Help a Hungry Child: Top Italian chef Francesco Mazzei cooks up a Christmas feast

Acclaimed chef shows how to minimise food waste as he endorses The Independent charity appeal

A top Italian chef has revealed how families can avoid waste this Christmas by cooking with surplus.

Francesco Mazzei, chef patron of Radici, Sartoria and most recenty Fiume, is a passionate advocate of using leftover food to cook up hearty meals.

It is something he champions in his recipe book Mezzogiorno: Southern Italian Cooking, which equips home cooks with clever tricks to add extra flavour to their meals, such as using the oil from inside a jar of anchovies on salads.

The acclaimed chef said the most important thing anyone can do to minimise waste is to check what is already in the fridge, as he endorsed The Independent's Help a Hungry Child Christmas appeal.

“Just make sure you are not buying more than you need. Adapt a recipe if you need to use something up,” he said. He also encouraged readers to use up every last scrap of meat or vegetable peelings by making cheap and nutritious soup or stocks.

Mazzei used food that would otherwise have been thrown away to make his delicious recipes (Katie Barraclough/The Felix Project)

The Calabrian native cooked up two recipes from his book using food surplus that would otherwise have been wasted.

Both were hearty and nutritious, while being extremely cheap to prepare.

Ciambotta di verdure

Whole loaf of bread, hollowed out and stuffed with Mediterranean vegetables, eggs and cheese

 

To prepare, Mazzei dices two red peppers, one onion, two cloves of garlic, one aubergine and two courgettes, which he fries on a medium heat in olive oil. While the vegetables are simmering, he hollows out the inside of a stale sourdough loaf, putting the filling to one side to use later. He also keeps all the vegetables peelings to cook down into a stock that can be used in risottos or soups. 

He adds salt and pepper to the vegetables and, once soft, scrambles in four eggs. Next, he grates an inch of cheese into the mixture. He uses the rind of the Grana Padano cheese, but this can be substituted for any hard cheese that might be leftover in the fridge. 

Next, he stuffs the mixture into the hollowed out bread, replacing the lid and pressing down firmly to compress the filling, before slicing into great wedges to share – perfect for lunchboxes or a light evening meal. Serves six people. 

 

Mazzei regularly cooks at Refettorio Felix, a soup kitchen based in St Cuthbert’s Church in Kensington that uses food surplus delivered by The Felix Project, the partner charity for this year’s Christmas Appeal.

It is a cause he is passionate about and he has since exported an anti-food waste campaign to his native Italy after becoming involved with the charity.

Cicoria e mollica saltata

Blanched greens in garlic, sardines, chilli and breadcrumbs

 

In his version, Mazzei uses chicory leaves, but the green leaves from the outside of a cabbage or any spring greens would also work well in this recipe. 

To start, he blanches the green leaves in a vat of hot water until tender. Once cooked, he drains them out into ice water to halt the cooking process. While the greens are cooking, he fries up the leftover breadcrumbs from the first recipe in olive oil, with garlic and chilli. Mazzei uses fresh chilli but a sprinkle of dried flakes would also work.

Once the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden, he adds a tin of sardines into the mixture and gently mixes together. To serve, he places the greens in the middle of a plate and sprinkles over the festive crumb. 

 

The Felix Project takes aim at the twin demons of food poverty and food surplus by redistributing leftover food from suppliers to charities who need it.

Mazzei transfers the blanched greens into ice water (Katie Barraclough/The Felix Project)

Now the charity is working with this newspaper to ensure disadvantaged primary school children in London have access to nutritious food at the end of the day by setting up market stalls in schools.

In two years the campaign aims to reach 50,000 children. Every £1 donated will guarantee a primary school pupil and their family food for a nutritious meal. Every £500 will allow a new school to enrol in the programme. The cash raised will also support Felix’s partners in London. A star-studded telethon last week helped the appeal smash through the £500,000 barrier.

Here are the ways you can donate to our Christmas appeal:

Call – 08000 639281 (freephone)

Text – FELIX £5 to 70700

Tap – independent.co.uk/helpahungrychild

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