Cooking & eatingThe best diet is a lifestyle, say the sisters Jansen & Jansen. They cook Mediterranean and wrote books about it. Today: Mediterranean zucchini lasagna.
Their stage name Jansen & Jansen is of course a nod to the cartoon characters from Tintin, the clumsy sleuths. The differences: Annemieke Jansen and Janine Jansen are related (after all, Jansen and Janssen each have a different surname) and the sisters also have different professions: Annemiek is a cardiologist and Janine is a graphic designer and food stylist. “We are sisters”, as Janine puts it. “And we cook Mediterranean.”
They want to tempt more Dutch people to also cook Mediterranean. “And this is why,” said Janine, speaking on behalf of the sisters. “Scientific research proves time and again that the Mediterranean lifestyle can help prevent diseases of affluence such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity and type 2 diabetes, memory diseases and even cancer.”
Over the next ten weeks, Jansen & Jansen will embark on a culinary journey through the Mediterranean. ,,We travel through the main focus areas of the Mediterranean diet, with tasty, makeable recipes. We are firmly convinced that there is a world to be gained from good information about nutrition and a few small changes in the common western diet. And for us as Burgundians it is also important that we eat well, including any small children who join in the meal. After all, our taste preferences are largely determined in our youngest years.”
How do you prepare vegetables as tasty as possible?
Why the Mediterranean diet is actually so healthy? “This is due to the generous use of good, often plant-based nutrients. These include lots of olive oil, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fruit. With regular fresh fatty fish, a little dairy and little meat. So the emphasis is not on pasta – which many people probably think of when they hear about ‘Mediterranean food’ – but on plant-based foods. That is why one of our main points of attention is: how do we prepare vegetables as tasty as possible?”
Text continues below the photo.
Today the sisters are making a variant of Parmigiana di melanzane, a well-known Italian dish. “Our brother’s very young children love it! It is a kind of meatless lasagna in which eggplant replaces the dough leaves. We replace the aubergines for the occasion with courgettes, which the little ones can handle a little better from a consumption point of view. Meat lovers can add chunks or a layer of Parma ham.”
Parmigiana di melanzane for four people
Ingredients:
1 kilo zucchini
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
1 stalk celery
1 kilo tomatoes
2 tbsp flour
150 g Parmesan cheese
1 ball of mozzarella
rice oil
salt and pepper
Preparation:
– Heat the oven on the highest setting. Cut the courgettes lengthwise into five to six strips. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle with a little salt. Leave them for half an hour.
– Chop the garlic and onion and finely chop the celery. First fry the garlic and onion in a large frying pan with cooking oil. We use rice oil or cheap olive oil, we’ll tell you more about that next time.
– Add the celery. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and add them to the rest. Let it simmer on medium heat for half an hour. If it threatens to boil dry, add some water. Pat the courgettes dry and place them in a baking dish. Officially, you should first bake or roast them on the grill. You can do it, is very tasty, but straight into the dish is less work and also tastes great. Keep a close eye on the courgettes there in the oven; they need to dry and cook slightly.
– Pass the tomato paste through a sieve or make a sauce with a stick blender. Season with a little salt and more pepper. Salt is unhealthy, pepper is great.
– Stir the flour with some water into a paste and add this to the tomatoes. Grate the Parmesan cheese. Take an oven dish and grease the dish with some oil. Then a layer of tomato sauce, a layer of courgettes, a layer of Parmesan cheese and so on until everything is gone. Finish with Parmesan cheese and the shredded mozzarella.
– Let the Parmigiana di zucchine be cooked and warm in the oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
Annemieke and Janine Jansen wrote Heart for your body (2020), Beautiful Mediterranean (2020) and Hartstikke Mediterranean (2018). They call themselves advocates of Mediterranean cuisine: meals with the good fats and carbohydrates and with less salt and sugar.
Sometimes sugar is healthy. You can see how that works in this video:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss out on any of the stars.