Never throw away your leftovers again!

After big eating holidays or just big meals I have to deal with leftovers. People die of hunger around the world and I really don't feel like throwing things away.

Here's a list of all the things you can do with your leftover meats and veggies!

Carcass of Turkey or Chicken:

Clean the meat off the bones with wet hands (I promise it will help). Put that aside.
Throw the bones in a large pot with 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks and 1 large onion and cover with cold water. Boil till the carrots are cooked. You'll have the most amazing broth to use for other recipes to come. If you jar it while it's warm and then put it in the fridge it will vacuum seal. For "How to Sterilize your jars" see the tutorial.

Meats and Fish:

The italian solution to getting rid of your leftover meats is Polpette, a delicious fried meatball filled with bechamel sauce, eggs and parmigiano. You can mix all sorts of different meat together (turkey, ham, steak, chicken, ground beef) and actually the more varied the better the taste. Don't mix meat with fish though, make the fish ones separately from the meat ones. Here's the video tutorial for Polpette. 

Vegetables:

If you had some simple vegetables on your table (and by simple I mean steamed, sautéed or baked without any sort of casserole topping) you can make a Frittata: cut all the veggies up into small pieces, beat some eggs in them, parmigiano, salt, fry in a little bit of olive oil and serve. 

The alternative is adding a couple of spoons of bechamel to that too, put it in an 8 inch pan (21cm of diameter) and bake it at 350 F (180 C) for 45 minutes. Delicious. We call that Torta Salata (salty cake... yeah.... not a good translation) and it looks like a quiche without the crust. 

Mash Potatoes:

Yet again, the italian answer is "Fry it!!". 

Add an egg to the mash, pan them in bread crumbs and fry them in vegetable oil. I think in the States those things are called Tater tots? In italian they're called Crocchette and they are amazing!! 

Enjoy your leftovers!!

Valentina

Real Italian Kitchen