From Imperfect Foods to Perfect Meals: 3 dishes in one week.

In this episode I transformed my Imperfect Food delivery ingredients into three zero to minimal food packaging waste dishes. I made an applesauce infused with turmeric, a traditional Sicilian sardines & pasta, and a simple but astoundingly delicious fusilli with zucchini.

• One oversized apple become an absolutely delicious homemade applesauce with turmeric for color, flavor and of course wonderful nutritious and healing properties. 

• Traditional Sicilian pasta recipe features sardines, fennel, golden raisins, and a savory garnish of toasted breadcrumbs & fresh fennel frons. 

• The simple but Dlicious zucchini fusilli dish uses blanched zucchini planks, garlic, and lemon juice topped with the toasted breadcrumbs adds a perfect texture to both pasta dishes.

• All dishes use minimal packaging and reduce food waste.  

I like this format. Please let me know your thoughts.  Should you need any guidance along the way, I'm reachable any number of ways. 

Please share with friends if you enjoy this podcast! Find me at d@recipes4survival, @donnargoldman1 on Instagram, and my website, recipes4survival.com.

MINDFUL MEALS & SUSTAINABLE LIVING - The Art of Living an Elevated Lifestyle

Chapters

• 0:13 Introduction to trio of recipes
• 0:50 Homemade turmeric applesauce
• 2:11 Traditional Sicilian sardines pasta
• 5:33 Easy fusilli with zucchini
• 8:05 Closing remarks and contacts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hi, my friends, this week is going to be funny. I want to ask you, what do you think Applesauce, a traditional Sicilian sardines and pasta dish, and fusilli with zucchini might have in common? Besides, of course, very little food packaging waste? Last week I made each of these dishes with the ingredients that were in my imperfect food delivery box, and we'll get into how simple and easy the applesauce was off the hook. I'm going to get into that quickly right now.

Speaker 1: 0:50

I ordered apples. I am telling you the apple was bigger than a soft ball I will certainly have a picture of one and I peeled it, cut it in half and then put the flat half down, cut it into quarters, quarters and then across. So I had a medium sized chunk of apple from the quarter that I cut across, A wedge of a fresh lemon, Put that into a sauce pot and maybe a scant inch of water, Then I grated turmeric into it. So it gave it this beautiful, warm yellow color. I will show you how to do that. You simply peel it just like ginger and then grate a little. You need very little and I will say this it stains like crazy because I still have yellow on the knobs of my little hot point stove here. I think it cooked down with the top on maybe a half hour, but when I took the top off I mean, and it's over a medium heat, not screaming boiling hot I went in with a hand masher, lowered the heat, we put it on another 10 minutes and it was the best applesauce. Now we can all go buy applesauce, but I am telling you, if you make applesauce at home, you will be very happy, and using the turmeric put it in another league altogether.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Then the next dish I made is the Sicilian sardines and pasta dish, which I'm going to describe now. So the dish is started by making the breadcrumbs, the savory breadcrumbs that you'll use as a garnish on top with the fresh fennel fonts. What I do to make the breadcrumbs, or anybody does to make toasted breadcrumbs is, you know, lightly oil a pan and then add some salt of the earth or seasoned salt I never cook with pepper and then at least a cup of breadcrumbs, and then I use a wooden type spatula. You just toast the breadcrumbs till they get some nice color in them, Put it into a bowl. The next thing you wanna do is rehydrate the golden raisins, and so just get some water boiling. I just used a small like coffee mug, a handful of raisins. I put hot water over the top of them and then I'm going to grate you know just a little turmeric into it and see what that does for the color of the dish.

Speaker 1: 3:20

And then we will get into the next steps to making this traditional Sicilian sardines and pasta dish. Open the tin of sardines and you're going to use the oil that the sardines are packed in, you know, in the same pan that you toasted the breadcrumbs off in. So once the oil has a little shimmer to it, you're going to add the diced half onion, then the fennel. Whether you sliced it, diced it or shaved it, it's a rustic dish. So whatever the shape of the fennel is that you've cut, add it to the pan of the sauteing onions. Then minced garlic two or three cloves If they're small, three cloves If they're good-sized, two cloves of minced garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes I added also.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Next, start the water boiling for your pasta, and I always add a generous amount of salt once the water's come to a boil. The pasta that's used for this dish typically is called casareche, and they look like little scrolls. So I used fusilli, and gemelli is perfect also. Now let's get back to the pan. That's a good title for a cooking show. So in our pan you're going to now add the rehydrated raisins, the tin of sardines, and you begin to just mash it up so that you have the sardines and the sautéed vegetables and the raisins mixed together. To this you add the cooked pasta I would say maybe four cups of pasta to the amount of sardines and sautéed vegetables that you have Stir it around and if you have the fresh fennel fronds, you'd put them on top here now and you're ready to serve Two large spoonfuls into a bowl. Top it with your delicious breadcrumbs no parmesan, because of the fish and then we'll get on now with how to make this killer fusilli and zucchini dish that I made.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Basic staples, but so delicious and really simple, Easy to make, no time at all, Cleanups, a breeze and zero food packaging waste. I had an oversized zucchini with bits on it that were not in such good shape because I had been away for a little while. Oh right, I got to go to New Orleans for Jazz Fest, so that's why I came. When I came back, I started using everything that was in the vegetable bins. So this zucchini dish that I made.

Speaker 1: 6:05

I chopped up the zucchini so they were almost in planks, the pieces, Very irregular, but planks. If you will, I'll show everybody how to do that too. I will make these dishes again, but I just wanted to get a podcast out to help with my consistency, which you can see I'm not doing so well, but we're trying. And then, while I was sauteing, all I did was like minced garlic and some olive oil, but I had a pot of the water boiling for the pasta and I used fusilli. And then what I did was I put the zucchini pieces the planks, if you will into a little strainer and let them parboil in the water. So I would say, once the zucchini had blanched, maybe maybe five minutes, I added that to the saute pan of garlic and then I added a splash of lemon juice from half of a lemon lemon but you've got to be very careful, of course adding the wet zucchini to a pan with oil in it so you shake it off and then, if the temperature is right in the saute pan, it'll just begin to simmer, if you will almost poach. It was just fantastic. I have pictures of this. I topped the whole dish off this zucchini and fusilli with lemon, topped it off with those killer breadcrumbs. I did it.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Three shows in one podcast. Talk about a labor of love. I hope you'll return and that you love this piece as much as I do. I'll have pictures to share. Let's just get the podcast out there. Please share with friends if you enjoy this as much as I do. Talk to you soon. You know how to find me d at recipes for survival and Donna Goldman on Instagram and my website, recipes the number four, survivalcom.