Eggplants were brought to Spain and Italy by the Arabs. The Jews took to this new food readily. In his famous 1891 cookbook, La scienza in cucine e l'arte di mangiare bene, Pellegrino Artusi observed, "Forty years ago you could hardly find eggplant or fennel in the markets of Florence, because they were considered Jewish food and were abhorred." When the Inquisition banned the Jews from Spain and Spanish settlements in southern Italy, the Italian Jews fled north, bringing with them a repertoire of eggplant dishes. It's not surprising that many of the best eggplant recipes are of Sicilian origin, as that is where the Sephardic and Arabic influence was the greatest. Incidentally, many of the eggplant dishes are served at room temperature, in other words, prepared on late Friday to be served at Saturday lunch.
