How to Reduce Food Waste With Chef Massimo Bottura’s Brodo di Tutto Recipe
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Nov 26, 2023 • 4 min read
Massimo Bottura is a chef with three Michelin stars at the restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. One of the Italian chef’s passions is educating everyone about the importance of zero-waste cooking, or making use of ingredients that many would simply throw away.
Chef Massimo’s nonprofit programs Refettorio Ambrosiano and Food for Soul bring acclaimed chefs together to cook meals for the poor and homeless using salvaged food and ugly produce.
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What Is Chef Massimo Bottura’s Philosophy on Food Waste?
Chef Massimo believes that everything, even what most people perceive as useless scraps, can be given a second life. For example, taking an onion skin and pairing it with other complementary flavors to make a stock is the ultimate in compassionate cooking.
His Brodo di Tutto recipe is a pasta dish made from stale bread and broth made from food scraps. In this Italian recipe, Chef Massimo demonstrates how to draw inspiration from techniques and flavors that are traditional in his native Italian region Emilia-Romagna and takes them in a new direction by using your palate.
- He makes the broth with vegetable scraps, intensifying its umami characteristics (a “fifth taste” that encapsulates salty, meaty flavors like steak, mushroom, anchovy, and aged cheese), and he uses finely ground stale bread to make the dough for the pasta, also flavored with intense dried and powdered mushrooms and Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- But you should feel free to experiment. Use the flavors that inspire you in the broth and pasta, but be wise: if you don’t end up with a harmonious flavor, have the confidence and wisdom to take a step back, reevaluate what went wrong, and try again.
- By using your palate to constantly tweak what you’re making, you’ll learn how to use every part of your ingredients to create something wholly your own.
Quick Tips for Making Brodo di Tutto
Read these tips before making the recipe below.
- Homemade bread crumbs work best here, since the dish is meant to give leftover bread new life. Ideally, you’d make them from stale bread you have at home (try sourdough or another rustic country bread). If you have to use store-bought crumbs, though, that’s okay.
- For the stock, use vegetable scraps that you have lying around but that complement one another and the dish as a whole. Chef Massimo pairs ordinary ingredients like parsnips and celery root with potato and onion skins for an autumnal broth; for a spring version, try fava bean pods, spring onion scraps, and the stems of soft, grassy herbs like parsley, dill, or basil.
- Finally, if you want to make the passatelli but don’t have time to make this broth, you can use the chicken broth from the Tortellini in Rich Broth recipe or store-bought broth.
Passatelli With Broth of Everything (Brodo di Tutto) Recipe
makes
8Ingredients
For the vegetarian broth:
For the bread crumb pasta:
Dried Mushroom Powder
You can buy dried mushroom powder in gourmet supermarkets or pulverize store-bought dried mushrooms into a fine powder using a blender or coffee/spice grinder at home. If you want to make your own powder from fresh mushrooms, spread your mushrooms out on a rimmed baking sheet and dehydrate in a 140 F oven until dried and brittle, about eight hours. Let the mushrooms cool completely, then pulverize to a fine powder. Transfer the powder to a storage container, and store at room temperature for up to two months.
- 1
Prepare the vegetables for the broth. Heat the oven to 150 degrees F. Peel the onion and remove its ends; reserve the peeled onion for another use. Place the onion skins on a rimmed baking sheet. Peel the potatoes and place the peelings on the baking sheet with the onion skins; reserve the peeled potatoes for another use. Roughly chop the parsnips and celery root and add to the sheet with the skins. Place in the oven and cook at least eight hours or overnight to dehydrate them.
- 2
Make the vegetarian broth. The next morning, increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and cook the vegetables and skins until caramelized, about 30 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer all the vegetables and skins to a large saucepan. Fill the pan three-quarters of the way with cold water (about 1½ gallons, or 6 liters), add the thyme sprigs, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer (a bubble should break the surface once every three seconds or so), and cook for six hours. When finished cooking, pour the broth through a chinois, or fine sieve, and into another saucepan. Discard the vegetables. Season the broth with salt. Reserve the broth to use now or pour into storage containers. Refrigerate or freeze for up to one month.
- 3
Make the pasta. In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, Parmigiano, mushroom powder, and a pinch of salt. Add the eggs, and mix with one hand until the dough comes together. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead until smooth, about three minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, and place it on the corner of your work surface or baking sheet. Drape a kitchen towel or sheet of plastic wrap over the top to keep the dough from drying out while it rests, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- 4
Cook the pasta. When you’re ready to cook the pasta, return the broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Remove fist-size balls of dough and place in a potato ricer fitted with the plate of the biggest holes. Working over the simmering broth, press the dough through the holes until about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in length, then use a knife to cut flush with the bottom of the ricer, severing the noodles and letting them fall into the broth. (If there is any dough that extrudes up the side of the ricer in a thin sheet, remove it and tear it into rough pieces, then add those bits to the broth as well.) Cook the noodles, stirring gently, until they float to the top. Once they float, they’re ready.
- 5
Serve. Using a spider or slotted spoon, lift the noodles from the broth and transfer to serving bowls. Use a ladle to spoon the warm broth over the noodles, and serve while hot.
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