We waste, we waste and then we waste some more.

Sustainability is about more than carrying reusable bags to the market.

It's about being awake and conscious of the steps we take on our fragile planet.

Do we all use resources?

We do.

Can we all do better?

We can.

It's all about sustainability, Italian style.

Today on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

and by Jonathan█s Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yes.

Will they all be delicious?

Absolutely.

Today is all about sustainability, and we can all do better.

I can.

You can.

For us, in our house, it's about the kitchen, and no waste and seasonality to try to make a lighter footprint.

Because, look, man, I travel by plane for my work, so we're hypersensitive to everything else that we do to try to lessen the impact that we make.

The food that we choose to cook is lower on the food chain and has less of an impact and as local as we can get it to be.

So we're going to start today by working on a salad.

And you're thinking, here she goes, the vegan with the salad.

Settle in.

This is not just any salad.

We're starting with romaine lettuce.

And lettuce is lettuce.

It has nutrition, fiber, moisture, vitamins.

It's great.

We're going to add to it some chopped radicchio.

Radicchio is in the family of bitter greens, even though it's not green.

And what that means is that it contains compounds that help the liver to do its job of metabolizing more efficiently.

And when the liver does a better job of metabolizing, you're not hungry all the time.

You have a healthy appetite, but your body metabolizes your macronutrients efficiently.

And in Chinese medicine, when your liver is happy, you're happy.

And when everybody's happy, we can be more conscious of the planet.

See how that works?

Okay.

Next to go in, our diced cucumbers and the cucumbers are going to bring the body fiber and moisture and vitamin C Cherry tomatoes for vitamin C and they're cherry tomatoes.

And I use cherry tomatoes more often than chopped tomatoes because there's less salinity, so they don't affect your joints and you still get the satisfaction of tomatoes.

We have some chopped green olives that are rich in pantothenic acid.

In ancient Rome, they believed that olives would make you live forever.

Turns out pantothenic acid is connected to longevity.

I don't know about forever, but long.

The next thing to go in are chickpeas.

This will be our source of protein and fiber.

They're very good for the middle organs.

Spleen, pancreas, stomach.

To help you feel calm and centered and be able to think clearly.

And the next ingredient before the dressing to go in: green cabbage.

And we're just going to cut it into rough chunks.

And yes, it will be raw, so you'll have to chew it.

But that's the point.

And this is the greatest anti-inflammatory, no matter what's going on internally.

Cabbage can help to settle things down.

Also good for the spleen, pancreas and stomach.

Then we'll quickly make a dressing.

We have some chopped shallots.

You can use a whisk or a fork.

I tend to use whatever is close by.

We have some chopped shallots, pinch of salt, some Dijon mustard.

I use a really spicy mustard.

You don't have to.

You can use yellow mustard if you want to, but I really like a good spicy mustard when it comes to dressings.

Some olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.

Now, when you make a vinaigrette of this sort, you want to use one part vinegar.

See how thick my balsamic vinegar is?

It's like a syrup.

This is balsamic vinegar, the stuff you buy in the supermarkets.

Nice.

But this makes everything taste like a festive occasion.

You want to use four times the olive oil as vinegar.

You can eyeball it.

You don't have to measure, but if you want to measure, have a ball.

And then we just sort of whisk this with a fork.

Now, when you dress a salad, remember you're dressing the salad just enough to coat the ingredients.

The dressing is the dressing.

It's sort of like the accessory, right?

You don't want the thing that people notice about your outfit to be your bracelet.

You want them to notice the whole look.

So that's what a dressing is.

Dressing is just enough to coat the leaves, get it all in there, and then we slowly mix.

And what you want to end up with is a salad that's just shiny with the ingredients of the dressing.

If when you take your salad out of the bowl and pop it into the a platter that you're going to serve it in, there's dressing left, it's too much dressing.

So as I mix this and get ready to play it, I'm so excited for today.

I█m taking you to Firenze - Florence to the San Ambrogio neighborhood where I'm going to meet up with my friend Roberto.

And we're going to talk about sustainability.

We go shopping and make a salad together that is top to bottom Italian and right in line with my Macroterranean way of eating.

I cannot wait for you guys to meet Roberto.

So this is our salad.

You can see it's shiny but not drowning.

And now it's time to head off to Italy.

I'll see you guys there.

[Italian music plays] Roberto!

Hello.

Bongiorno!

Another lovely day together.

Yeah, Yeah.

