- No one honors the past quite like Italians, but they live very much in the present too.

Having a coffee?

Present.

Cooking?

Present.

Eating?

Very, very present.

Today, I cook a fresh fava bean saute with one of my favorite expats living here in Florence.

And in the States, we make an ancient pasta dish with a modern twist.

("Bella Ciao") - [Presenter] Funding for "Christina Cooks" is provided by FinaMill, the flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

FinaMill.

And 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?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Yes.

We will have you falling in love with the kitchen and cooking once again.

Now, Italy has an ancient culinary history.

When I tell you ancient, you can't even begin.

There was flatbread found painted on the walls in Pompeii in a fresco that's over 2000 years old.

So their history with food is pretty long.

If you go to Pompeii, the pizza oven that you'll see in the ruins of the old city looks very much like the pizza oven that might be in your backyard.

So their history with food is very long, and at the center of it always seems to be pasta.

And pasta for us is everything.

But not pasta the way we often think of it in America.

We're not talking about those cheap chain Italian restaurants where you get unlimited breadsticks.

We're talking about real Italian food.

Pasta is made from semolina or durum and water, period.

That's it, simple.

When they make pasta, if it's traditionally made, it's dried very slowly at low heat for about three days.

It's a very sort of beige color, sort of like this.

So if you're buying cheap pasta at a supermarket, that's not gonna serve your wellness as well as the pasta that you're gonna spend more money on.

That's a mild, beautiful beige color, and cut with what they call a bronze die.

So that whatever sauce you make sticks to the pasta.

Step number two, when you cook pasta, you wanna salt it as though the water is sea water.

(spice grinder whirring) So you salt it.

Now, why do you do that?

You do it because there's a lot of water.

You don't have to worry about the salt, and it flavors the pasta.

Pasta doesn't have a lot of flavor.

It's flour and water, nothing.

So you season the water so it tastes like something.

While your sauces or gravy or pestos or whatever might be the star of the show, the true star of the show is the pasta.

So you want it to taste like something.

So you season your water very well, make sure it's boiling, and then you cook your pasta.

Step three, you cook it what's known as al dente, meaning slightly undercooked.

Whatever the package directions tell you, at least one, if not two minutes, less than that.

When you eat pasta that's al dente, which means to the tooth, you have a little bit of bite left in it.

That prevents it from digesting really quickly and becoming an insulin trigger.

It's why Italians can eat pasta every day at lunch, rarely at dinner, every day at lunch, and look like Sophia Loren in her heyday.

So that's how you cook pasta.

We are gonna make today my version of an ancient Trapanese pesto, which is from Sicily.

It's the north part of Sicily.

And Trapani is famous for its salt ponds for their salt.

I carry Trapanese salt back in my suitcase when I'm in Italy.

It's so delicious, it borders on sweet.

Okay, but to make the pesto, we're gonna take some garlic, finely chopped, because I do want strong flavor.

Remember, the more finely you chop garlic, the stronger the flavor.

We're gonna add to it some miso.

Now, white miso, I know it's not Italian, I know, I know.

But I'm a vegan.

I don't use parmigiano.

White miso, specifically white miso gives you the flavor of dry salty cheese without having to have the saturated fat of cheese.

So that goes in.

And the next thing to go in, our slivered almonds.

Sicilians are famous for their use of almonds, raisins, pine nuts, and pistachio.

And their pistachio come from a town called Bronte, which is at the foot of Mount Etna.

And so you kind of mix this into a paste.

I'm being really nice here.

At home, I do this with my fingers, but we're gonna do it with a spoon here.

And you just mix this until it creates sort of a paste.

And then this is a mixture of parsley, basil, mint, fresh oregano, and thyme, all sort of coarsely chopped.

We're gonna chop it even more finely to create the green of our pesto.

Now, could you use a food processor for this?

You could.

Could you use a mortar and pestle?

That's often what I do.

But when I'm making a big batch, I make my pestos the way my grandmother made them.

She used to stand at her cutting board with her little knife, or sometimes her mezzaluna, which is that half-moon knife.

And she would just chop until she had her herbs the size she wanted them.

She'd pull them together.

It's really interesting, you know, as a chef, one of the first things I learned in knife skills was you never pull things to the board with your blade.

You use the back of your knife so that you don't dull your blade.

When I think of my grandmother and my mother cooking, they did that.

They just sort of knew.

They didn't take a knife skill class, which is pretty interesting.

It just shows to me, as I do it, it just shows to me how much we've lost touch with the natural instinct that is cooking and how in touch they were.

So now, and once it's to the size you like it, in with the miso and the almonds.

And then the next thing we'll do is take these cherry tomatoes.

Now, you can use them halved like this.

But in a pesto like this, I would prefer to quarter them.

