OP: The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews (vols I and II)

Dodd Mead, Giro Press, New York, Croton on Hudson, 1981, 1992. Hardcover. Very Good. Signed.

Edda Servi (1926–2019), born in small town Pitigliano, Tuscany, was a member of the generally prosperous and well-accepted Jewish community that had roots in the area dating back to the Spanish Inquisition. Machlin lived in hiding during WWII’s fascist regime and in 1958 relocated to the United States.

The food of Machlin’s Italian-Jewish heritage was largely unknown in the US at the time, and her home cooking quickly won many admirers among friends who were eager for the recipes. This laid the groundwork for her first cookbook, The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews (1981). The book was so popular that the demand for more led to a second in 1992 and a third, specific to sweets, in 1999.

Part-autobiography, part-ethnography, the first two books in particular detail the history and daily life of a community that has since dispersed. We are especially captivated by stories of the communal oven—buried deep in a natural cave—in use for centuries but, by Machlin’s time, employed only once annually for matzo making in preparation for Passover. 

The dishes range from simple to demanding, some clearly Italian in their roots, others redolent of the eastern Mediterranean and parts beyond. Holiday foods will, for many readers, be at once familiar and startlingly different. All of the dishes bring something new and surprising to the array associated with the annual round.

The first book had a long and varied life before going out of print. It was originally published by Everest, then picked up by Dodd, Mead & Company. Dodd, Mead in turn expired and was acquired by Thomas Nelson. Finally, Machlin herself, perhaps discouraged by this instability, took over the book and continued to issue it under her own imprint, Giro Press, with which she also published the following two books. 

We offer here the first two volumes—the Dodd Mead edition of volume I and the first printing of volume II. Both are attractive copies, clean and unmarked, save for a previous owner’s stamp to the fore edge of volume I. The jackets are unclipped and largely intact, though showing a fair amount of shelfwear. Both books are signed by Machlin, a scarce feature, volume II inscribed to its previous owner.