You see, Florence today?

Sunny.

Beautiful.

Where are we going?

To the market!

Andiamo.

Come on, come on, come on.

Andiamo!

[Italian music conitnues] So, since we're going to be cooking together at the villa, shall we get a few things for panzanella?

[speaking Italian] What do you think?

One, two?

Let's get three.

Okay.

Three it is.

Grazie!

I'm going to give those to you.

So what do you think we need?

Cherry tomatoes.

Oh, these yellow.

Yeah, these are nice.

Very nice.

[Speaking italian] Roberto, I█m going to let you hold the bag.

I hold the bag.

What do you think?

Tell me when.

[speaking Italian] [speaking Italian] I think that's so nice.

It's so nice.

Yes.

They're like.

They're so sweet.

Yeah.

Bene?

It█s okay.

Okay, signora.

Roberto, I think these.

Yes.

Yeah?

Because they'll be nice and soft.

We're going to.... We're going to caramelize them.

Okay.

With oil and some sweetener.

Nice.

What about this?

Maybe just this.

Uno più.

One more.

Okay.

Bon bene.

Okay, signora, tutto.

Okay.

Grazie!

So Roberto... as we continue buying for our recipe together, tell me about this market, because it doesn't seem to me that I see very many tourists here.

Oh, no, no.

This is San Ambrogio Market.

You don't see tourists because you saw people coming here in the morning.

This is open every morning.

Every morning like this?

Yeah.

The produce outside and all the other products inside.

So it's very well...

This is an authentic market for like a neighborhood.

Yes, yes.

And are the farmers all local too?

maybe not Toscana, but not too far away.

Oh, we have a section just for Florentine farmers.

Ah, are we going there?

Yeah, yeah, it's just there.

I'll show you.

But all of this, they put it out fresh every day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, it's not like a supermarket.

No, not at all.

ROBERTO: Not at all.

ROBERTO: They, uh, pull all the carts together in the morning and remove at noon, or shortly after.

CHRISTINA: So it's only in the morning.

ROBERTO: It's a lot of work.

CHRISTINA: Yeah, it's a lot of work, but great.

ROBERTO: You see everything here looks like... CHRISTINA: Yeah.

I mean, look, the porcini.... ROBERTO: Fresh, mature, oh, this is the season of porcini.

CHRISTINA: It is, beautiful porcini!

I am eating so much porcini, you can█t imagine.

So Roberto, When we talk about everything being local and sustainable, they even tell you at the market where things are from.

Oh, yeah.

Naturally, you see on every display.

You know the origin.

Italia Italia.

Italia Italia.

We have... And oranges from Spain.

From Spain.

So this way you can decide.

Yeah, well.

Where you want your food to be from.

That is important.

Sometimes you see fruit come from the other part of the world because, you know, season is not the same in every place of the world.

So.

And then you decide if you wanted.

To say local or not.

You want to buy South Africa, South Africa is super good, but But you know, it's... a big footprint, yeah.

Let█s go to the farmers.

Yeah.

So Roberto, here is where they have local food.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is the corner of the farmers.

Let's see what we have here.

Buongiorno signore!

[speaking Italian] Toscana?

Everything is grown here.

[speaking Italian] So, close to Florence?

[speaking Italian] Inside Florence.

Okay, great.

What do you think about these in the panzanella?

Yes, some spinach.

They are fresh.

Yeah.

We will take two of these.

And what else do you think?

Yes.

Beans.

Ah!

Great.

So we're getting some local Italian dried beans.

[speaking Italian] But they're fresh, so they will cook a lot quicker.

[speaking Italian] Yeah, they're lovely.

The skinnier is softer.

[speaking Italian] Wow.

Beautiful.

Okay I think just the beans and spinach.

Ah, si, grazie!

That would be lovely.

He█s giving us some herbs as well, because we're so nice.

And some carrots.

[speaking Italian] Yeah, yeah!

To the base for our beans.

[speaking Italian] Okay, Roberto.

I need a coffee after all that shopping.

Yeah, Let's go!

[Italian music plays] So Roberto, now that we shopped and we have food, we're going back to the villa.

I wanted to talk to you because one of the things I noticed is different than America is the sustainability commitment in Italy.

So can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Not only about food, but like in life in general, I notice all the recycle bins, and all the.... Yeah, yeah.

It's a number of small things that you can do in your everyday life to be more sustainable and you can also feel better for you with yourself if you don't just throw things away.