You don't need a ton.

Really, what they're doing, it's sort of a Sicilian nod to the Italian flag, red, white, and green.

So they're in there.

And Italians in Sicily, or Sicilians as they prefer to be called, tend to do a lot of this kind of thing.

They make a pesto, then they stir in raw tomatoes.

They're either chopped or quartered.

So I think that may be enough.

We'll see.

So now, we'll take the pasta into the pan.

Now, this pasta's cooked.

And I don't want it to overcook because as we discussed, that would be bad.

So they're gonna go in, I'm just heating it up.

Because what I want the pesto to do is almost, I want these hot noodles to come out and take the rawness off the pesto.

So the noodles are basically cooked.

So they're gonna come out of the water into, let's do this the easy way.

She's done.

It's okay if you drag some pasta water with you because that water is gonna help the pesto to loosen.

This is gonna go in.

Don't leave any noodles behind.

The one thing my family could be guaranteed when I was a kid that I would eat, two things, cauliflower, go figure, and pasta.

But when my parents made pasta or my grandparents made pasta, they never could put this into here.

I would take each noodle, dip it in the pesto, and then eat it.

But if you put the pesto on top of the noodles, I was out.

No way, I'm not eating that.

Not eating that, that's disgusting.

I'm not eating that.

Now, it needs a generous glug of olive oil.

Generous.

This is pesto.

Pesto means, by the way, in Italian, simply paste.

It can be whatever you want.

There's black olive pesto.

There's classic basil pesto.

There's Trapanese pesto.

Every region has its own version of what pesto is.

In this one, it's important that you get the miso broken up in the pesto so nobody bites down on a salty lump, right?

So you just keep mixing until this guy comes together.

And yes, again, you could do this in a food processor, but there's something really calming and zen about making a pesto that's gonna go over a glorious bowl of pasta by hand.

There's just something about it, and maybe it's me, I'm sure it is.

But once your miso is dissolved into your pesto, so you can see, it's really pretty.

This is gonna go in.

Like that.

And now, we just mix until you've coated the noodles.

And you don't need a ton of pesto, right?

The pesto's not the star here.

Yeah, it's local ingredients and very herby and it's lovely.

But the star here is, once again, I will say it out loud, the pasta.

The pesto's just the vehicle so you're just not eating a plain out of the water.

So once it's mixed and covered, again, if I was home, I'd be doing this with my hands even though the noodles are hot.

I'm gonna plate it up and create.

This beautiful pesto dish that you can serve warm, you can serve it chilled.

Cold pasta for breakfast is a gift from heaven.

So you could do that.

And you have created this glorious, simple, didn't break a sweat pasta dish with a Trapanese pesto.

It's just heaven on earth.

("Bella Ciao") When I was a kid, every square inch of our backyard in Kearny, New Jersey was garden.

If we wanted to play, we had to play between the plants and don't step on anything.

And like every Italian family, we had zucchini coming out of our ears by the end of the summer.

My grandparents loved cooking with zucchini.

They made zucchini bread, zucchini fritters, zucchini everything.

But my favorite dish that my grandmother used to make started with a good amount of olive oil in a skillet into which she dropped two big cloves of garlic.

Then she took a zucchini from the garden and cut it into rounds about not quite a quarter of an inch like that, okay?

And then she wrapped said zucchini in a towel.

And she did that so that when it went into the oil, it didn't spit.

It didn't spit all over the stove.

She absorbed all of the moisture.

So a dish like this, while very simple, has to be sort of prepared in a way that you're not gonna wreck your kitchen.

So that's what my grandmother used to do.

So then she would take the oil now flavored with garlic very lightly, and in would go the zucchini into the hot oil.

Now, this is actual frying.

She didn't bread it.

She didn't do anything special except dry it in a towel so it didn't spit all over, and carefully drop it into hot oil.

It was the only time that my grandmother heated olive oil, was when she fried.

And yes, it was extra virgin olive oil, the best kind they could get their hands on.

There was no cheap oil in our house.

And she would fry these.

And then somehow they knew how to make balance.

It was the most amazing thing to me.

She would make this dish with a little bit of garlic in the oil that she would take out.

And then her instinct was, "Let's finish that dish with lemon juice and some fresh mint from the garden," which was like a jungle.

But what she didn't know was according to the principles of Chinese medicine, this and the mint helped us to digest the fried zucchini, and it would stay in the oil until the edges were browned.

I think she probably, she would probably yell at me if she was here.

But I usually fry these for a good five minutes before they come out of the oil.

And once the zucchini gets soft and starts to take on a little bit of color, you're gonna pull it out of the oil onto a piece of parchment paper, just to drain it a little bit from the excess oil.

