Tag: waste

Cooking artichoke stems: delicious zero waste recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Cook the artichoke stems it’s a great way to avoid waste in the kitchen. Often only the hearts of the artichoke are used and therefore today we bring to the table a first course based on artichoke stems, in order to also enhance this part which is often thrown away.

Artichokes: spring treasure

Artichokes are a vegetable whose season runs from March to June. They are rich in proteinsbut also of fibers and are suitable for multiple uses in the kitchen. They are often cooked fried, but also sautéed or stewed. They can accompany second courses or they can become a single dish.
They have a shape similar to a flower and are composed of an upper part, also called heart of the artichokeand from the stem.
The outer leaves of the artichoke are not edible as is the beard found inside. In many recipes only the heart of the artichoke is used, but the stems can be recovered and consumed after removing the outermost bark which is hard and stringy and therefore not edible.

We used artichoke stems to prepare a really tasty and simple to make pasta based on ricotta and walnuts.

Pasta with artichoke stem pesto, ricotta and walnuts: the recipe

Pasta with artichoke stem pestoMarta Tovaglieri

Ingredients

320 g of short pasta such as fusilloni
2 artichoke stems
1 shallot
100 g of cow’s milk ricotta
5 walnuts plus a couple for serving
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Method

Clean the artichoke stems: cut the outermost part of the stems and then peel them with a potato peeler to remove the hardest and stringy part. Cut them into cubes.
Peel and chop a shallot with a knife. Heat a large pan and brown the shallot with a generous drop of extra virgin olive oil.
Also add the artichoke stems and cook until they are soft. If necessary, add a drizzle of water. Season with salt.
Place the cooked artichokes in the glass of an immersion blender. Add the ricotta and the shelled walnuts. Blend well and then season with salt and pepper.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. Add two ladles of cooking water to the artichoke and ricotta pesto to make it softer and velvety.
You do skip the pasta with the artichoke stem pesto and serve with a few pieces of walnut.

Artichoke stem pesto: other uses in the kitchen

Artichoke stem pesto is an excellent condiment for pasta, but can also be served on hot toasted bread, for an unusual and tasty appetizer. For an extra touch, you can also add fresh chili pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil before serving.

5 ways to waste less | The Italian kitchen – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

L’waterfall it is the primary good for us human beings, but also for the environment. How to save water it must be a behavioral thought for everyone. L’waterfall it is therefore of vital importance and is also the most abundant chemical compound on earth. The quantity present on earth is immense, estimated at around 1200 billion tonnes. Our planet, in fact, is occupied for approximately 70% from water while only 30% is occupied by emerged lands.

Water is vital: our life depends on water

Most of our body is made up of water. It is the main ingredient of the blood, of our cells and represents approximately the 65% of our body weight. Water is vital and indispensable for our health: drinking water helps keep our organs healthy and replaces the liquids we lose through breathing, sweat and digestion.
To keep fit we should drink at least a liter of water a day, that is, approximately 6-7 glasses. Water is therefore a fundamental element for life on our planet!

World Water Day 2024

The World Water Day is celebrated on March 22nd (World Water Day), an anniversary established by the United Nations in 1992 and included in the Agenda 21 directives, the result of the Rio conference. The objective of the day is to raise awareness of world institutions and public opinion on the importance of reduce water waste and to adopt behaviors aimed at combating climate change.

At a political level, attention towards the topic is very high. From March 22nd to 24th the international community gathers in the United Nations Headquarters in New York for UN 2024 Water Conferenceor the second world conference on water 45 years after the first conference, which took place in 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

With the support of UN-Water and the UNDESA secretariat and organized by Tajikistan and the Netherlands, the conference has the main aim of push political and social attention towards a global problem starting from the recognition of water as a universal human right up to the priorities of use, passing through the impacts on health and the environment. Italy will be represented by Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, minister of the environment and energy security, accompanied by technical representatives of the ministries responsible for the matter (Health, MAECI, MASAF) and of the main agencies and scientific institutions that deal with water according to the their mandate (ISPRA, ISS, AICS).

How to save water in 5 tips

Since water is therefore indispensable for us and for the Planet, let’s see how to use it starting from the small daily things at home. For example, a banal gesture to start from in the kitchen is to use less water to cook pasta.

#SaveThePanettone: the initiative against waste (Knam also participates) – Italian Cuisine

Too Good To Go launches #SaveThePanettone, the initiative that will allow you to save the sweets of the Holidays. Master Ernst Knam is also contributing

According to estimates at Christmas alone in Italy over 500,000 tons of food are thrown away, with an economic loss for a single family of € 80. Just take a trip to the supermarket to realize it: although Carnival sweets have already appeared on the shelves, there are piles of unsold panettone waiting to be saved.

As? He thought about it Too Good To Go, the app that since 2015 has allowed bars and restaurants to sell food that is not sold but “too good to be thrown away” online at reduced prices.
In January, in Milan, Rome and Palermo and in over 100 shops throughout Italy, users will be able to purchase specials Magic Box containing Christmas products that need to be saved.

From 17 to 23 January, 47 stores of Carrefour Hypermarkets and Carrefour Market will join #SaveThePanettone in which the sweets of the holidays will be made available.
They also participate in the initiative Ernst and Frau Knam: from 20 January it will be possible to save Knam artisanal panettone at their respective stores in Milan. But this is not the only contribution of the king of chocolate.

"In order to raise awareness as many people as possible on the issue of food waste, we launched Remix, an eBook that can be downloaded for free from our site, which provides tips and anti-waste recipes" he declares Eugenio Sapora, Italy Country Manager of Too Good To Go.
Among the recipes, from all the countries where the app operates, there is an unmissable Ernst Knam's recipe to recycle the chocolate and nougat left over from the Holidays.

Knam chocolate and nougat mousse cake

Ingrediants

400 g of liquid cream
300 g of nougat
300 g of powdered sugar
225 g of egg whites
200 g of dark chocolate
100 g of egg yolks
90 g of unsweetened cocoa powder
30 g of potato starch

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 ° C and start beating the egg yolks with 100g of powdered sugar for about 5 minutes. Subsequently, whip the egg whites with the rest of the icing sugar and once done, gently mix the two compounds also incorporating the sifted cocoa and starch.

Spread the contents on a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake for 9-10 minutes. Then, in a bowl, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and lightly whip the cream separately. Now pour the cream into the bowl containing the chocolate and mix the two compounds with the whisk until you get a mousse.

Once the marquise is out of the oven, sprinkle it with a light layer of granulated sugar and you will be ready to compose your dessert! Place the marquise base in a mold and add some coarsely crumbled pieces of nougat, taking care to cover everything with the chocolate mousse.

Leave the cake to rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator and once cold decorate the edges with chocolate chips (alternatively you can also use a dry crumbled biscuit) and cover it with a thin layer of cocoa powder and other pieces of nougat.