Milanese Jewish Recipes that Survived Generations of Secrecy

Shared by Lorenza Pintar and Yael Stucchi
Recipe Roots: Milan > New Haven > Milan > Malindi, Kenya and Brooklyn > Parma, Italy  

“I grew up in Milan. We did not have any Jewish upbringing,” explains Lorenza Pintar, who now lives in Brooklyn. “It was my great grandparents that ended that.” They lived in Italy under Mussolini, who in late 1938 enacted the first of the Leggi Razziali, or Italy’s racial laws. Marriage between Italian Jews and non-Jews was outlawed, Jews were banned from educational institutions, and persecution was legalized in numerous other ways. 

In order to protect themselves, Lorenza’s family ceased publicly practicing Judaism, but kept customs and traditions going in secret. On Fridays, Lorenza’s great grandmother Emma would polish candlesticks and move them close together, but not light candles. After Shabbat, she would separate the candlesticks. Her husband, Angelo, would lock himself in a room and pray alone. Lorenza’s mother Magdalen remembers hearing sounds through the walls as her grandfather prayed, unable to discern what he was saying. 

Through the generations, traditions of secrecy were adopted and adapted in the family. Lorenza recalls her grandmother, Aurelia, lighting candles on Friday evenings, but not saying a blessing. Jewish foods, however, were a constant. “For us, it was all about food,” Lorenza explains. Special recipes would quietly appear on the family table at particular times. 

On Friday nights, Emma, who passed away right before Lorenza was born, would make fish in a spicy tomato sauce laced with paprika. She also made cholent, always with brown eggs sliced on top. And the family never cooked lunch on Saturdays, keeping the Jewish custom of not working on the Sabbath. Instead they ate rotisserie chicken or bread and cheese, Lorenza explains. And, pork was avoided. In the family, cassoeula, a Milanese cousin of French cassoulet, was made with goose instead of the traditional pork.

Lorenza’s grandmother Aurelia in Northern Italy in 1965.

As a child, Lorenza wanted to go to church on Christmas. “To me, it was exciting,” she says. “My grandmother was like: ‘No, we don’t go.’” Instead, in the long evenings of winter, likely sometime near Hanukkah, latkes, tzimmes, Italian fritters called frittole, and fried apples appeared on her family table alongside stracchino, a local cheese that Lorenza describes as denser than sour cream, but with the same tang. It was served, “and then the dish would just disappear,” Lorenza explains. 

When Lorenza’s sister passed away a decade ago, the family started to explore their roots more deeply at the suggestion of a therapist. As they researched, they found their family name in Sicilian records dating back to the Inquisition. They also have Ashkenazi roots from Poland. A colleague of Lorenza suggested the family create a cookbook of their Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Italian recipes. Magdalena, who now also uses the name Yael, led the project with Lorenza translating the recipes for a small book called Rebelot, a Milanese slang word for something that’s all mixed up or chaotic, but leads to revolution. 

“This whole process was very healing for my mom,” she says. From it, Lorenza adds, “I understood how important it is to be rooted.”

Latkes

Lorenza’s family serves latkes with a creamy sour Italian cheese called “stracchino.”

Makes: About 20
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
1 large yellow onion, peeled
2 large russet potatoes, peeled
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 ½  teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, sunflower oil or any other neutral oil for frying

Preparation 
1. Grate the onion and potatoes using a box grater or food processor. Place the grated onions and potatoes in a tea towel and squeeze the excess liquid into a bowl. After about 5 minutes, drain the water out of the bowl and scrape the potato starch that settled on the bottom of the bowl into a large mixing bowl. Add the potatoes and onions into the large mixing bowl. Add the flour, egg, salt and pepper and mix well until combined.

2. Place 1 inch of oil into a large skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is sizzling, add a tablespoon of the latke mixture into the skillet. Use the tablespoon to pat down the potato to form a flat disk shaped latke. Add about 5 more latkes into the oil and fry on both sides until golden brown, about 3 - 5 minutes per side. Transfer the cooked latkes onto a paper towel lined tray. Continue frying the remaining latkes in batches. 

