Some of the longest lived people attribute their longevity to their healthy diet, a purpose in their lives, family and friends.

I don't know about you, but life without my friends, my chosen family would be a grim affair, indeed.

Friends love us, keep us honest, call us out when we need it and are always in our corners giving unconditional love and support.

It's time to cook with friends today on Christina Cooks, the Macroterranean way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided 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.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also 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.

Well, they all be delicious.

Absolutely.

Especially now with our focus on Mediterranean cooking and Italian style cooking.

I mean, I'm so excited when friends call and say, hey, let's get together for dinner because I know they don't mean let's go out.

They mean whose house are we eating at?

Which is a very Italian way of living.

It's not so much what's the hottest restaurant in town?

It's who's the best cook.

So we all sort of have these friendly competitions and we all cook together.

But that's your friends are your chosen family.

That's that's what we do.

I mean, certainly you have your family who you love and adore, but then you have your chosen family, which are your friends who you always want to be with, who always have your back, who call you on your stuff lovingly, but they call you on it and they love you unconditionally.

And lucky for me, I'm surrounded by an amazing posse of people, which takes us to our first recipe.

I'm not sure how, but it does.

So our first recipe, I actually learned in Sicily from Robert's Auntie Pina, who many of you who watch the show have heard me talk about a lot.

Auntie Pina was like, even though she wasn't the mom, she was the matriarch of the family, only because she had the strongest personalality.

She was a force to be reckoned with.

And she taught me this dish made from eggplant.

This is a globe eggplant.

Eggplant are part of the nightshade family.

And what that means is it's a fruit, of course, but it's loaded with an alkaloid called solanine which can affect your joints if it's not properly processed.

Which we did.

Which I'll show you.

But first, I'm going to take a very generous amount of olive oil because eggplant soaks it up and can burn.

So you really want to make sure you cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil.

And then we're going to add to that some cloves of garlic, whole cloves of garlic.

This is a very garlicky eggplant-ish, wonderful dish.

So we're going to keep the flame on high and let that start to heat.

Now, when you cook with eggplant, you don't have to peel it.

But I like it for this dish because it becomes creamy.

You want to soak it for at least an hour.

Look at the color of this water.

Right?

It has turned almost like a brown.

If you were to taste it, it tastes like vinegar.

So what we did was suck the solanine out.

And so now what you want to do is come over here and sort of squeeze it a little bit and drop it into the oil.

And you want to do this before the oil gets too hot because it's been soaking in water and you don't want it to spit back up at you.

So you want to do this while your sizzle builds.

And now you can see--look at the color of this water.

It's kind of like this strange brownish water.

And if you don't do this, your eggplant will taste really bitter and also can affect your joints.

So we're going to add to this a pinch of salt as the sizzle builds.

You really need to salt eggplant for it to be delicious.

So a couple of good pinches and we're going to drop in just a touch of hot spice because eggplant is sort of Clark Kent-ish and that doesn't have a lot of flavor until you flavor it.

We're just going to saute it 'til it's shiny with oil.

And now this right in this oil, no added liquid, is going to stew for 25 minutes and then we'll finish the dish.

So while my eggplant finishes cooking, I want to explain something to you.

My crew asked a question.

So here it is.

When you soak eggplant, make sure you salt the water very well, like you, like salt because you're going to rinse it anyway.

So you want to salt your water so that it pulls the acid, the alkaloid out of the eggplant.

And the reason you do it this way is because this is the way they do it in Naples.

They soak it in water with salt.

In Sicily, they do it the hard way.

They rub each little piece of eggplant, can you imagine, with salt and then put it in a colander and press the weight on it?

In Naples we're like, what, are you kidding?

I got water, I got salt, I put the eggplant in, I soak it and then I strain it and that's that.

So that's why you do it that way, to pull the, pull that out.

Okay.

Everybody happy now?

Okay.

I thought so.

So now the eggplant is done, and this is the kind of dish that's very characteristic of what they call blue zone eating.

If you've heard of blue zones, blue zones are areas of the world where people live really long lives and for a long time, we were wondering why that was the case.

I'm adding cherry tomatoes, so they wilt just a little bit.

And the reason they live well is, number one, they eat a mediterranean style diet as we are cooking today.

But one of the main reasons that they live so long is that they surround themselves with community, you know, friends and family, and they're never alone and isolated.

When I think of our modern culture here in America, I'm often very saddened by the fact that most of us spend our lives right in this world right here.

As far as our little device goes, we really don't have 6,000 friends on Facebook.

Your friends are the people that gather around the table with you.

So people that have a sense of community and live in a sense of community really have a much better life and live longer as a result.

So that's why the blue zones are the blue zones.

So some fresh basil goes in and these two things are just design, the tomatoes and the basil, to freshen up the dish, give it some color because eggplant while delicious, once you flavor it, does sort of look like the Clark Kent of veggies.

