Sephardic Passover Recipes For Pesach
Sephardic Passover recipes (or Sephardic Pesach recipes) are plentiful and come in a variety of ingredients that usually reflect the country of origin and/or the availability of ingredients where Sephardim have lived.
Sephardim (alternate spelling: Sefardim; plural form of "Sephardi" or "Sefardi"; descriptive form: "Sephardic" or "Sefardic") are Jews whose ancestors came from Spain and/or Portugal who developed and integrated a rich and influential cultural and religious tradition, including prayer rites ("nusach", "nusah" or "nusakh" in Hebrew), legal concepts, mores, religious traditions, etc. "Sephardim", "Sephardi", and "Sephardic" are all Hebrew words that derived from the Hebrew word "Sepharad", which was originally a place name found in the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, in the biblical book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20). This place name was identified as a district located near the Bosphorus in Asia Minor (now in Turkey). Later on, when Jews settled in Spain and Portugal in the Early Middle Ages, the place name "Sepharad" became identified with Ispamia (either Spain or the Iberian Peninsula, meaning both Spain and Portugal) according to Jewish biblical commentators in the Middle Ages (Rashi, Ibn Ezra). The inhabitants of Sepharad I.E. Spain and/or the Iberian Peninsula (meaning both Spain and Portugal), specifically the Jewish inhabitants, thus became known as "Sephardim" (singular form: "Sephardi", descriptive adjective form: "Sephardic"). Since the late 15th century, after the peak of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions of 1492 and 1497 respectively, Sephardim have migrated to other countries, especially to North African countries such as the Maghrebian or Maghrebi countries: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, to countries in central and southern Europe (France, Greece, and Italy), and the Middle East (Turkey, Israel), but also to North, Central, and South America, among other countries.
The following Sephardi Passover recipes are typical of the Sephardi Pesach recipes created using the food ingredient customs where Sephardim have lived mixed with the ingredients used by Sephardim to create a uniquely Sephardic-type of dish.
