Image Courtesy of: mahrabu.blogspot.com
As a prelude to my final research paper, I would like to share a few tasty thoughts involving matzah. Before I dive my favorite matzah dish, let me briefly tell you about matzah. Every year during Passover, Jewish communities, families, and friends from around the world retell the story of the Jews in Exodus who tried to flee Egypt. The Jews from Exodus needed food, but they could not wait for their bread to rise. Therefore, they ate the bread unleavened. Today, we call this unleavened bread matzah, and for eight days, we eat matzah to remember what it was like for the Jews during Exodus.
Fortunately, many more food accessories are available today that makes eating matzah very enjoyable. In my family, we often get creative and make matzah dishes. While I love numerous matzah dishes, matzah pizza is by far my favorite matzah dish. All you need is a piece of matzah (maybe two or three pieces if you want more), spaghetti sauce, and cheese. That's it! Just spread the spaghetti sauce onto the matzah and sprinkle cheese over the sauce. Then put the matzah into the oven for 10-15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the cheese has melted, carefully remove the matzah pizza from the oven and let it sit for a couple of minutes for it to cool down. Now that the cooking is complete, the best part awaits.
When the matzah pizza correctly, that first bite makes me feel like I am in Heaven. It is just amazing. The combination of spaghetti sauce and sprinkled cheddar cheese is golden. The cheesy taste, and I love cheese by the way, mixed with a zesty spaghetti sauce brings me into another world during my meal. Sometimes, I even zone other people out because the matzah pizza is just that good. I can't even describe that feeling. It's priceless! After the last bite of one matzah pizza, I usually have another one already prepared. One never seems to satisfy me, so I always prepare two at a time. During Passover, the dish is a daily meal with very little exceptions. Without matzah pizza, I probably could not survive Passover.
Today, I am glad that we can be creative with matzah because eating matzah plain for eight days would be very monotonous. However, every time I eat matzah, plain or mixed with other foods, I think about the Jewish people who tried to flee Egypt during Exodus and the struggles they must have endured with only unleavened bread for much longer than a mere eight days. The pain the Jews went through makes me thankful for many things that I have today and continues to remind me how symbols such as matzah continue to define us as Jews.
Brad, but for a missing word here and there, this is excellent! Your best, most sensory writing yet! I especially liked your final paragraph where you grapple with the idea that, by making matzah pizza, you are escaping the sacrifice that the historical Jews of Exodus had to make. However, I love that it still keeps you connected with them and their sacrifice. Good work all around! I'm looking forward to the final.
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