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and restaurateurs face every day when preparing a meal or a gourmet recipe.A difficult challenge, particularly when the preparation involves vegetables or foods which do not “tolerate” high temperatures and long cooking times. Indeed, it is no secret that water, time and heat are some of the main enemies of nutritional properties of foods and the cause of food oxidation.

When cooking these foods, you must carefully choose the preparation technique, in order to achieve a satisfying result from the point of view of food safety and quality.

You can overcome all these problems, using waveco® and its induced maturation©: thanks to this innovative technique, which does not cook the food, we can preserve all the delicate nutritional properties of the vegetables, significantly reduce the preparation times and always achieve an incomparable result in terms of tenderness, colour and shelf life.

Let’s test waveco® with the preparation of “Stracciatella with sweet pickled and fermented vegetables”. For this recipe, use: sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, bread, lime, basil, onion, grapes, extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar, sugar and pepper.

SWEET PICKLED PEPPER

Peel some peppers, cut them into julienne strips and put them into a bag with a sweet pickled liquid base. Start the induced maturation© process for 30 minutes. At the end of the process the, peppers have evenly absorbed the sweet pickled mixture, maintained their bright colour and become more tender, whilst staying crunchy on the palate.

CANDIED CHERRY TOMATOES

Clean some cherry tomatoes, put them into a bag and start the induced maturation© process for 30 minutes. Once you remove them from the bag, it will be easy to peel them and then divide them into two parts. Remove the seeds, put them again in a bag with extra-virgin olive oil and start induced maturation© for 30 minutes. At the end of the process, which occurs without heat, we obtain candied cherry tomatoes which have maintained their properties and have intensified in taste and flavour.

TECHNICAL FOCUS: CANDYING

Candying is an ancient storage method which consists of replacing the water contained in the fruit for example, with sugar, through osmosis. If carried out cold, this long process allows us to maintain and enhance the flavour and tenderness of the food. However, everything changes in industrial production, which makes use of food additives (colouring agents, flavouring substances and preservatives), distorting the flavour because of the heat required, and causing the loss of the nutritional properties of the raw material.

LIME GEL

Take the lime juice, put it into a bag with a thickener and some sugar and start induced maturation© for 30 minutes. In the end, add the lime grated skin to the mixture obtained and blend it. waveco® allows us to obtain a gel with a natural colour whilst maintaining the natural flavour thanks to the absence of heat during the maturation process.

TECHNICAL FOCUS: GELATION

This technique consists of turning a liquid substance into a gelatinous one. The elements which are most readily used for this process are the hydrocolloids, i.e. thickeners which do not melt inside a liquid since their particles absorb water, thus making the whole liquid more viscous and gelatinous. The gelatinous substances thus obtained can take many different forms at the expense of their colour and taste, which have changed because of the heat used during the preparation.

BASIL PESTO SAUCE

Take the basil leaves, put them into a bag with extra-virgin olive oil and start the induced maturation© process for 20 minutes. Put the mixture into a container and blend it. Using waveco® we obtain a pesto sauce with a bright colour and a delicate flavour, which does not show signs of oxidation given the absence of heat during the preparation.

TECHNICAL FOCUS: OXIDASING VEGETABLES

Oxidation is a natural chemical process that causes a decay in the appearance, flavour and nutrients of food; a process which particularly occurs in fruits and vegetables. Oxygen is the oxidizing agent par excellence. There are also other factors, such as heat and light, which act as catalysts; in other words, they do not cause the reaction but help accelerate it. Very frequently and especially in the food industry they use preservatives, which stop the oxidation chemical action of the substances food is made of to preserve the quality of food.

PEPPER-FLAVOURED AND LIME-SOAKED BREAD

Cut the bread into cubes and put it into a bag with some grated pepper and a small quantity of lime juice. Start the induced maturation© process for 10 minutes. Finally, put it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Thanks to waveco® we obtain a flavoured bread which has evenly absorbed the lime juice and is fragrant and tasty on the palate.

GRAPE MUST-SOAKED ONION

Take the liquid obtained through the grape induced maturation© and leave it to ferment with the berries in the fridge for about 15 days. After that, put everything into a pouch and start the waveco® cooking process at a temperature of 40° for 30 minutes. Blend the mixture. Take a brown onion, cut it into julienne strips, put it into a bag with the grape must mixture and start induced maturation© for 60 minutes. At the end of the process, we obtain onion which has evenly and quickly absorbed the grape must, maintaining its organoleptic properties, and which gives an incredibly pleasant texture on the palate.

PLATING

Blend the stracciatella and let it rest. Put a base of the pesto sauce blended with basil in a soup dish, cover with the blended stracciatella and add the sweet pickled and fermented vegetables previously obtained. Finally, add the flavoured bread. Add some basil leaves at your discretion.

CHEF FOCUS

With induced maturation© we can prepare vegetables without using heat, thus obtaining a food which has maintained its original colour and nutritional properties and increased in taste and tenderness. Thanks to waveco® the food can be perfectly flavoured and soaked through a natural process which respects the food and enhances it properties.