3. Serve hot with a dollop of stracchino cheese on each latke.

Tzimmes

Makes: 4 - 6 servings
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into ½ inch rounds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar or 2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon kosher salt 
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup raisins
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preparation
1. Place the carrots, lemon juice, sugar or honey, salt, pepper and cinnamon into a large saucepan over medium heat. Mix and add enough water to cover the carrots ¾ the way up. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes. Place a lid on the saucepan and reduce heat to medium low, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are fork-tender, about 20 minutes. 

2. Remove the lid, add the raisins and increase the heat to medium high, stirring often, cook down the liquid until it forms a glaze on the carrots and raisins and the carrots are golden. Reduce the heat to low and add the butter and sugar and mix well, until melted and smooth.

3. Serve hot with latkes.

Frittole Dolci (Donuts with Raisins and Cinnamon)

Makes: About 20 donuts
Total Time: 1 hour active + 4 hours inactive 

Ingredients
½ cup red raisins
¼ cup milk
¼ cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon of sugar 
3 ¼ cups of flour
¾ ounces grappa or cognac
Zest from ½ a lemon 
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼  cups of milk 
1 ¼  cups of warm water
Sunflower seed oil or any neutral oil for frying

For dusting:
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Preparation
1. Soak the raisins in ¼ cup of warm milk and set aside for 15 minutes.  Place ¼ cup of lukewarm water into a small bowl, add the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Mix well and set aside for 10 minutes or until foamy. Drain the raisins from the milk, reserving the milk. 

2. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, ¼ cup of sugar, the grappa or cognac, lemon zest, salt, and mix well. Add the yeast mixture and mix well. Add the raisins and the soaking milk into the bowl. Add the remaining 1 ¼ cups of milk, 1 ¼ cups of water and mix well until the mixture forms a smooth and loose batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for at least 4 hours. Mix the batter after 1 hour and after 3 hours during the leavening.

3.  Add enough oil to fill up a medium pot halfway with oil and heat over medium high heat (you can also use a deep fryer). Once the oil reaches 350 degrees, take 1 heaping tablespoon of the batter and drop it into the oil. Fry the frittoles until they puff up and are golden on both sides, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel lined tray and continue cooking the frittoles in batches of 4 at a time.

4. Place ½ cup granulated sugar and 3 tablespoons of cinnamon into a bowl and mix to combine. Dip and roll the frittoles in the granulated sugar and cinnamon mixture until coated well before serving. Serve immediately. 

Apple Fritters

Makes: 16
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups water or milk
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons sugar
4 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and sliced crosswise into ½ inch pieces
Peanut oil or sunflower oil for frying 
3 teaspoons confectioner’s sugar for dusting
3 teaspoons cinnamon for dusting

Preparation
1. Whisk the flour, water or milk, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl until a smooth batter is formed.

2. Heat the oil in a medium pot or a deep fryer. When the oil reaches 350 degrees, dip 3 apple slices in the batter until coated well and place them in the oil, one by one, frying them until golden on both sides, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer onto a paper lined baking sheet and continue frying the remaining apples in small batches.

3. Dust the fried apples with confectioners sugar and cinnamon and serve immediately.

Goose Cassoeula

If goose is unavailable at your local butcher or grocery store, duck works well as a substitution.

Makes: 4 - 6 servings
Total time: 3 hours

Ingredients
1 whole small goose or duck, deskinned, deboned and chopped into 2 inch cubes
1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive olive oil, divided
1 onion, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
2 celery stalks, chopped into ½ inch cubes
1 head green cabbage
½ cup red wine 
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preparation
1. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large pot over medium high heat. Once the oil is sizzling add the goose pieces and sear on all sides until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer the goose onto a paper towel lined tray.

2. Lower the heat to medium, add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil and add the onion, carrots, and celery, and 1 ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper into the pot. Saute until lightly browned and softened, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. Add the tomato paste and continue cooking for about 2 minutes. Add the wine and mix to scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, cook the wine until the alcohol evaporates, about 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and saute for about 10 more minutes until it starts to wilt. 

3. Transfer the seared goose back into the pan. Place enough water in the pot to cover the meat and cabbage ¾ the way up. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling and a lid and reduce the heat to low or enough to cook the stew on a gentle simmer. Cook for about 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the goose is tender and the liquid has reduced to a stew like consistency. 

4. Serve hot with polenta.

Photos by Penny De Los Santos