Ebraica, includes a painstaking (but delicious) recipe for carciofi alla guidia. The recipe was born of the year-long trial and error testing process Goldstein took to persuade the Green Globe artichokes grown in America to mimic their smaller, more tender Italian cousins. Her recipe introduction reads like an apology for America's clunky, oafish chokes: "They look easy: just pound the chokes open and fry, but--the stems are tough! The leaves fall off!" The recipe below offers a simplified adaptation--really more of a riff--on Goldstein's recipe, which attempts to capture the culinary essence of the original, without confining the cook to many frustrated hours in the kitchen. <<< Less |
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Leah Koenig is a freelance writer whose work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Gastronomica, Jewish Living, Lilith, Culinate, Beliefnet and other publications.
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