In Ashkenazi cuisine you have the potato. The versatile little spud that shines in almost every classic Jewish dish from cholent to kugel and the knish it’s hard to go to your Bubbe’s without leaving full of pounds of potatoes. But for Sephardim, Jews from Spain and North Africa, the potato is nowhere to be seen in their cooking. Rather there is a more mysterious purple vegetable apparent in nearly every Sephardi dish.
Originally the European eggplant was small, white, and oval-shaped, which is where it got its name officially in the 17th century. Before it was called the aubergine in England it was known as the “Jew's apple” due to its usage among Sephardi Jews. Surprisingly, while the eggplant is typically assumed to be a vegetable, it’s actually a berry. Slow Cookers
Eventually the white eggplant was supplanted by the purple variety we enjoy today due to its ability to withstand long journeys without being bruised or damaged. The eggplant was first found over four thousand years ago in southeast Asia. From what we understand when the eggplant first reached Spain in the 9th century, there were already over 100,000 Jews there at the time. It soon became a favorite vegetable for the Spanish Jews and started to be used in all different types of dishes ranging from stews to crispy fried eggplant snacks.
You can find eggplant in many areas of Jewish cooking due to its rich texture, which makes it a delicious main course or even a meat substitute. Its subtle flavor is ideal for stews and sauces that allow it to absorb all the nuanced flavors. Turkey, the largest producer of eggplants in the world, claims to have over 30 different preparations of eggplant. It is enjoyed in India in dishes like Baigan Barta and in Greece in Moussaka.
Moroccan Jews serve eggplants in tagines, slow cooked stews in clay pots served with couscous or take the stewed eggplant and turn it into a slightly sweet jam to eat with laffa and pita.
In various Iraqi communities it also became popular to make eggplant salad and eggplant caviar, also known as baba ganoush. This recipe for eggplant caviar spread far and wide even to Eastern European countries such as Russia and Ukraine where it became known as Ikra or vegetable caviar.
Meat stuffed eggplant is prominently served on the holiday of Sukkot, a holiday where Jews eat foods to symbolize abundance and the harvest.
In modern Israel eggplant plays a crucial role in the cuisine as well, served alongside shawarma, falafel and schnitzel sandwiches at any self-respecting Israeli establishment. Sabich is an Israeli classic brought by Iraqi immigrants, is a pita sandwich filled with a hard boiled egg, tahini and of course crispy fried eggplant which has found its own cult of followers that swear by it.
While the eggplant found popularity in Jewish cooking in many countries it wasn’t as readily accepted in others.
Today, the eggplant is commonplace in Italian gastronomy, from Eggplant Parmesan to Eggplant Bucatini, it’s become an Italian mainstay. However, up until the 15th and 16th centuries few Italians had even heard of the eggplant with even fewer incorporating it into their lasagnas and pastas. Due to its odd color and shape in many areas of Europe the eggplant was considered disgusting and by some even poisonous. That all changed once the Jews came…but it took time.
Since the eggplant was originally associated with the Jews who brought it, the non-Jews weren’t too keen on the veggie. From documents in the 1500’s we can see that the eggplant was derided as a "Jewish food." Two well-known Italian chefs wrote that eggplant was "the food of low-class people or Jews" in the 1600s. Italians weren’t exactly sympathetic to the Jewish people so it’s understandable that they weren’t too eager to eat their new vegetable. In fact Eggplant became so closely associated with Jews in Italy that a common insult to Jews became “Eggplant Eyes.”
The father of Italian national cuisine, Pellegrino Artusi, wrote in his esteemed cookbook that until the mid-1800s it had been a difficult endeavor to find eggplant in the food markets of Florence “because they were despised as ‘Jewish food.’”He also writes of common Italian Jewish dishes such as stewed eggplant served on Sabbath, and melanzane alla giudia (Jewish-style eggplant), which is essentially fried eggplant.
Over time as Italians became more tolerant of the Jews they became more accepting of their cuisine as well and started to incorporate eggplant into many of their dishes.
The eggplant isn’t just a flavorful vegetable that elevates every dish it’s used in. It’s also of great cultural significance to Jews in Sephardi communities. There’s even a Ladino song about the eggplant called Si Savesh La Buena Djente about a dispute between the two most popular vegetables in Sephardi cuisine, the tomato and the eggplant. With hilarious lyrics such as “Shut up, you tomato! You aren’t worth a plugged cent. Two days in the shopping basket and you’re off to the garbage!” It's a cute folk song that shows the cultural value of the eggplant to the Jewish people.
Eggplants in a way, symbolize the journey of the Jewish people in the diaspora. Initially, they encountered a mixed reception from their non-Jewish neighbors, yet gradually they developed a distinctive identity and persevered against relentless attempts to eradicate them. So next time you take a bite of a sabich or even an eggplant parmesan think about how that humble eggplant got there and how the Jewish community transformed it into a beloved vegetable of significance.
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