FRIDGE FORAGE

 Everyone cleared out and left me to my own devices. In cleaning out two fridges I found all sorts of foods that needed to be consumed or pitched. Unopened bags of Padrón peppers someone had bought when we were already inundated with green peppers from the garden. Three kinds of chorizo. Some cooked pasta. Half a jar of chickpeas. Leftovers from a photo shoot: carrot salad, meatballs and stale bread. Several egg whites left over from ice cream making. 

Too much chorizo.

The crisper was the most alarming. Besides those Padrón peppers, a carton of radishes and half a cabbage, still extant, vegetables from the garden were piling up. Zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. 

The selection suggested my favorite summer vegetable dish, pisto, a medley of sautéd vegetables. Pisto, also known as fritada (Aragón), samfaina (Catalonia), tumbet (Mallorca), and ratatouille (France), can be freely varied, vegetarian or with meat or fish. I made a big panful of pisto, then turned it into four different meals. 

Pisto ingredients.

Pisto Plus. Chop and sauté in olive oil onions, garlic, green and red peppers, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. Add other vegetables, raw or cooked—squash, carrots, greens, mushrooms, potatoes and a large etcetera. How about those radishes? I added some quartered radishes to the mix. Nope. Once radishes lose their red color and their bite, they are pretty dull. 

Carrot salad with raisins.

Variations on the variations: Instead of chopped tomatoes, use tomato sauce or even leftover gazpacho. Choose your favorite herb: oregano, basil, parsley, mint, cilantro. Add chopped serrano ham or bacon to the basic pisto.   I threw in a cupful of  Carrot Salad with Raisins and Pine Nuts which were a real plus in this pisto mélange.  

1. Pisto with Meatballs (Pisto con Albóndigas)

I just happened to have 72 fried meatballs in a Tupper in the fridge. I added a few to the pisto. The rest will freeze to see another day. 

Reheat leftover cooked meatballs in the pisto. Season with favorite hot sauce. Serve with chopped parsley or cilantro. Or, add soy sauce, ginger, vinegar and Sherry to the pisto and make the dish sort-of Asian.

Basic pisto vegetables + carrot-raisin-pine nuts + meatballs.

2. Pasta with Pisto and Chorizo.

Leftover pasta gets resuscitated, served with pisto plus chorizo.

Best way to rejuvenate cooked pasta: put it in a heatproof bowl and add boiling water to cover. Soak 5 minutes and drain. Fry chopped chorizo, add pisto to the pan and heat. Serve over pasta and grate cheese on top.

Pasta, pisto and chorizo. Finish with fresh basil.

3. Eggs Scrambled with Pisto (Huevos Revueltos con Pisto)

Scramble eggs and pisto.

Heat pisto in a skillet. Stir in 2 eggs (or 1 egg and 2 egg whites). Cook on medium while mixing the egg into the vegetables. Serve hot with fried bread. 

Egg and vegetable scramble.

That leftover stale bread? Turn it into picatostes--croutons or strips of bread fried in olive oil. Once fried they keep well. Serve fried bread with eggs, with vegetables or as dippers with cheese dips. Transform the croutons into crumbs in a mini food processor and use the crispy crumbs as topping for vegetables or pasta.  

4. Pisto with Chickpeas (Pisto/Alboronía con Garbanzos)

This is an actual dish called alboronía that, besides the sautéd vegetables, often includes pear or apple. Reheat the cooked pisto with the chopped fruit and drained and rinsed cooked chickpeas. Season with cumin, smoked pimentón (paprika) and a dash of vinegar. Serve it with pine nuts and, if desired, quartered hard-boiled egg. 

Peppers tipo Padrón (same variety as the famed Galician peppers, but not grown in Padrón)--Remove stems and seeds, place on a tray and freeze, then bag them and store in freezer. They're ready for frying or adding to soups and stews. 

More interpretations of pisto:

Pork and Vegetable Stew.

Pan-Fried Hake Fillets with Pisto.

Vegetable and Mackerel Dish.

Pisto with Lamb and Couscous.

Recipes with leftovers:
Fried Bread Crisps.

"Old Clothes" Hash (Ropa Vieja).

Bone Broth and Vegetable Soup.

Chicken, Orange and Olive Salad.