Christina Cooks: Back to the Cutting Board

Can our ancestral past help us as we move into the future?

Yeah, man.

Our ancestors evolved to ensure survival, creating settlements, becoming agrarian, growing and processing food and preserving food.

They revered, respected and feared nature for its power over humanity.

Today we cooked to honor our past as we visit Matera and learn to live our healthiest lives, today on Christina Cooks.

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens A tiny but nutrient dense fresh green vegetable.

Wanna Greens can be added to any meal, snack or dessert.

Fresh greens.

Wanna Greens.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzannes Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzannes Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathans 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?

Yes.

Will we go to Puglia?

No!

today we're going to Matera in the province of Basilicata.

But more on that when we go.

So by 2050, not that far away, by 2050 we will have to decide with 2 billion more people on the planet, predicted, we will have to decide how we are going to, you know, feed everybody.

And the way we eat now is not sustainable.

The way they ate in the past, which of course, there was Paleolithic times and there was hunter gatherers.

But largely in our past we were agrarian, eating grains and beans and vegetables and foods that we cultivated.

Now we've gone back to sort of Paleolithic, but there's so many of us that we can't really eat that way sustainably.

So we have to decide going forward how to minimize animal products, if not, eliminate them completely in my perfect world, and figure out a way to keep the planet sustained and going.

And one of the ways we do that is to learn from the past and to bring those practices into the present, so that we have a future that actually exists.

Just saying.

So what we're going to do is work with an ancient vegetable called eggplant, and you may know it as eggplant and something that your grandmother cooked, but it actually has been used since ancient times, but in Italy only since the 1800s, when it was brought in by the Spaniards.

So we're going to take this eggplant and cut it into thick slabs.

Many of my chef friends call these steaks, but they're not.

It's eggplant cut into slabs about almost an inch thick, and we're going to fit them into a baking pan like this.

We're going to take that, drizzle it with olive oil.

Some sea salt.

And brush it with balsamic vinegar.

Really good balsamic vinegar.

And kind of work the vinegar in the oil and the salt into the surface of the eggplant.

And this is going to go into the oven.

At 350 seems to be my universal temperature.

350, 375... for about 20 minutes.

And then we'll flip it, make a sauce for the top and bake it again.

It's an amazing dish and so simple so far, you can see, like, nothing.

Okay, this goes to the oven.

After 20 minutes, cooled, of course, we're going to drizzle it with a little more olive oil so it stays nice and moist.

And we're going to make a spinach sauce.

And the way we do that is in a food processor.

I know, not exactly ancient, but if my nonna was here she would say how come you're not just chopping everything and making a pesto?

And I would say, because, Nonna, we have these conveniences to which she would say, it's just another thing to clean.

What's wrong with you?

So into this also goes a little garlic powder.

Some pine nuts to give the sauce some body.

You can also use walnuts of pine nuts or not on your radar.

Some white miso to give it, Parmigiano flavor.

About two teaspoons.

Put the top back on.

And we're going to stream some olive oil in while we pulse.

Then.

As it's as it's working, A tiny bit of water.

Not a lot.

It's more like a pesto than a sauce.

And what I used was frozen spinach.

Take the top off.

And then take your cooked eggplant.

And pile this spinach pesto sauce on top.

This is going to give you the protein in the pine nuts.

All the vitamins and minerals that you get in greens like spinach.

And the eggplant becomes sort of the base.

Okay.

This is going to go into the oven for another ten minutes while we make a tomato salad that goes on top.

So you've got baked marinated fresh pesto.

Amazing.

So while it's in the oven, what we have are heirloom cherry tomatoes, which are beautiful.

They're all colors and all sorts of flavors.

All very, very sweet because they're heirloom.

We're going to add to it some diced red onion.

If the red onion is too sharp for you, then you could lightly blanch it like in the water and right out.

But in this case, the tomatoes are so sweet.

I think it's going to give us a really, really nice sort of bite to the tomato salad, which is sweet.

When you buy parsley, many people take the parsley.

I've done it too, and take the leaves off the top.

But what I've discovered is that the most intense flavor of parsley is in the stems, because the nutrition from the soil and the intensity of the flavor is there.

So we're going to coarsely chopped some parsley, put that on top of our tomatoes.

A little salt not much because you have miso in your spinach.

Extra virgin olive oil.

And a touch of balsamic vinegar a nice thick syrupy vinegar.

Toss that together to coat.

It's a very quick very fresh salad and it can be done while your eggplant is in the oven.

For that last ten minutes.

So now I'll go and get the eggplant, top it with the salad, and we'll be all set.

Okay.

