Cuisine Crea e Ricrea
Quality canned food is cooked at Terra Madre: the recipe book proposed by RICREA and Slow Food Editore was presented in a show cooking in which steel packaging was a key feature.
Sustainability, food safety, shelf-life and quality were the key words most used during the course of the presentation that took place at the 2024 edition of Terra Madre - Salone del Gusto held in Turin. A top attraction was the "CUCINA, CREA E RICREA" recipe book, providing an ideal opportunity for talking about the quality of steel packaging, highlighting the far from obvious relationship with a number of high-end food brands.
Top cuisine in a can
The show cooking proposed by the chef Giuseppe Barbero, of the Osteria Boccondivino in Bra, in fact offered his version of the classic “risi e bisi” - rice and peas - cooked with Aquerello aged rice, which has always been sold in a creative variety of elegant metal boxes described by the founder Pietro Rondolino. To close, the multi-awarded ice-cream hand-made by Alberto Marchetti, who presented an exclusive flavour based on coffee, a typical “canned” product, served in steel packaging suitable for mise en place. There was a series of guests who commented on the day, including Carlo Bogliotti, CEO of Slow Food Editore and chairman of Ricrea, and Domenico Rinaldini who commented:
“Using canned foods to make also sophisticated recipes is easy, economical and sustainable. It’s a packaging that contains and protects the food, helping to reduce food waste in an economical and circular approach. RICREA, the non-profit consortium, has reached a recycling rate exceeding 87% of that issued for consumption, 7 points higher than what the European Union has fixed for 2030. Italy is, moreover, a champion in Europe both in collection and recycling, proving to have one of the most effective, ecological and efficient systems. The Terra Madre event was an opportunity to explain to a public sensitive to the theme of food quality and sustainability how ingredients preserved in steel jars and cans can give rise to delicious dishes which also respect the environment. These containers, in fact, not only preserve the property of the foods, but are also a concrete example of the circular economy.”
Sustainable and circular packaging
The recipes proposed in the volume highlight how steel packaging, present in many Italian kitchens, can play a key role in making delicious dishes while reducing environmental impact: steel, in fact, is a permanent material that can be endlessly 100% recycled. Thanks to its characteristics, jars, boxes, tins, cans, drums, buckets, steel cans, caps and closures are synonymous with safety and practicality, as they protect food from light, air, humidity and external contaminations, keeping the taste, consistency and nutritional properties intact.
