Pizza Ebraica
There’s an unmarked storefront at Via del Portico d’Ottavia 1, where three generations of the Limentani family dutifully reproduce centuries-old family recipes in a cramped and austere pastry shop. Everyone in the know knows this is Boccione. The workhorse Castelli oven in the back churns out trays of kosher sweets all day long. Every day except Shabbat and during Passover, they bake pizza ebraica, an amalgamation of candied citron, nuts, and almond meal that goes by the vulgar nickname pizza di Beridde (dick cake), a nod to its origins as a sweet served at circumcision ceremonies. Their ingredients suggest Spanish or Sicilian origins, likely influenced by Sephardic Jews who came to Rome during the Inquisition. Boccione’s classics are absolutely impossible to reproduce at home because they’re pretty magical and definitely secret recipes, but here’s my best effort.
13 ingredients
Prep: 25 mins
Cook: 35 mins
Pizza Ebraica
Ingredients (13)
Ingredients (13)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Soak the raisins (1 ¼ cups) in the wine (¼ cup) until plump, 15 to 20 minutes.
Combine the flour (2 ½ cups), sugar (1 cup), cinnamon (1 tsp), baking powder (1 tsp), salt (1 tsp), and lemon zest (1 lemon) in a large bowl.
Add the almonds (1 ½ cups), pine nuts (⅔ cup), candied citron (1 ½ cups), and the raisins (1 ¼ cups) with their liquid. Toss to coat everything evenly in the dry ingredients.
Whisk the olive oil (¼ cup) and eggs (4 large) in a small bowl.
Pour it over the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or your hands until a thick, sticky dough forms. It will be dense and rough—go with it.
Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet and, with wet hands, shape it into a squat, rectangular loaf about 0.75 inch thick.
Deeply score the dough in half, then cut three intersecting incisions to make eight bars total. Don’t try to cut all the way through—the almonds will run defense. The dough won’t spread much, but don’t worry about making it even. Rustic is the goal.
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