So after the last ten minutes you have this beautiful dark green color, nice tender steaks or slabs depending on what you want to call them.

And then we'll top them with this fresh tomato salad.

Now in an ideal world, what you would do is make sure your tomato salad was ice cold.

So it goes on top of the warm balsamic and the warm eggplant, and you have this lovely mouthfeel that's both cold and hot, and it makes for the greatest side dish.

There isn't anybody who won't fall in love with the veggies with this dish.

And now we're off to talk to Francesco Linzalone in Matera.

I'm here in Matera, and if you think this is amazing, just wait till you see where I really am.

I'm here in Matera in a cave dwelling with Francesco Linzalone, from, Slow Food and you work very closely with the slow food movement here in Matera - or all of Italy or just Matera?

We have our section in Matera.

Okay, but slow food.

Is nationally.

Internationally.

Internationally.

We are presently in 170 countries in the world.

So the slow food movement is taking hold all over the world.

It's now present in 170 countries.

Even in the US, you can find organizations dedicated to slow food.

Francesco, today I want to speak to you, I know you wrote a book about... -Yeah, yeah.

-I know you're a former teacher.

And you wrote a book about the history of food here in Matera?

Yeah.

This is a book of recipes I wrote with my sister Lucia.

-Okay.

- And by the way, the, the memories of my mother.

Okay.

-That, so history, of course.

-Of course.

Of course.

And my mother is living, and today she's, 96 and is a good, good, good cook.

So his mother at 96, is still cooking.

-Probably because you eat this.

-Yeah, yes.

So speak to me then a little bit about, how you think this past style of cooking can move the health of people forward.

In America, we eat a lot, a lot of processed food.

And my job, my job is to try to get people back to more natural things like beans, -Yes, yes.

-But youve seen in your research and in your own life how eating traditional recipes maintains wellness and also the soil.

So can you talk to that?

Yes.

But, I can say that, our, daily eating is, based on the fresh food.

-Yes.

Because the the using of today, today is, is a, minora - -It's less, it's... -It's a smaller portion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the using is to, to cook - to go to the market fresh market of fresh fruits, vegetables and so on.

To have or to buy pasta and or cheese and others and to cook in the same day.

Yes.

In the same day.

Legumes are important.

Okay.

Why?

Generally, we combine in in the kitchen with pasta.

Yes.

Yes.

Or alone with like a soup.

Okay.

Soup with garlic, celery, onions and other.

But a good and, of course, a good, -Olive oil.

-Olive oil!

(laughing) -Always a good olive oil.

-Yes.

So, but the growing of beans also, contributes to the wellness of the soil.

Which so without good soil, we have no good food.

Yeah.

Yes, of course, of course.

But in, the soil needs...

In Matera, we grow in particular, durum wheat.

-Durum wheat.

But this kind of part of a plant absorbs fertility from the, the soil.

So growing durum takes a lot of nutrients from the soil, so... Year after year, the the soil is... -Weaker.

-Poorer and poorer.

But there is a plant that when they cultivate this kind of plants, the legume, the soil was richer, more rich.

-Okay.

Why?

Why?

Because the the legumes are the only plant.

the only plant that absorbs, a lot of nitrogen, nitrogen from the atmosphere and transforms in substance that goes in the roots.

in, combination with, and, -bacteria that live in the soil.

-In the soil.

But if there isnt... the plant, the friend plant.

-Yeah.

They dont, yeah.

-The friendly plant.

But in this kind, the nitrogen is fixed.

What Francesco saying is that the beans take nitrogen and CO2 from the air and fix it in the soil, and with bacteria create a richness of the soil that allows you to grow wheat again.

How many years do they grow beans in between wheat?

Is it one year?

-Two.

Three... -Two or three years.

And then they grow wheat again.

-We can fix this concept because -So you have to see...

The different area, the soil, -The weather.

The weather, of course.

And the farmers know.

Each farmer knows.

So the true wise people of this region are actually the farmers who grow the wheat and know when it's time to grow beans and when it's time to grow wheat again.

Francesco, this was a massive education for me.

I thank you so very much for your time and for bringing me to this amazing cave and seeing the past right under my feet.

Grazie mille!

So now you can see we can't go forward unless we understand the past.

The way I see it, weve reallylost our way in America.

We struggle with what to eat and when to eat it.

What's the best time of day?

What should we eat?

We struggle with processed food and ultra processed food.

We believe the advertising...

Here in Puglia, Wwhat I've discovered - I've learned so much.

What I've discovered is that they rely more on cucina povera, which means the poor kitchen, which should be cucina intelligente, the smart kitchen because il chibo sano, sane food is what comprises most of the peoples diet.