This style of cooking zucchini actually has more than one purpose.

There's this dish, which is my absolute favorite dish when it comes to zucchini, but in many areas in Southern Italy, they also do this.

And then they put these zucchini rounds into the fridge, and the next day, re-saute them and put them over spaghetti to make what's known as spaghetti Nerano.

All it is, is zucchini cooked this way, taken outta the fridge, cooked again, and then served with spaghetti.

So we're gonna take it from this paper onto the serving plate.

And to finish it really simply, my grandmother would take fresh lemon juice.

When I was a kid, if we got squirted in the eyes with lemon juice and when we're whining, of course, she would say, "No, no, no, it makes your eyes sparkle."

And we believed her.

And the fresh lemon juice will help you digest the oil.

A few hand-torn sprigs of mint.

Mint is like basil in that you really don't wanna use it with a knife so much.

You don't wanna chop it, you wanna tear it.

And then you'll get that beautiful fragrance of mint and you get this lovely flavor as well on your dish.

And this becomes one of the loveliest, simplest summer side dishes that you can make with zucchini.

And it's absolutely, in my humble opinion, it's called zucchini alla Poverella.

It should be called zucchini inteligente because everything about it is about balance, delicious flavor, good quality fats, and helping you digest with lemon.

And now, we're off to Florence to cook with my favorite expat in the world to make a fresh dish with fava beans.

Let's go.

("Bella Ciao") So I love to cook with people that I'm close to.

And I have cooked with my friend, Tony for more than 30 years, from cooking class conferences to vacations, to whatever.

The only problem is when I cook with my friend, Tony, I start to talk like this, like I'm from Brooklyn like Tony.

Yo, Tony, come over here.

You wanna cook or what?

- Okay, let's do it.

- Let's do it.

Today, we're gonna make, Tony, we're gonna make a fava bean saute.

When you were a kid, did you eat fava beans?

- Yeah, I was lucky because on both sides of my family, my father's side, my mother's side, there was a lot of beans.

- Yeah.

- Incorporated in dishes.

- Yeah.

- So it was really nice.

It was nice.

- And we grew fava.

Did you?

- Oh yeah, because my uncle's father-in-law actually used a backyard in Brooklyn.

- As a garden?

- As a garden, and grew all kinds of vegetables and stuff like that.

- Yeah, we had no play space when we were kids.

It was all garden.

So Tony, we're gonna saute them, but we, as a kid, did you do this too?

We ate them raw.

We didn't eat fava beans cooked generally, unless they were dry.

- Yeah, it is sort of like a snack.

You just ate them right at the pod.

- Yeah.

So Tony, put us a little olive oil.

Be generous in that skillet for me, please.

I'm gonna simply slice some shallots.

You can use onion and you can use whatever.

But shallots are a little sweeter and worth the extra effort to peel them.

Please don't buy them peeled.

Buy them whole and peel them.

It takes two seconds extra of your time.

So this is gonna go in, Tony, and then turn the heat on like a medium.

When you cook with really good olive oil, which I'm in Florence, hello, really good olive oil from Tuscany, don't heat it until you have an ingredient in the pan because otherwise you lose the flavor of the olive oil.

You can cook it to high heat, but you don't wanna lose the flavor.

I'm gonna give you a little salt on those, Tony.

- [Tony] Okay.

- And start to sweat them.

And as soon as you feel like they're starting to move, we'll start to shell some fava beans.

- [Tony] Okay.

- We are using fresh.

You can get fava beans whole, split, frozen, dried.

The dried ones are lovely to cook into a puree.

We are using fresh ones because for the 30 seconds there in season, you use the fresh ones.

And so all you do is split the pod and you pull the little beans out like this.

And Tony, these are high in protein, yeah?

- Yes, they are.

- I mean, fiber, I know, but they're pretty high in protein, yeah?

- In protein too, yeah, like most.

- So in our protein-obsessed culture, we're getting plenty of protein.

- Absolutely.

This would keep you satisfied.

- I mean, as 41 years of vegan, I still get asked where I get my protein.

So this is one of the many places, remembering that there's protein in everything you eat except fruit.

You ready for the fava, Tony?

- Gimme two seconds.

- Okay.

One, two.

- Two, you got it.

- In go the fava.

I'm gonna leave that there.

You want another, you want salt and pepper or just salt?

- [Tony] A little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper.

- [Christina] Okay.

- [Tony] Thank you.

(spice grinder whirring) - [Christina] You're supposed to tell me when.

- [Tony] Okay.

- Okay.

Okay, while you saute, this dish goes very well with roasted potatoes.

So I'm gonna get the potatoes ready to go into the oven.

- Sounds good.

- Okay?

So what we did was we took red skin potatoes and just cut them into chunks.

