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Italian cooking 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, "Cooking alla Giudia," Benedetta Jasmine Guetta pays tribute to the culinary heritage of Jews in Italy.

She joined the show to share a few recipes from the book!

Starting in the spring and then all the way to the end of summer, fried zucchini is a staple recipe on every Roman Jewish family’s Shabbat menu. Any type of zucchini will work, but in Rome, concia is made with the special Italian zucchini called zucchine romanesche; they are small and light green with thin, pale stripes and have beautiful flowers. If you can’t find them, try Persian zucchini or Mexican squash.

This marinated fried zucchini dish is generally made ahead, to ensure that the flavors blend well, and is served as a starter or a side, but it also makes the best snack on top of crusty pizza bianca, or sandwiched between two slices of crunchy bread such as ossi.

Serves 4 to 6 as a starter or side dish

Variations You can swap eggplant for the zucchini to make concia di melanzane. Some concia recipes feature parsley, some basil, some both parsley and basil, and some mint. Find your favorite combination!

The shape of these little almond cookies is supposed to remind you of Mount Sinai. They are generally given to family and friends in the Purim gift basket, because they travel well and last a long time.

The traditional recipe for montini is quite hard to prepare, as it requires sugar cooked to the thread stage, not something everyone can master, so I’ve settled on a much easier version made with eggs that was taught to me by Anna Levi Cogoi many years ago. I promise you, no one will be able to tell the difference between the difficult classic recipe—which you’ll find in the sidebar—and this modernized one.

Variations Montini can be white or colored. For brown montini, add a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough. For a pink version, add 1 teaspoon maraschino liqueur plus some red food coloring. If you want to make a multicolored cookie, divide the dough into two or three portions, color each one, and then sandwich the portions of dough together. You can use this recipe to make walnut paste. Substitute walnut flour for the almond flour and brewed coffee for the liqueur. The almond dough, which is essentially almond paste, can also be used for stuffed dried fruits. Dates, dried apricots, and dried plums (prunes), filled with almond paste are served, especially in Venice, at Passover and Tu B’Shvat; walnuts can also be sandwiched with almond paste and served as well.

Excerpted from "Cooking alla Giudia" by Benedetta Jasmine Guetta (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2022.

"Cooking alla Giudia" is the ultimate tribute to the wonderfully rich, yet still largely unknown, culinary heritage of the Jews of Italy. From Roman deep-fried artichokes (carciofi alla giudia) to Venetian sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour sardines), Apulian orecchiette pasta, and Sicilian caponata, some of Italy’s best-known dishes are Jewish in origin. But little is known about the Jewish people in Italy and their culinary traditions. It was the Jews, for example, who taught Italians to eat the eggplant, and thus helped inspire the classic eggplant parmigiana and many other local specialties. With a collection of kosher recipes from all regions of Italy, including plenty of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options, author Benedetta Jasmine Guetta is on a mission to tell the story of how the Jews changed Italian food, to preserve these recipes, and to share with home cooks the extraordinary dishes prepared in the Jewish communities of Italy. Highlighted throughout the book are menus with regional Italian specialties, along with short, useful guides to the Italian cities with Jewish history. The book will show how to integrate the recipes into your everyday meals and holiday traditions as well.

Segment Producer Suzie Wiley. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.

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