So you really want to kind of bring it up.

So we're going to use a nice spider to get a nice grip on the veggies.

And you don't want your basil and your tomatoes to wilt too much.

So you've got creamy eggplant, fresh basil and a sort of not crunchy, but fresh flavor in the tomatoes.

And this is a dish that you want to serve and eat communally, meaning you put this on the table with a loaf of bread.

Everybody dives in with a spoon, smears it on bread.

You start talking because you're all together.

There's glasses of wine and you eat communally.

This is that kind of side dish.

So blue zone eating is not only delicious, but it helps you have a sense of reality and community in your world.

And speaking of community and eating together, we're off to Pompeii to cook and eat with my friend Antonella, who's a force of nature.

Ciao.

Hey!

Ciao!

(Speaking Italian) How are you?

It's so hot today.

(Speaking Italian) Shall we?

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay.

So everything Antonella cooks and that we'll cook today comes from this garden.

I mean, except the pasta, of course.

So, (speaking Italian) So here we have fresh artichokes.

It's, uh, it's Spring, even though it feels like Summer.

It's Spring, so they're small and sweet and you cook the entire artichoke now.

It's amazing, and they'll be tender and soft.

So she just cooks them in a pan so that the entire artichoke cooks.

Okay, okay.

What can we show?

Okay, okay.

(Speaking Italian) These are little.

(Speaking Italian) The lighter green?

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay, then you put it in boiling water.

(Speaking Italian) With salt.

(Speaking Italian) Then pepperoncino, hot peppers or hot or sweet?

(Speaking Italian) Olive oil, salt, hot peppers and oregano, and you cook.

Lemoncello.

(Speaking Italian) Shall we go cook?

Yeah.

Okay (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay.

I just said to Antonella that she always cooks for me.

Today I cook for her, vegan Cacio e Pepe, which I've made before.

But, so the way to start is pasta.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

This sauce is fast.

(Speaking Italian) So we let the pasta melt.

In this pan, (Speaking Italian).

Okay.

For a full (Speaking Italian).

So when you toss the peppercorns like this (Speaking Italian) The, the, the perfume, the oils of the pepper are stronger and also smoother.

I didn't know until I started toasting peppercorns that I liked black pepper.

I always thought I hated black pepper, but (Speaking Italian).

(Speaking Italian).

Texture.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) I just asked Antonella to continue to toast the peppercorns over very, very low heat.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

I just said we're going to continue to make this small so we don't have any big pieces.

You don't want big pieces of nuts.

This is Cacio e Pepe, not pasta with nuts.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) This is white miso, which will give us the flavor of cheese.

And that's going to go into here and give us the cacio of Cacio e Pepe.

Okay, this goes into the pan with the nuts and the black pepper.

(Speaking Italian) The next thing we add is olive oil to give us some moisture.

Okay.

Brava.

the pasta water, a little bit of pasta water.

A little more.

So what Antonella is doing is moving this around because you want to break the miso apart so that it becomes like creamy (speaking Italian), and the pasta water starch will also create, help to create that cream.

And you can smell the pepper (speaking Italian).

So now the dish will be ready when the pasta is ready.

But you can smell, right?

(Speaking Italian) The miso has a unique perfume and with the pepper and the nuts is kind of like a nice sort of toasted flavor smell, not flavor, smell.

Pasta needs about three more minutes.

Okay?

(Speaking Italian) So the longer you cook it, the stronger the flavor.

Because miso will develop.

And we're cooking this on low heat, so the miso also doesn't lose its impact on digestion because as you know, we use miso very often in cooking, healthy cooking to create strong digestion, strong intestines.

So when you cook a dish like this, you don't want to make it so that the miso boils.

You cook it over low heat, cooking, cooking, stirring, stirring so that the miso, the enzymes and the bacteria still keep your digestion strong.

So you get to have your pasta and eat it, too.

Okay, two more minutes.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) So, you just keep this going and then will, we using the fork, will lift the spaghetti right into (speaking Italian).

(Speaking Italian) So, she's checking the spaghetti.

One more minute.

(Speaking Italian) She said all of our guests can enjoy this spaghetti now, and it'll go in here and finish.

(Speaking Italian) So, okay, she said it's still a little raw so we're going to give this another minute, the pasta and just keep stirring the gravy, the sauce, and then this will, the pasta will go right on top and finish right in here in the pan and then we'll plate it up and you can taste.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

The water from the pasta, (speaking Italian) the miso in the oil.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

So when the pasta is about 90% done, we put it right in with the miso and the nuts.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Stir.

(Speaking Italian) And then you kind of finish the pasta in this so that the pasta is al dente and the nuts and the peppers sort of coat everything.

Mmm.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) No, no.

Okay.

Try.

Pasta goes in.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) As always.

(Speaking Italian) So,she enjoyed it very much.

