Passover is just around the corner, and for many of us, the impending holiday calls to mind the special foods we eat. I’m not talking about gefilte fish, horseradish and charoset. I’m talking about peanut butter and jelly on matzah. Pizza matzah, or as my dad calls it, “patzah.” And my latest find—matzah lasagna. Have I been under a rock all these years? Once I realized you could slap pizza sauce with melted mozzarella on matzah, wouldn’t the natural progression have been to bake it all into lasagna?
There are many incredible Passover recipes out there that use matzah, matzah flour and matzo meal in new and exciting ways. You can now have turkey and matzo meal stuffing. You can have noodles made with matzo flour. You can even have matzah fried chicken and matzah meatloaf.
But while I eagerly search for fun recipes I’ve never before tried, I have to wonder: by matzah-fying all of our favorite chametz-laden foods, are we missing the whole point of Passover?
The Passover story reminds us that the Israelites were once slaves in Egypt, and in the rush to leave Pharoah and the enslavement behind, they fled with bread that did not have time to rise. So we eat unleavened bread, or matzah, to remember that, as Jews, we were once slaves and now are free. Do we remember, or rather imagine, our slavery if we barely even notice we’re eating matzah?
On the other hand, do we remember any less just because our matzah is swallowed up by other ingredients? Either way, those eight days of Passover will still leave many of us in dire need of fiber. Those of us who strictly observe the holiday and avoid chametz still can’t go out for pizza with friends, can’t grab a hot dog at a Dodger game, and, depending on our backgrounds and beliefs, some of us can’t even eat popcorn if we go to the movies during Passover.
But are we suffering? There are people who can’t eat wheat or gluten year-round, and yet some of us can’t make it through Passover without complaining about missing croutons or dinner rolls.
Of course, Passover isn’t just about eating matzah. There are so many other foods with so many other meanings in the Passover story: charoset symbolizing the mortar between bricks laid by the Israelites, salt water for their tears, and the lamb shank bone for the sacrifice made before the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, among others. As we dip, say blessings and eat, we recall the story of the Israelites’ suffering.
But for me, Passover has always been a celebration—of my unique family. Cousins joking over who gets to do the Haggadah reading for the “wicked child,” singing Dayenu with my husband and adding the obligatory extra “enus,” seeing how long it takes my dad’s face to go red after he’s eaten half the jar of horseradish. And shouldn’t the holiday really be a celebration of our freedom?
Maybe the whole point of finding and creating recipes that mask the dull flavor and cardboard texture of matzah is to remember that we are now free. Free to slather the matzah we choose to eat once a year with butter for breakfast. Free to cook matzo meal into delicious honey cakes and cinnamon cakes. Free to enjoy matzah in all of its many forms—covered in chocolate, fried with eggs, layered between indulgent amounts of mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce.
Sure, I may criticize the idea of matzah lasagna. But who am I kidding? That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try it.
Make your own matzah lasagna, or check out these healthy Passover recipes!
For information on local synagogues that are opening their doors to our community for Passover, click here.
