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Matzo for culinary miracles

Matzo deserves a break.

Folks have been coping with this unleavened bread for a couple of millenniums now as a pallid Passover substitute for the breads, cakes, pastries and pie shells enjoyed the rest of the year.

Now is the time to reverse the thinking on matzo and see its possibilities rather than its liabilities, for matzo is the ultimate flatbread or crisp cracker, perfect for holding a smear of chopped chicken liver or a decadent swirl of softened, salted butter (or pareve margarine).

Broken into tiny pieces, matzo makes a panko-style crumb at a fraction of the price of the expensive Japanese import. And can you name anything else that works in everything from soup to entrees to dessert while keeping you right with God?

Matzo really is a miracle food.

“People are thinking of it as a bread of affliction or a bread of deprivation, but I like to think of it as a food of opportunity,” said Joyce Goldstein, author of “Antipasti” and other cookbooks. The San Francisco-based chef uses matzo year-round as, among other things, an affordable alternative to expensive crackers.

Matzo also is the world's original fast food, commemorating the Israelites' flight from slavery in Egypt when there wasn't even time to let the bread rise.

It is that food memory, plus matzo's sacramental role in the Passover seder, that makes this humble flatbread so special to so many. Passover begins at sundown next Monday.

Of course, times have changed since the age of Moses and the Pharaohs. Matzo has evolved, too, although its basic formulation – water and flour – remains unaltered.

For Passover, matzo must be made from water and the flour of one of five types of grain: wheat, spelt, barley, rye or oats. Observant Jews eat unleavened matzo during Passover instead of leavened or fermented foods.

To prevent leavening in matzo, the flour and water have to be mixed, the dough kneaded and rolled, and then baked within 18 minutes – all under rabbinical supervision.

Some matzo are labeled as shmura, which means “guarded” or “watched.” The entire process, from harvesting to shaping and baking of the matzo, is done under a rabbi's supervision to prevent inadvertent fermentation. Shmura matzo is usually round, handmade and more expensive than the machine-produced matzo squares. Consider it akin to artisan-baked bread.

Much of today's matzo, however, owes its look to a 19th-century rabbi living in Cincinnati.

That's where Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz got into the matzo business in 1888, beginning a company that became the largest matzo maker in the world. The rabbi's genius lay in machine-made matzo and packaging that would allow the product to be shipped anywhere in the world.

“You have to think of what's happening in 1888,” said David Rossi, vice president of marketing for RAB Food Group LLC, the Secaucus, N.J.-based company that now makes Manischewitz brand matzo. “The Jewish population in the East is migrating to the Midwest and West. To get matzo for Passover is not easy.”

Manischewitz's product had worldwide implications. Matzo no longer had to be made by hand. Goldstein recalls translating old Jewish recipes, directing that the matzo be soaked for up to 10 minutes and wondering why.

“Matzo used to be much, much thicker,” she said. “It was about the size of an 8-inch pizza and 1/2 inch thick. Someone invented this matzo press and changed the whole form.”

Rossi said most matzo today is manufactured by machine, mostly into thin squares. He estimates Manischewitz makes some 50 million matzos a year. Manischewitz sells 55 percent of its matzo at Passover.

Lest the whole matzo thing start to sound burdensome – and eight unrelieved days of unadorned matzo could probably tax the spirit of even the most ardent fan – it is good to remember there are options that conform to the letter of Jewish law.

“People don't realize they can use matzo in a variety of ways,” Goldstein said, suggesting a lasagnalike torte in which matzo replaces pasta, a filling for Algerian omelets and a crumbled topping for Tunisian stews. And don't forget matzo brei, she said, a dish made with soaked matzo dipped in beaten egg and fried.

Rossi at Manischewitz said the most unusual recipe he has encountered was one for matzo enchiladas. The matzos are placed between wet paper towels until pliable, rolled into cylinders and stuffed.

“If the filling is good, you could probably pull it off,” he added, chuckling.

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