I think it's really super simple, but it's simple.

It's not a big deal to have two bins, one for the glass, the other for the trash, the other for the organic.

Organic means, means vegetables, leftovers, these kind of things.

But the cities here are committed to doing it.

Yeah, to the recycle.

Yeah.

We have bins from three or four different, uh, uh, kind of objects.

And it's really easy.

And even with food, I remember I was speaking to an Italian friend here who said she was embarrassed because Italians waste 3% of the food they buy until I said, “Oh, in America we waste almost 40% of the food we buy.

Yes, 40%.

Oh, come on.

So because we have all these big, big stores like we were just in a market where it's local, you go every day, you buy what you need.

Three pears.

Yeah, exactly, Exactly.

But like, you don't even throw away bread.

No, no, nothing.

Not a piece of bread.

No.

You know, Tuscan bread that is is also like an ingredient for many recipe.

Because of no waste?

Oh, no, no.

Because bread is like... is like, holy, you can... do anything with bread.

In my house, too!

Yeah.

When it's fresh, you have fresh bread.

When it█s old, it is dry, you can do a number of other recipe like panzanella, like... Ribolitta... pappa pomodoro... We never throw away bread.

Never.

If it's right, I have a bag, a tissue bag in my kitchen.

Right.

And all the leftover in bread.

I put that in.

There and.

That's it.

And then you make bread crumbs or you use in various recipes.

And sometimes I need I need to have the time of the bag is full to do the recipe.

So it's me waiting myself for the dry bread, for my recipe.

All right, my friend.

Shall we go cook?

Yeah, please.

So you can see it doesn't matter how you live or where you live, We can always do better to make the planet a little bit cleaner and a little bit safer for generations to come [Italian music fades] So Roberto...

I loved the market this morning with all the local vendors, and I always love having coffee with you.

Always.

We had a good talk about sustainability, so we're going to make panzanella a little different.

But tell me how you prepare the bread because I know what my mom did.

I want to know what you do.

Okay?

We always start the panzanella with bread because it's the longer thing of this 10 minute recipe.

Okay, We start putting some old bread in water with some vinegar.

This is white vinegar.

Is that okay?

Yeah, it's perfect.

Like a cup, more or less, of vinegar.

We just break the head, the bread.

If, uh, if you have old bread, like super dry and stony bread, it's perfect because it's, it's a way to, uh, save the whole bread.

And not waste.

No waste.

Never.

But never waste.

Never waste bread.

Remember, never waste bread.

Never, ever.

I don't think I've ever thrown bread away.

Except sometimes in America you buy bread in a plastic bag and it gets mold because you don't store it in plastic.

You store it like this in a nice paper.

Change, change immediately out of the bread and use a paper.

So while you do █ okay, go ahead, finish.

I'm just halving some figs.

Yeah.

So it's going to be like a full panzanella.

It is, I know it█s... very different than panzanella, but I love figs so much.

Oh, oh!

I put them in everything I see.

I saw your face smiling at the market with the figs.

So there's your bread soaking.

It's okay.

So we're going to take a pretty generous amount of olive oil.

Yes.

And then I'm using a sweetener that's made from apples.

So it's a fruit sugar, but it█s healthier than just sugar.

And then a little pinch of salt turn on the heat.

And the heat is pretty strong.

Like, uh... thank you for grabbing that.

And then you lay them like this cut side down.

Okay.

And as soon as the bottom part starts to get sort of like a candy, like a brown at the edge, we'll do a couple more.

You can never have too many candied figs.

You never have too many because.

This is the low.

It is.

It is is the best thing ever.

And then I also take, which I know maybe is a little blasphemous, I take my cherry tomatoes and I cook them too.

I know.

I cook them too.

These are yellow cherry tomatoes, which we found at the local market earlier, and they're also going to cook just until they start to wilt a little bit.

This is a very different style of panzanella And then you want to use these.

These are also local.

Yeah.

This is the “Costoluto Fiorentino” So this is traditional for panzanella.

Costoluto Fiorentino is wonderful.

It█s so tasty.

It's incredible.

So they pair perfectly.

How would you like me to cut it?

Just diced.

You see, the panzanella is diced, putting together everything and it's ready.

How's the bread?

The bread is soft, but I want it... moldy.

I want it really moldy.

Real “morbido,” soft?

Moldy like... “fango” Moldy?

Moldy.

What?

So wait... can we back up one second?