And, she said it was quick and simple and delicious and until I see her next time, enjoy.

Ciao.

I love my friends here but man, when I get to Italy those are my people.

All right.

I have salted water here.

Pretty well salted.

Right?

I'm going to add another pinch.

When you cook pasta, you salt your water very well.

Sort of like the ocean, they say in Italy because you want to flavor the pasta.

Pasta doesn't taste like anything.

So we're going to let the fettuccine sort of melt down into the water.

Don't force it and don't break it in half.

If you do, some Italian culinary angel will come into your kitchen to smack you--to give a schcoff.

Okay, so we will let that melt.

And then we're going to add over here some extra virgin olive oil to our skillet.

We're going to make fettuccine with porcini mushrooms.

Now, if you can find fresh porcini mushrooms.

Oh, yi-yi, delicious.

If you can't, you use dried.

If you can find the fresh, you use a lot.

Like this recipe would call for a pound of fresh porcinis.

If you can't, you want to use about six ounces roughly of dried porcini mushrooms and you soak them.

And the reason you soak them is just so that they don't suck up all the oil and you end up with like a crunchy dish.

You soak them to just rehydrate them.

And then we're just going to give them a coarse chop.

I don't use the soaking water--some people do.

For me, it's a little too smoky tasting, so I tend to not do that.

So it's just a coarse chop.

You don't want it to, you know, to look chopped.

You want to just have a nice texture.

So these are going to go right on top of the garlic.

Now with porcini sauce, you can make it spicy.

I love spicy porcini sauce, but what do you guys say?

Spicy, yes or no?

Yes.

No.

There was only one no, so we're going spicy.

A little bit of spice.

Now, just a pinch of salt here because mushrooms are going to soak it up and this water has been salted.

So you don't want a salty dish.

So just a pinch.

We are going to, I use the same spoon.

I cook with the same spoon the entire meal.

You know, I'm not one of those people who uses every utensil in the kitchen to make one dish.

I just don't do it.

So once the mushrooms are shiny with oil, we add some white wine.

If you're not using wine, you can use a broth like a vegetable broth or some of the mushrooms soaking water with some water.

But wine is going to bring a sweetness that's going to help the mushrooms to actually sort of deglaze.

And these are going to cook for about 7 minutes, the same time it takes to cook the fettuccine and then we'll put the dish together.

So these are just going to cook.

Okay, so the fettuccine needs about 30 seconds more.

So we're going to let that continue to cook.

Look at this nice mushroom sauce.

It's all concentrated.

And you see how the wine deglazed?

This is exactly what I was looking for.

So, I'm actually going to turn off the heat and then we're going to quickly chop mint, sage and parsley to kind of give an earthy after taste to this dish and to create, you know, add and create some freshness that pulls the dish together and just makes it the perfect bite when you bite into this dish.

And pasta, you know, pasta is...pasta is Sunday dinner.

You know, pasta is we're all together.

We're eating pasta.

We're having a good time.

Everyone's talking, passing the pasta bowl.

You know, it's like pasta Sunday dinner.

You eat pasta, it's a whole different ballgame then...my tongs are fighting me.

I'm sure it happens in your kitchen, too.

Your tongs just fight you sometimes.

Pasta water gets turned off.

Right into the mushrooms.

And what you're doing is you're taking some cooking water with you, some pasta water with you, which helps to create a creaminess in your sauce.

This dish, this dish.

First time I had this dish, I was in Tuscany.

I have to be honest.

The first time I had this dish, I was in Tuscany and it was served to me and I wasn't really sure how I felt about porcini mushrooms.

I thought, ew, maybe they're like truffles.

And I'm one of the few people in the world that does not think that truffles are the best thing to hit the earth since dirt.

I really don't like them that much, so I was afraid to eat porcinis, and the chef that cooked it for me was standing in front of me and her name was ironically, Christina.

And she said, I want you to taste my signature dish.

And I thought I have to, like, pretend I love this dish, but I loved that dish.

Oh, I love this dish.

And you can see how the mushrooms just sort of coating the fettuccine.

And then we're just going to serve this in a beautiful pasta bowl.

Please don't leave it in the skillet.

Mushrooms go on top.

Oh, oh, oh.

This is a party in a bowl.

You serve a dish like this.

It's casual, it's friendly, it's lovely, it's earthy.

Everybody loves it.

Meat eaters and vegans alike.

You can't lose.

So what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board and I'll see you next time.

On Christina Cooks, the Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided 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.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at Christina Cooks.com and by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, The Macroterranean Way, Volume Two combines the Mediterranean diet with the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, allowing us to understand how food affects us, so we can cook deliciously while creating the wellness we want.

To order your copy for $19.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815.

Add Back to the Cutting Board and Christina's Iconic Glow, a prescription for radiant health and beauty and get all three books for $49.95, plus handling.

Call 800-266-5815.