Yes, they eat some meat.

Yes, they eat some cheese.

Yes, they eat some fish.

But mostly their food is comprised of beans and cereal grains and lots and lots of locally produced vegetables.

So they live long and they live well.

They eat food that nourishes the body and serves the purpose of their lives.

So if I were you, I would subscribe to the philosophy of cucina povera, the poor kitchen, which is actually the sane kitchen and live a healthy life.

I don't know about you, but I loved discussing how the past, the way we ate, informs how we eat now and can help us to create a healthier future.

So let's continue on that theme and make a very ancient stew known as ciaudedda.

I know, say that three times fast, especially after a couple glasses of wine.

A ciaudedda is a very traditional stew made with very traditional ingredients like local, as much local as you can.

And so what we're going to do start with big chunks of onion into some extra virgin olive oil.

Everyone had olive oil.

No matter how poor your house was, you had olive oil.

It was considered a staple, almost as important as bread.

And in some cases, people survived only on bread because that's what they had.

So to to do that must have been amazing and terrible at the same time.

I don't know if that makes any sense to you, but we're going to start this stew with a modern twist.

Usually it's done just in a pot.

All the ingredients together, but we're going to saute the onions first, and then I'm going to arrange the vegetables around the on top of the onions in a circle so that they each cook in their own little sort of section and have their own flavor, their own character.

The first thing to go in are black olives and the black olives are going to help me to salt the onion so that I don't have to add a pinch of salt.

And the onions are sweating, and they're going to gradually become translucent at the bottom of the stew, but not quite yet.

And the next thing to go in are halves of little fingerling, Or you could use new potatoes.

The thing you don't want to use in this stew are big, waxy potatoes.

A: because there's a lot of sugar in them and a lot of acid.

They're not good for digestion And B: they didn't exist when they made this stew.

Potatoes became big and waxy as we hybridized them over time.

But potatoes used to be tiny, like what we call new potatoes or fingerling.

Now we're going to go in their own little section right here.

And the onions are sizzling away and it's all very happy in there.

Next we'll take mushrooms, whatever kind you like.

I'm using cremini because I like them.

But you can use white, you can use portobello, you can use not chanterelles, that's a little too fancy.

But you could use fresh shiitake as well.

So the mushrooms go in because mushrooms were harvested, right?

They were sort of foraged for.

So anything people could forage for, they could use.

Next are artichoke hearts.

Artichokes grow wild in many places of Italy along the road.

Now I'm using marinated artichoke hearts.

So this is the modern twist on this stew.

Normally they would take the artichokes down by hand and put them in.

So they're going to go into their own little section.

This smells so lovely.

You have no idea.

And then right in the center of all of this, we'll go some carrots from Polignano cut into chunks.

And that will give the stew a lovely sweetness.

Now, carrots are not necessarily traditional to this stew, but theyre traditional to mine, so they're going in.

And carrots will help you to feel warm and grounded.

And when the cold weather comes, you will love the idea of putting carrots in just about anything.

And the final touch?

Two whole cloves of garlic.

In their dress to give the stew a lovely, delightful light garlic flavor.

And they just sort of get tucked in and they'll get taken out.

When we put the stew together at the end.

We're going to cover this and it's going to simmer over medium low heat for about 25 to 30 minutes, just until the potatoes are tender, because the carrots are very tender, because they're from Polignano, you need the potatoes to become soft and then the whole stew will come together.

We'll add something for freshness, we'll see at the end, and we'll have this wonderful stew at the very end in about 30 minutes.

So there's our finished chowder.

And the final ingredient to go in is some peas.

It'll give it color and freshness and help to lift it up.

A tiny, tiny finish of salt.

And now we get to stir.

And you bring this all together, and it's completely yummy looking, I cannot wait.

I love food.

The only thing I can say, how much I love food.

And you can see the artichokes have browned a little bit on the bottom.

The onions are nice and translucent.

I have to say, this is one time when you want to get a little bit stuck in the past and let it inform your future.

And here's our stew.

It's just lovely.

Get every bit of onion out of your pan because it's beautifully caramelized onions.

Ciaudedda.

So what are you waiting for?

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

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens Organic and sustainable, Wanna Greens are grown in a completely closed, indoor environment.

At Wanna Greens, we believe in the benefits of fresh greens for people and the planet.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzannes Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzannes Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathans 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 Christina on social media.

Learn how to add delicious plant based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles.

Featuring more than 80 easy-to-make recipes To order your copy for $32.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815 or visit christinacooks.com.

Add Back to the Cutting Board and get both books for $55.95 plus handling.