And neither the external parts of the fennel or the rind of the pumpkin should be thrown away. The new book by environmental scientist Lisa Casali explains why (and health has to do with it too)
If they told you that the peels and rinds of fruits and vegetables are rich in nutritional properties, often more than pulp itself, would you be willing to question your eating habits and change your cooking method? It is the challenge launched by The great book of peels (Gribaudo) and its author Lisa Casali, environmental scientist and blogger, who wants to unleash a revolution from our tables to those of restaurants through the supermarket shelves.
Why consume (also) the skins
"Why do we discard 50% of every fruit or vegetable we buy?", "Are these parts really inedible or are they dangerous for our health?", "And what would happen if we ate them?". Lisa Casali started asking these questions in 2005 and hasn't stopped since. In recent years he has experimented and written a lot, giving himself and giving us (not a few) answers. But if until now the question revolved mainly around theenvironmental impact and to moral question – or consuming even the less noble parts of fruit and vegetables helps to fight the climate changes and it food waste – this book also investigated the health implication of this good practice.
The book is based on three key principles: more vegetable ("The more our diet is based on food of plant origin, the greater the contribution we are making to the fight against climate change, the reduction of environmental impact, the consumption of water"); more technical ("Knowing the techniques to enhance the properties of each ingredient is a precious secret to avoid wasting anything and get the most out of what we eat"); less waste ("Using everything and wasting nothing, not even a peel, is not just a question of saving, but also means not depriving ourselves of the richest parts of phyto-compounds and fibers, which play an important role in our well-being and health").
Rich skin, you can stick it in!
And here is the discovery. With the help of Other consumption, Lisa Casali analyzed the properties of some of the fruits and vegetables most commonly used comparing the pulp with the peel and i conventional products with organic ones. The presence of phytocompounds, organic compounds useful to the body because they perform, for example, antioxidant or anti-inflammatory actions, and then of vitamin C, polyphenols, fiber and much more.
An apple a day (but with the peel)
What turned out? Take, for example, the apple: from the analyzes it emerged that the apple peel is richer than the pulp in both vitamin C (+ 700% in the conventional, + 359% in the organic), and polyphenols (+ 68% in the conventional, + 74% in the organic), and fiber (+ 209% in the conventional and + 320% in the organic). Not insignificant percentages therefore that should lead us to no longer peel an apple when we eat it or in any case to reuse the peels for example by doing, as the book suggests, candied chips or one purifying herbal tea. And if we want to be really thrifty we don't even throw away the core (we can throw it in the centrifuge) and i seeds (with which to prepare a liqueur).
Why not peel the carrots
Again, analyzing the carrots, it has been discovered that, for both organic and conventional products, the part of the skins is richer in polyphenols than the heart and that also the fiber content it is greater in the skins than in the heart and is slightly greater in the organic than the conventional.
Organic and Italian fruit and vegetables whenever possible
For the problem pesticides, which mainly concerns the skins, the author's advice is to wash fruit and vegetables well with water and to choose them, when possible, from organic producers and of Italian origin (from the analyzes the foods with the greatest presence of pesticide residues were found to be fruits, in particular those of foreign origin).
Pumpkin ravioli with zest and seeds
For each ingredient in the book there are a descriptive sheet, the results of the analyzes and then many tips and recipes for use it 100% without wasting even a peel!
Here is the pumpkin ravioli recipe to use rind of the pumpkin, which contains more carotenoids and fibers than the pulp, and seeds.
Ingredients
300 g of pumpkin peel (preferably Violina)
2 eggs
100 g of flour 00
100 g of durum wheat semolina
1/2 l of cooking water (or broth)
2 tablespoons of shelled pumpkin seeds
80 g of cottage cheese
4 tablespoons of grated cheese
1 pinch of nutmeg
60 g of butter
Sage leaves
salt and pepper
Method
1. Form a fountain with the flours, break the eggs in the center and start working with a fork; proceed kneading with your hands until you get a soft and elastic dough. Let it sit for about 30 minutes.
2. Cut the zest into sticks, cover it with the broth and cook for about 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, toast the pumpkin seeds in a pan.
4. After the time necessary for cooking, drain the pumpkin and blend it. Add the ricotta and 2 tablespoons of grated cheese. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and leave to cool.
5. At this point, roll out the dough with a rolling pin or a sheeter.
6. Place half of the dough on the work surface and brush it with very little water: you will need it to make the two overlapping sheets stick well.
7. Arrange teaspoons of filling on the pastry, well spaced, then close by placing the other pastry on top, press well around the filling to seal the edges well and cut with a toothed roller or a pastry cutter.
8. Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water for a few minutes.
9. Melt the butter with the sage leaves in a pan.
10. Drain the ravioli and sauté them in butter.
11. Top with the remaining grated cheese and a sprinkle of pepper.
