When author Marge Piercy was a little girl her grandmother set a special place at the Passover seder for Blackie, her cat.
He was a very dignified cat, Piercy remembers. “Blackie sat quietly in his chair while we went through the entire Maggid [the re-telling of the Passover story].
“Grandma told me that when nobody else was here, Blackie ate with a knife and fork. I never saw him do it, but I believed her and wondered why he wouldn’t eat that way for me … “
The warm memory of Blackie and of her grandmother creating the annual seder menu in her small Cleveland apartment made Passover Piercy’s favorite holiday.
This year the prolific poet and novelist published “Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own” (Schocken Books, $22.95). It is filled with recipes and memories of her grandmother and insightful, illustrative poetry from her own Haggadah (the book that details the seder’s order).
On Monday, the first night of Passover, Piercy will honor her grandmother, Hannah Levi Bunnin, by cooking her dishes, including a pot roast with apricots, for guests at the seder she has presided over for the past 25 years.
“If I wasn’t honoring the memory of my bubelah, I would probably serve lamb, especially because of its association with Pesach [Hebrew for Passover],” she said. Although she loves re-creating her grandma’s Ashkenazic menu, lately she has added Sephardic dishes because of her fascination with the different food traditions among Jews all over the world.
Piercy has even created a special egg salad to eat during the part of the seder that calls for dipping a sprig of parsley and a hard-cooked egg into salt water to symbolize spring and the cycle of life but also to mimic the tears of the Jewish slaves in Pharaoh’s Egypt.
Instead of the traditional basket of eggs most people pass around the seder table, the 14 guests squeezed into Piercy and her husband Ira Stone’s dining room will eat their eggs mixed with cucumber, fennel, olive oil, lemon juice and salt.
This happens during the first part of the reading of the Haggadah. It’s a time for lively discussion but it’s long and people are hungry, Piercy said. “The children, especially, just want to eat, and the adults know that dinner is at least a half-hour away. So I serve this right after the Hillel sandwich. It is satisfying and an admirable start for the meal,” she said.
Instead of leading the seder from the same book her grandmother used, Piercy created her own. “It’s 65 percent poetry; it’s been a ‘work in progress’ for more than two decades,” she said.
In her book, Piercy explains why observant Jews eat the sacred foods — matzo, wine, parsley, eggs, bitter herbs, fruit, nuts and honey — all fraught with the drama of the Exodus, when Jewish slaves plunged into the Red Sea as it magically parted and emerged on the other side a free people. She also gives the historical meaning and different ways of thinking about each item, including the symbolic items placed on the ceremonial seder plate.
Most of all, Piercy’s book seeks ways of bringing the story of what happened 2,500 years ago to the seder table of 2007.
Edible symbols of the seder plate
In “Pesach for the Rest of Us,” author Marge Piercy offers the historical meaning and different ways of thinking about each item on the ceremonial seder plate:
Zeroa: The shank bone of a lamb. In ancient times lambs were sacrificed; the bone is a symbol of struggle and liberation — that sacrifice is frequently the price of freedom.
Beitzah: The roasted egg, an additional temple sacrifice but it also symbolizes renewal and the cycle of life.
Matzo: The bread of haste at the beginning of the journey. Because there was no time to let it rise, it remains inert — the essence of bread in its purest form.
Maror: Bitter herbs — the sorrow of slavery. When one bites into horseradish or the more authentic rue, wormwood or chicory, tears spring to one’s eyes. Piercy recommends a Passover salad of bitter greens such as arugula, chicory and endive.
Karpas: A vegetable, usually parsley, which represents spring and the seasons of the year and of life.
Charoset: Not originally part of the Passover plate, this chunky mixture of fruit, nuts and sweet wine was added later by rabbis who wanted something sweet to offset bitter herbs and also as a symbol of freedom.
Passover egg salad
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
*Adapted from “Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own,” by Marge Piercy.
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, about
5 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
2 cucumbers, sliced
1 bulb fennel, very thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon each, finely chopped: shallots, parsley
1. Combine the lemon juice and salt in a small bowl; slowly whisk in oil to taste until combined.
2. Combine eggs, cucumbers, fennel, shallots and parsley in a salad bowl. Add dressing; gently toss.
Nutrition information per serving:
227 calories, 82% of calories from fat, 21 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 132 mg cholesterol, 5 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 123 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Cinnamon lamb
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Chilling time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Standing time: 10 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
*This Passover roast lamb is adapted from “Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own,” by Marge Piercy. This delicious recipe would work equally well with a crown roast of lamb or lamb chops. Feel free to pick and choose among herbs and spices or add a few of your own.
1 lamb shoulder roast, about 3 pounds
2 cloves garlic, cut in slivers
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons chopped each: fresh parsley, fresh mint
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon olive oil
1. Score the top of the lamb; insert slivers of garlic. Place the almonds, cinnamon, chili powder, salt, cloves and pepper to taste in a spice or coffee grinder; pulse until thoroughly mixed. Place almond mixture in medium bowl; add the parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil. Stir until consistency is a thick paste. Rub the paste all over the lamb; refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place lamb in a shallow roasting pan. Roast to medium doneness, about 45 minutes, or to desired doneness. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.
Nutrition information per serving:
325 calories, 43% of calories from fat, 15 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 140 mg cholesterol, 2 g carbohydrates, 43 g protein, 238 mg sodium, 0.4 g fiber
