Family Journey
Rome
Montreal
5 recipes
Carciofi Alla Guidia ('Jewish Style' Fried Artichokes)
4 to 6 servings50 min
Ingredients
- 3 quarts olive oil for frying
- 3 lemons, divided
- 8 baby artichokes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Cook
Concia (Zucchini Salad)
4 to 6 servings1 h + marinating time
Ingredients
- 3 zucchinis, sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch thick pieces
- Olive oil for frying
- Salt and pepper
- 4 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ½ bunch fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Cook
Aliciotti Con indivia (Anchovies Baked With Escarole)
4 servings30 to 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 bunches escarole, rinsed and dried and roughly chopped
- 36 fresh anchovies or oil and vinegar marinated anchovies, skin on fillets
- 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon red chili flakes
Cook
Chicken Meatballs With Celery
4 to 6 servings2 h
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground chicken, dark meat
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 celery stalks, cut into 3 to 4 inch pieces crosswise
- 1 cup water
Cook
Spaghetti al Tonno (Spaghetti With Tomatoes and Tuna)
4 to 6 servings1 h
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ⅛ teaspoon red chilli flakes
- 24 ounces tomato passata (strained tomatoes)
- 6 ounces Italian oil packed tuna, drained
- salt and pepper to taste
- 16 ounce package of spaghetti
- 4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Cook
Recipes
1
Carciofi Alla Guidia ('Jewish Style' Fried Artichokes)
4 to 6 servings50 min
Ingredients
- 3 quarts olive oil for frying
- 3 lemons, divided
- 8 baby artichokes
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Cook
2
Concia (Zucchini Salad)
4 to 6 servings1 h + marinating time
Ingredients
- 3 zucchinis, sliced lengthwise into ¼ inch thick pieces
- Olive oil for frying
- Salt and pepper
- 4 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ½ bunch fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Cook
3
Aliciotti Con indivia (Anchovies Baked With Escarole)
4 servings30 to 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 bunches escarole, rinsed and dried and roughly chopped
- 36 fresh anchovies or oil and vinegar marinated anchovies, skin on fillets
- 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon red chili flakes
Cook
4
Chicken Meatballs With Celery
4 to 6 servings2 h
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground chicken, dark meat
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 3 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 celery stalks, cut into 3 to 4 inch pieces crosswise
- 1 cup water
Cook
5
Spaghetti al Tonno (Spaghetti With Tomatoes and Tuna)
4 to 6 servings1 h
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- ⅛ teaspoon red chilli flakes
- 24 ounces tomato passata (strained tomatoes)
- 6 ounces Italian oil packed tuna, drained
- salt and pepper to taste
- 16 ounce package of spaghetti
- 4 sprigs parsley, chopped
Cook
Growing up in the 1950s in Montreal, Italo Camerino remembers his father Enzo going to the fishmonger and asking for fish eggs that were typically discarded. He would take them home and drop them into vinegar to make an Italian delicacy or cure them and make bottarga, which brightens dishes with a smack of the sea. At home, where both of his parents cooked, there was roasted lamb, chicken and celery meatballs, fried zucchini with fresh herbs and vinegar, and pasta with tomato and tuna — all recipes from Rome’s Jewish community. “Everyone wanted to come to our house,” Italo says of his friends.
“Everyone wanted to come to our house”
There were also dishes that the family loved, but couldn’t find the ingredients for in Montreal at the time. Those recipes were reserved for visits to Rome and the years when the family relocated there for a stretch when Italo was little. Italo’s aunt Graziella, who owned a longstanding kosher restaurant in the Roman ghetto called Da Luciano, would prepare his favorites including alicotti con indivia, or bitter greens cooked with anchovies.
The recipes and Italo’s family have deep roots in the Eternal City’s Jewish community, which itself is more than two thousand years old, making it one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world. Italo’s mother’s family, the Pontecorvo’s, trace their lineage in Rome back to the Inquisition.
Life for both families was sharply interrupted during World War II. On October 16, 1943, when the ghetto was raided by Nazi soldiers, Enzo and his brother Luciano were tipped off by an Italian soldier, but decided to stay with their parents and were ultimately deported to Auschwitz, where several family members perished. Italo’s mother Silvana escaped the raid because her family had recently moved and when the Nazi soldiers checked records for Jewish homes, their new address wasn’t listed. She and her mother survived the war hiding in the country.
Enzo and Silvana both returned to Rome after the war, but in 1957, they left for Montreal. “My father was a survivor and he didn’t like being there because it reminded him too much of what he had lost. He lost his parents, he lost his sister, he lost a lot,” Italo explains. Still, the war didn’t overshadow Italo’s childhood. His father was adventurous and optimistic. And even though he chose to leave Rome, “Italy was always best,” Italo explains.
In Montreal, Silvana and Enzo kept their Roman Jewish recipes simmering on the stove — just as Italo does today — connecting them to Rome.
