After mixing up some clams and spaghetti, Mary Berry took a kosher turn in the opening episode of her new BBC2 series Quick Cooking when she popped into the Boccione Bakery in Rome’s Jewish Quarter.

Sampling one of its treats, pizza ebraica, a sweet version of the Italian dish with raisins, candied fruit and almonds, she explained it was reputedly brought by Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. “Every cake is a little piece of history,” she said, enthusing over the 300 year-old family recipes in “one of Rome’s hidden gems”.

She is not the first TV chef with a soft spot for Italian Jewish cooking. A Nigella Lawson favourite is Venetian orange cake.