Zero waste Christmas. How Italians can recycle pandoro and panettone leftovers

Zero waste Christmas

It is now superfluous to mention that food waste is one of the greatest damages of our century. Yet, never as at Christmas and on festive occasions is it good to reiterate how fundamental the role that each of us plays within the food system is. Abundant lunches and sumptuous dinners, but also snacks with panettone, pandoro, dried fruit and panforte: it is food that sets the pace of Italian Christmas, a lot of food that often, inevitably, is left over. How to fix this? First, with making donations. There are several city charities that accept food surplus to feed the most in need: inquire about the local ones nearest you. And then, of course, the anti-waste recipes based on leftovers. The excess pandoro can be cut and stuffed with sweet creams to create delicious desserts, with nougat you can make parfaits or brittles, while panettone can become a perfect base for tiramisu. We got a delicious recipe from pastry chef Angelo Di Masso of Pan dell'Orso in Scanno, Abruzzo.

Pandoro Tart Recipe

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry crust

200 g flour

100 g butter, softened

100 g sugar (to increase the friability and texture of the dough you can use icing sugar)

2 egg yolks

The zest of 1/2 lemon

1 pinch of salt

Sift the flour into a large bowl, make a well and add the butter into small pieces and a pinch of salt. Mix the two ingredients to obtain large crumbs. Make a well again and drop in the egg yolks, sugar and lemon zest in the middle. Knead again until the mixture is smooth, then shape it into a ball, wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the crisper in the refrigerator for at least an hour. When it is time to roll it out, transfer it to a floured pastry board and give it the desired shape with a rolling pin.

For the filling

1 kg eggs
600 g sugar
250 g flour
350 g Pandoro or Panettone
Orange marmalade to taste

Toast the Pandoro or panettone and mince. Roll out a sheet of shortcrust pastry and spread a thin veil of orange marmalade. Mix the minced Pandoro with the eggs, sugar and flour and pour the mixture into the pastry shell. Cook at 170°C for about 30 minutes and then polish the surface with a thin layer of marmalade.