Yeah.

You said you want the bread to feel... moldy?

Moldy is bad.

What do you mean?

I mean like the hard... with the water.

Muddy?

Muddy!

Muddy!

Muddy.

Sorry.

Thank goodness!

I thought.

I don't know if I want to eat this if it█s moldy!

Okay.

Yeah.

And in here?

I'll show you.

Yeah.

Please.

Okay.

And then same thing.

Dice the onions?

Yes.

Okay, Look at that.

Look at that.

Look.

Look at that.

Look at that.

See how they're starting to get, like, a little sweaty?

A little like... as soon as they get a little bit softer.

[speaking Italian] They are evolving in perfection.

Yes, they are.

I know.

It's hard to make them more perfect.

But we're going to make them more perfect.

Figs are... the most perfect fruits.

Two onions diced?

Or one?

These are Tropea onions, correct?

I think.

We have a loaf of bread... maybe two.

Okay.

So we're using Tropea onions.

Now, some people may find raw onions a little bit strong.

So if you do that, Roberto suggests that you put your onions into water.

Cold water.

For ten minutes.

Cold water, and then just right into the salad, drain them off and put them in a salad.

And the strong taste will be gone.

For me, Tropea onions are so sweet that we're going to use them raw, but it's up to you.

It's up to your taste.

As you can see, we're making this panzanella as we choose.

No... no rules.

I'm sure we're breaking every rule of panzanella that there is except the bread so good and even the bread is integrale, So maybe even that rule.

Okay, so.

Now we check our figs.

See?

See that perfect fig?

You want half?

Of course, it█s a fig!

Buono?

And I'm going to put them right on... put the onions over here.

Yeah, please.

Yeah.

And these will go right in with... Look at that.

It took no time at all.

You can use brown rice sirup, if you like.

You can use maple sirup.

You can use coconut sugar or an apple sweetener.

Is it okay if the oil goes in?

Yeah, we need some oil.

So this is aromatized with the everything is in.

Yeah.

So now the squeezing, it's like you have to squeeze it very well.

And so you're really breaking the bread.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very often when you get panzanella in a restaurant, the bread is like big chunks.

No, no, no.

So it should be almost... you're saying like, couscous.

Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like this.

Wow.

This is very different.

Yeah.

But it present the ingredients perfectly if you have like a spoon of this panzanella, it's not like throwing.

A big chunk of bread, right.

You're actually getting... And shall we tear spinach?

Some spinach?

Yep.

Yeah.

Okay.

Wow.

I'm so excited.

And the end is the best.

The basil is the big parfuma of the panzanella.

So.

So no matter what time of year, if you have basil, it goes into panzanella.

Okay.

If you see basil, take basil for the panzanella.

If you can get it, right, put it in there.

Is that enough Spinach?

I think so.

I think, so, perfect.

Basil now as well?

Yeah.

Okay.

And remember when you're using basil, fresh basil to tear it with your hands, don't cut it with a knife.

It changes the flavor of the basil.

So you want to make sure you're always tear it nice, big chunks.

Okay.

Oh, my gosh, This looks so good.

We need more oil.

See?

Ah, salt and pepper.

Yeah.

Salt and pepper.

Okay.

How much you see?

How much pepper do you want?

We are in Tuscany.

More oil?

Yeah, please.

It's a little bit dry.

Yeah, you know.

Okay, this is generous.

Any more vinegar you like?

No, no, no, no.

Vinegar at this stage.

Shall we plate?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

We don't need to... You need to mix it more?

Or are you good?

It's perfect.

It's perfect.

It is.

We made it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, this looks so delicious.

See how many colors?

I know!

Everything is fresh everywhere.

Fresh, fresh and local.

We didn't waste.

We use local oil, local onions, local vegetables, local bread, local figs.

This is... buonissimo.

Shall we try?

Let's put some flower.

Okay.

Buonissimo.

Buonissimo.

Wonderful.

Oh.

Roberto, grazie!

It's always fun to cook with you.

Grazie!

I love seeing you here in Tuscany.

So stay sustainable.

And what are you waiting for?

And let's get back to the cutting board, and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties: Sweetness, the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan█s Spoons individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at ChristinaCooks.com, and by following @ChristinaCooks on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Learn how to add delicious plant-based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles, featuring more than 120 easy-to-make recipes.

To order your copy for $29.95 pl handling, call 800-266-5815 Or visit ChristinaCooks.com.

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