How to Reduce Food Waste (the Italian Way)

Food waste is a major problem here in the UK. Although we’ve made great progress in the last few years, UK households still waste around 30% of the food they buy (that’s according to WRAP, the government-funded food waste charity). To put that in context, on average that means that every UK household wastes the equivalent of eight meals a week.

Reducing the amount of food we waste is one of the best (not to mention easiest) ways that we can all lessen our environmental footprint. Here at Pasta Evangelists, we take inspiration from the spirit of cucina povera – the rural Italian tradition of ‘the poor kitchen’ – where nothing is wasted, and every ingredient is savoured. With that in mind, here’s our Head Chef Roberta d'Elia’s top tips for how you can fight food waste at home, the Italian way. 

How to reduce food waste - Chef Roberta’s tips

Vegetables and herbs

Look, we’ve all been there. Even though you were virtuous enough to fill your fridge with fresh vegetables, at the end of the week there’s somehow always some left at the back of the drawer, unloved and limp. So, what can you do with your unused vegetables and herbs?

Soffritto

A classic Italian soffritto is a brilliant way to use up tired onions, carrots and celery. It doesn’t matter if your veg is a little past its best, simply dice it finely and sauté in a generous glug of olive oil until soft and forgiving. You can use your soffritto straight away as a base for a whole host of Italian sauces, or take a leaf out of Chef Roberta’s book and make use of your freezer: “I like to freeze small tubs of soffritto, ready for me to grab when I want something comforting like a ragú, but don’t fancy all that chopping!” 

Stock

Don’t waste precious meat bones – or vegetable peelings for that matter. Bones can be roasted and then simmered away into a rich broth, whilst vegetable scraps like onion skins, vegetable tops and roots are ideal for making an intensely umami veg stock. Chef Roberta loves to use meat broth in Emilia-Romagna’s favourite dish, tortellini al brodo, and recommends cooking  Sardinia’s answer to couscous, fregula, in vegetable stock for a spin on risotto.

Pesto

“Leftover herbs and tired greens were made for pesto” according to Chef Roberta. The idea works with any herbs or greens you have to hand, but the process is a lot easier if you have a blender or food processor. That bag of Italian rocket at the back of your fridge would work wonderfully in a rocket pesto, and leftover kale can be turned into an earthy vegan pesto.

Cheese

Cheese not only has a high carbon footprint, it also has a lot of love poured into it, as the artisan processes behind Italian cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano and Pecorino Romano show. For us, it’d be a cardinal sin to waste any of that fantastic formaggio.

If you’re worried about wasting some cheese you’ve bought – say if you’re going on holiday – Chef Roberta recommends leaning on your freezer again: “Grated cheese freezes really well, and you can use it straight after you get it out of the freezer”. Frozen grated cheese defrosts almost immediately, meaning you’ll always have some on hand for making decadent mac and cheese, sprinkling over aubergine parmigiana or topping a comforting pasta bake.

Don’t waste your Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano rinds either. They might look destined for the food bin, but there’s real flavour stored in those rinds. Add a rind to soups like ribollita for a seriously savoury flavour bomb (just remember to fish it out before you serve up). 

Stale bread

Whether you’ve baked your own loaf or picked it up from the shop, there’s no need to waste any if the bread goes a little stale. Stale bread plays a starring role in a number of Italian dishes, from toasted bruschetta to Tuscan stalwarts like panzanella and ribollita.

Even seriously stale bread shouldn’t be binned. In Chef Roberta’s home region of Puglia, crisp fried breadcrumbs (pangrattato in Italian) came about as an ideal replacement for pricey parmesan cheese. Simply blitz your stale bread in a food processor, fry the resulting crumbs in olive oil, then sprinkle over your favourite pasta dish. We love a shower of pangrattato on top of this vibrant vegan orecchiette, or as a topping for our seafood ravioli (after all, true Italians rarely mix seafood and cheese). 

Pasta

Chef Roberta has strong feelings about this one – particularly when it comes to fresh, handmade pasta dough: “Wasting all that effort is a crime! If you have some scraps left over after rolling out your handmade tagliatelle or ravioli, gather them all together into a ball and re-roll them, then cut them into thin strips.” These irregular pieces of pasta hail from Emilia-Romagna, and are known as maltagliati (which literally means 'badly cut' in Italian)

When it comes to leftover cooked pasta, it’s all about frittata di pasta. A popular dish in the southern Italian region of Campania, frittata di pasta is just leftover pasta and sauce that’s mixed with eggs and cheese, then fried to create a crisp frittata. It’s more of an idea than a recipe – so you can easily customise it with whatever pasta, sauce or cheese you have leftover.

Rice and Polenta

Italians hate to waste any form of carb, and there’s a number of delicious ways you can follow their lead at home. Cooked polenta is a brilliant accompaniment to rich dishes like ossobucco, but if you have leftovers, do as the Venetians do and fry cooled slabs of polenta in olive oil to make a suitably Italian ‘chip’ – then serve topped with grated parmesan. 

With rice, take inspiration from Sicily’s favourite street food and turn leftover risotto into arancini; simply coat your cooled risotto rice in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, then fry until crisp. Served alongside an appetite-awakening Aperol Spritz, it’s the perfect aperitivo. 

Coffee grounds

Okay, stick with us on this one. Even spent coffee grounds (like the ones you get from using a Moka pot), can be saved from the food bin. In fact, they’re particularly useful for baking. Coffee pairs beautifully with chocolate, bringing a richer, deeper flavour. If you’ve got leftover coffee grounds, save them and mix them into your next chocolate-focused bake. Adding some spent grounds to the mix would add a real depth of flavour to our gluten-free torta caprese recipe. 

Alternatively, you can use your spent coffee grounds as a fertiliser (the coffee grounds help add nitrogen to the soil) – which is ideal if you’re growing herbs at home.

What are we doing to fight food waste?

Tackling food waste is integral to our story. While developing the concept for Pasta Evangelists, we were shocked to learn that over 80% of food goes to waste in a typical fine dining restaurant. We wanted to serve up that same five star restaurant experience, whilst evoking the philosophy of the Italian mamma who never lets anything go to waste.

Fortunately, our pre-order model and pre-portioned product enables us to only order ingredients that we need, while any unsold dishes can be quickly redistributed to our takeaway kitchens across London. We are also delighted to have started working with City Harvest London to redistribute any further surplus to local charities and schools that provide food to those that need it most.

At Pasta Evangelists, we bring a taste of Italy to your kitchen. Prepared using the freshest ingredients, our gourmet pasta dishes are perfect for those looking to enjoy restaurant-quality meals, delivered to your door, and ready in under five minutes. Order from our weekly menu today, and we’ll offer you 25% off your first delivery - simply enter the code BLOG25 at checkout.