I'm gonna add to them a small handful of capers.

And then I'm gonna take some olives, cut them in half or quarters, however you like your olives.

And throw those in as well.

Now, that's gonna determine how much salt you add, right?

Both are salty.

So they're just going to get a touch of salt.

Tony, can you pass me the oil?

- Yes, I can.

- And a generous amount of oils.

Now, you can be generous with both oil and salt when it comes to potatoes because they like it.

They told me so.

And then these just get mixed.

And they're gonna go into the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes until the edges are crispy and golden and the inside is like fluffy and light and delicious.

You can, if you like, add some rosemary sprigs to the top of your potatoes or you cannot.

The rosemary is really interesting because it helps your body to neutralize the sugars in the potatoes, so you digest them better.

So it's up to you as you wanna do it.

So we're gonna put these in the oven and then we'll plate it up the dish.

How's that looking?

- That looks good.

- They're turning bright green.

The skins are splitting open.

I think it's time for some tomatoes.

They smell so good.

Oh my goodness, this smells so good.

You want a little more salt or no?

- [Tony] Yeah, please.

(spice grinder whirring) - Tony, you wanna smell heaven, Tony?

You wanna smell heaven, Tony?

Yeah, that's what heaven smells like.

All right, is that ready or do you wanna wilt the tomatoes a little more?

- Just a couple more seconds on this because you, look at the colors, it's beautiful, green, red.

- They're so delicious.

These fava beans are so delicious 'cause they're so fresh.

If you can find them in the pods, get them in the pods.

There's no other way to do it.

Okay, you ready?

- I'm ready.

- You think these are done?

- I think so.

- Okay.

For now, we put them into this bowl and then we're gonna plate them.

Now, you can serve these as two separate dishes if you like, make your lives easier at home.

But we're gonna do something a little different.

We're gonna take our potatoes.

And since they're cooled, we're gonna make a nice rim of potatoes around the plate.

Like this.

Tony, when you came here, how long ago was it that you came here?

- I came here almost 25 years ago.

- [Christina] No way.

Really?

- Yeah.

First time, actually was '98, but it was a short stay.

- [Christina] Wow.

- But then I moved here in March of '99.

- And now, you're a citizen, official?

- Yes, yep.

- So was it hard for you to get your citizenship or just time?

- It was basically time.

- Okay.

- You know, it's accumulation or getting together the documents to present to the courts to get the citizenship.

- But now, you're in?

- Yeah, I'm in, and it's a good thing because if I'm gonna live here- - It's a great thing.

- Yeah, it's a great thing.

If you're gonna live here, that makes sense.

- Wow.

Okay, so now, we're gonna take our fava beans.

We're just gonna put these in the center, make a nice mound.

And this way, you're putting like one plate on the table for everyone to choose.

And you've got protein and lovely carbohydrates.

And anything that you could possibly want is in this dish, olives, capers, potatoes, rosemary, olive oil, fava beans.

Can I add the olive oil?

Speaking of olive oil, you give it one last finish of really good olive oil, generous like that.

I'll give that to you, Tony.

Shall we wait no longer?

- Absolutely.

- Ha-ha.

Let's go.

Get some potatoes and some fava beans and some tomatoes.

This is.

This is.

This is.

- Very good.

- This is it.

- Absolutely.

- This is the greatest dish in the spring, in the summer when you can get fava beans when tomatoes are great.

- It looks good.

It tastes good.

- Mm-hmm.

- Tony.

(speaking Italian) - No, thank you.

- Lovely to see you as always.

Ciao.

So good.

Let's go back in.

("Bella Ciao") How can we shape a future of health and return to being natural humans?

With AI, devices constantly warping our view of the world.

How can we find our way back to nature?

Do we even want that anymore?

With devices in the palm of our hand that can do just about anything better than we can, what are we becoming?

It's time to take our lives back from the virtual world and live in real time.

Sure, it's hard and even ugly, but it's life, real life, and anything is better than virtual reality.

So many of us think longingly of past time when things seemed simpler, easier, when in fact, they were anything but.

Think about ancient Romans.

Life was brutal, cruel, and so many people suffered.

But they also, out of necessity, created civilization and birthed many inventions still in use today, from cement to sewer systems, to roads, to heating and plumbing, to cooking techniques to name just a few of the many things they created that we enjoy convenience from today.

Life was hard, but people work to create better lives for their children and their children.

It's time to get back to that spirit of creative critical thinking for our future built from the past by using our minds, our hands, and our collective communities.

So think about that, and I'll see you next time on "Christina Cooks."

(hands clap) ("Bella Ciao") - [Presenter] Funding for "Christina Cooks" is provided by FinaMill, the flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

FinaMill.

And 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 Christina on social media.

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