"Served with rice, this is one of the homely everyday dishes of virtually every Sephardi community. We called them "blehat." In Turkey they call them
"yullikas." In the old days people fried the meatballs first, but now you often
find them poached in the sauce. Sometimes they are briefly roasted in the
oven at high heat to brown them slightly and firm them before stewing."

1 1/2 lbs (600 g) ground lamb, beef, or veal
1 large onion, finely chopped or grated
About 1/2—3/4 teaspoon salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Sunflower oil for frying (optional)

For the tomato sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced or crushed in a press
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 lbs (1 kg) tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or
a 28-oz (800-g) can of tomatoes
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1-2 teaspoons sugar

Mix the meat with the onion, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and allspice and knead
to a soft paste. Make little balls or ovals the size of a small walnut. You may
fry very briefly in oil, shaking the pan, to brown them slightly all over, then
drain on paper towels. Alternatively, put them on a baking sheet and roast
them for about 7 minutes in the hottest oven, until slightly colored.
For the tomato sauce:
In a large saucepan, fry the garlic in the oil till colored. Add the tomatoes,
salt, pepper, tomato puree, and sugar and simmer 15 minutes. Then put
n the meatballs and simmer another 20 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Tunisian meatballs may have 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leafed parsley
or coriander, 1 tablespoon chopped mint, a small onion chopped fine, a
crushed garlic clove, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon rosebud powder,
and 1/2 teaspoon harissa.
Spices in an Indian Baghdadi kofta include 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
and 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. Another version has 1 tablespoon garam
masala and a pinch of chili powder.
Some people like to incorporate an egg and 1 or 2 slices of bread soaked
in water and squeezed dry, which bind the meat and result in a softer
texture. Some drop the meatballs in the sauce without preliminary frying
or roasting and cook them for 25 minutes. This gives them a slightly
different texture.
For a Syrian version called "Daoud Pasha," stuff each meatball with a few
pine nuts.
In Salonika they sometimes added 1 tablespoon of honey instead of sugar
to the tomato sauce.
Italian Jews make polpette alla giudea on the same principle but with a
very special flavor. Soak 4 oz (100 g) bread, crusts removed, in water, and
squeeze dry, then blend with 1 lb (500 g) ground meat, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, a bunch of flat-leafed parsley finely chopped, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, and 2 eggs. Take small lumps and shape them into flat patties. Fry them in oil, turning them over once. Cook 1 lb (500 g) peeled and chopped tomatoes with the grated peel of 1/2 lemon, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 2 tea-spoons sugar, salt, and pepper for 10 minutes. Add a tablespoon each of
chopped flat-leafed parsley and basil. Drop in the meat patties, and cook
5 minutes longer.

Best for Jewish-Italian Cuisine

Classic Italian Jewish Cooking

"Edda Servi Machlin's The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews became a culinary classic the minute it appeared in 1981, because it shed light on a previously little-known community. Featuring more than 300 recipes, this book—which includes recipes from the 1981 edition as well as from her two other titles—completes the picture of the centuries-old Jewish community in Pitigliano, the Tuscan town
where she grew up. The people there felt they were both Italian and Jewish, eating Tuscan beef and beans alongside Jewish-Italian dishes like carciofi alla giudia (artichokes, Jewish style), goose salami (rather than pork salami), Hanukkah rice with raisins, and all kinds of eggplant, which Machlin says the Jews introduced
to Italy from the Near East. Some dishes, like penne all'arrabbiata, won't seem especially Jewish to lovers of Italian food, while others, like tongue in sweet-and-sour sauce and tagliatelle all'Ebraica (a noodle kugel with pine nuts and raisins), will seem more Jewish than Italian. But they all sound delicious, and anyone who cares about regional Italian cooking will be fascinated by Machlin's lovely and evocative picture of the cuisine of a world lost to the ravages of war."

Click here for recipe.