An Italian cooking is also wonderful,
but it is as varied as the regions in Italy.
There's also a centuries long but little
known tradition of Jewish cooking in Italy.
In her new book,
Ala Judea Benedetta Jasmine Guetta,
she pays tribute to the culinary
heritage of Jews in Italy.
What are we making today?
I see some dessert and also something savory.
Yes, we're making two dishes.
We're making Montini, which are a
Jewish dish for the holiday of Purim.
They're sweet, they're almond cookies.
And then we're making contradict zucchini,
which is, as the name says, the zucchini
dish with marinated herbs and garlic.
I love it mountain because
I look like a little mouse,
precisely, exactly like that.
OK, so let's get started making the cookies.
Yeah, of course.
So I'll just start mixing almond flour,
almond flour.
Good yes, gluten free the ignore them
free which is excellent and sugar and an
egg and what kind of sugar do you use?
Any sugar will do.
The beauty of Italian cuisine
is that it's very forgiving.
We're not most of our recipes
are very simple and very plain,
so you don't need to ever worry.
They're generally pretty foolproof.
I also have some liquor that I will
use as needed. OK, that control?
OK, I'm using control here,
but again, very forgiving.
You can put the. Brandy or any other.
I love when you're driving you're just
mixing that with your hands, right?
Yeah, like that,
just like grandma used to do.
OK, I'm here for that then you
can really get the consistency.
What you want correct? Oht yeah,
but more of that in there I like it.
Do you know that it evaporates when
it goes in the oven? It evaporates.
It's OK, but it smells good.
It's got that orange.
It has that orange flavor.
I love that this is for Purim and
and these are just the cutest things
I've ever seen. How do you get?
I'll show you later.
You're practically make a mountain.
Then you slice it in half.
And then you sandwich it together
with the other half.
I could do that,
you said you said this is totally
within everyone's capabilities.
I promise. She says it's foolproof.
And I'm here for that because
baking is not one of my strong
suits. Alright, so once you're gonna
start, yes, just
saw the tiny bit more and your
kids will start making within
mountains little mountains.
So you make a bowl and then
you flatten it on the sides.
There you go OK alright.
And then that's where you
just want me to start.
Just pass you on that side.
Then you have the tray.
So just get like a handful
like this OK table and make
a little mountain and then in
shape it into a little mountain.
They don't rise in the oven, so that's
the size you're trying to achieve.
OK, alright I I've never made
a mountain cookie before,
so I mean if this is my first pass,
I'm gonna do my best with N1.
You are so kind to roll those mountains.
I will move on to preparing our zucchinis.
Alright, I have cheated
some of them already ready.
So I'll just show you the last few steps.
All right, I'm still working on my.
1st Mountain, by the way.
Ohh and for the record,
sorry I forgot one thing.
If you wanted to do the bipolar mountains
you would have to put some cocoa
powder in half and half of the mix,
yes, but you can start with the simple
mountains and then upgrade to the higher.
Yes, we're just doing the one
colored mountain right now,
so I've already crystallized
the same zucchinis.
It's about every zucchinis cutting
for slices or horizontally.
OK, and do you want to get the oil
super duper hot? Or I would like if
I had the thermometer. It would be
at 360 Fahrenheit OK, but you can
see when it starts bubbling up.
It's about to happen.
OK, so this would probably need one.
You know what? You
know what she did, y'all.
I have to tell you this because
I think this is such a great
thing that we learned today
is as we were preparing this
and letting the oil get warm.
She just took a like a
little piece of cilantro,
parsley, parsley, anywhere that I
added hand really and she just put it
in there and waited for it to start
bubbling. To know when the oil was ready.
So if you don't have a thermometer, I
thought that was a great trick. Yeah, we like
that. Actually, what I would do at
home is I would do it with a slice of
the apple because the slice of Apple
also has the benefit of at
least reportedly removing the
smell of the oil when it fries,
so you can start with the tiny slice
of apple and then move on. That is OK.
That is very good news. You can use.
Yeah, exactly alright.
We try to make our like it.
OK so I'm just putting in my
zucchinis, waiting for them to.
Come pretty golden.
It will take us a couple of
minutes couple of minutes, but I
can tell you what did you what I'm
not gonna do? What kind of oil
do you use? Is it I'm doing here?
Sunflower oil peanut oil would work well.
Avocado oil would work well.
Most types of oil I just
wouldn't use extra virgin.
We do have extra virgin but
we will use it just to top
the zucchini at the end with that.
OK, So what I'm gonna do now is
while these are getting ready I'll
mix the garlic with herbs.
I've got parsley, basil and mint.
OK, depending who you ask it
could be yes to variously No2,
variously yesterday is, you know to.
Basically, you know grandmothers.
They all have opinions,
and they sure do,
so I'm gonna go with the three of them,
but I'm sure that somebody back in
Rome would pick a fight about it.
Ohh, we don't have any
fights or no fights on new day,
but I think we should use them all.
But you know more herbs, more flavor.
So I love all those herbs.
So let's just pile them. Oops.
And then I'm gonna throw in
some white wine vinegar.
So tell me really quickly.
About cooking I love Judea.
Yeah, right.
That's what we're here for you.
This is Jewish Italian cooking.
It's a Jewish.
It's a book dedicated to
Jewish Italian cuisine.
Most people don't even know
that they are Jews in Italy,
so I always have to explain to people
that yes, they're Jews in Italy.
Yes, it's a beautiful,
very ancient community that dates
back to the ancient Roman times.
So we've been there for millennials actually.
And we have our own distinctive cuisine,
and we contributed substantially
to the cuisine.
Italy, and that's something
that most people don't know.
For example,
when you think about eggplant,
Italians didn't know how to cook
with eggplants for centuries.
It was the Jews that brought the
eggplants to Italy well and told them
how to use it so you wouldn't have,
you know excellent caponata
or like parmigiana.
If it wasn't for the Jewish contribution.
So it's great news we are
about at a time right now.
OK, perfect we're gonna adjust it.
So I'm gonna try this now.
You just basically once they fry it
up and everything, you just fry up.
That would be picking them from here, huh?
Sprinkling them with this topping of herbs.
And let it sit for about 24 hours
so that it gets even yummier OK.
And then that's it.
That's your issue would serve it
with nice bread as an appetizer.
This is so fresh.
Chasing this is so delicious.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
Thank you for sharing your family story.
Thank you for sharing all this
delicious food. This is great.
I'm going to keep eating now.
Thank you.
You're so welcome.