Dear bills, Coldiretti: one in 5 Italians has reduced the use of stoves. From crockery to cooking food: here is the vademecum to save

With the energy crisis and the increase in the bill, almost one in five Italians (19%) has already given up the use of the stove to save money, cooking less and turning to dishes that do not need to be cooked. It emerges from a Coldiretti survey on the impact of expensive energy in the country’s kitchens. Another 53% took steps to save gas. Only 27% of citizens declare that they have not changed their consumption habits in the kitchen.

The vademecum to save in the kitchen
To support citizens’ commitment to saving, the peasant cooks of Campagna Amica have prepared a vademecum ranging from paying attention to the use of dishes to changing cooking times and methods. Better to use pots that allow energy savings – explains Coldiretti – such as pressure or multiple cooking (boiling and steaming) and use the lid when possible. It is also important to use the stove suitable for the size of the pot you are using and check that the flame of the stove is blue, which indicates efficiency in combustion. Reducing the cooking of food – continues Coldiretti – to enjoy more crunchy, al dente, slightly rare bites means ingesting foods with a higher content of nutrients, savoring the original aromas of the ingredients and above all chewing more, greatly helping digestion. For foods that, for food safety, are best served well cooked, such as chicken and eggs, prefer recipes that allow quick cooking. When using the oven, you can plan several batches – continues Coldiretti -, cooking several dishes at the same time paying attention to the various degrees of cooking, or bake different dishes in succession using the temperature already reached by the oven.

But it is also possible to save electricity, perhaps by choosing to defrost food by removing it from the freezer a few hours beforehand instead of using the microwave oven or by using manual tools such as whisk and spoons instead of an electric mixer for food preparation. Practical advice to deal with a situation that requires – Coldiretti notes – an intervention at national and European level to support citizens and companies. With the energy price increases that are causing household and business bills to explode, first of all it is necessary to put a ceiling on the price of all the gas entering Europe, not just that coming from Russia “underlines the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in underlining that” we have already asked the Government to give answers to the needs of our companies but these answers must also come from Europe because it is not acceptable in a moment of serious crisis selfishness prevails. ‘increased costs, including unfair competition from countries such as Holland or Germany, which have announced a national plan to support their economic system ”.

«But it is also necessary to work for energy self-sufficiency – continues Prandini -, encouraging the installation of photovoltaic panels on roofs to stimulate the production of renewable energy in farms, overcoming the limit of self-consumption at a European level as a barrier to subsidized investments. And it is also important to support the production of biogas and biomethane, entering the network up to 6.5 billion cubic meters of “green” gas between now and 2030, and to enhance the extraction capacity that has shrunk in our country. of 3/4 in recent decades. And we can also do without the fertilizers produced precisely from gas, focusing on organic ones and, in particular, on digestate, clarifying the possibility of use and eliminating the threshold of 170 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare per year “.

“The activity of” do-it-yourself “processors, however – concludes Coldiretti – involves the observance of precise rules as the safety of stored food starts from the quality and health of the products used, but cannot be separated from precise processing rules which are valid for the agro-industrial sector, but which must also be valid for household consumers, especially in the sterilization phase ».