- Brothers are a breed of their own.

Mine was the bane of my existence.

But brotherhood, real brotherhood is a commitment of love and loyalty.

I'm gonna cook with my big brother, his favorite dish, stuffed artichokes, and hear in Pompeii, I'll cook with my little brother to help him get more vegetables in his diet.

(energetic music) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) - [Announcer] Funding for "Christina Cooks" is provided by FinaMill, the flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable swappable pods.

FinaMill.

And by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by.

- Hi, I'm Christina Pirello and this is "Christina Cooks," where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant-based?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Yes.

We will have you falling in love with cooking, your kitchen, and health once and for all.

You might be wondering who this gentleman is sitting next to me.

He was, growing up, the bane of my existence.

(Tom laughing) So now you know he is my older brother, and if he stands up, you'll know why we call him my big brother.

Yeah.

And we still call him Tommy.

I do.

Sorry.

- You're the only one.

- Sorry, I'm the only one.

- You're the only one.

- I know, I know, I know.

I know, I know.

So, so growing up, growing up, I wanted to do everything, everything he did.

If he laid here coloring, I laid next to him and he would move and I would move and he would move and I would move and he'd go, "Ma, get her away from me."

(Tom chuckles) So one day, one day-- - The backseat of the car?

- Yep.

(Tom laughing) Oh, the backseat of the car.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

"Don't touch me, don't touch me, she's touching me."

We were watching "Romper Room".

Some of you of a certain age will remember "Romper Room" and "Romper Room" at the end had the magic mirror lady.

(hums) We see Tommy, we see Mikey, we see Sally, we see Mary.

And I'm sitting right next to Tommy.

So I said to him, "How come she never sees me?

"How come she never sees Christina?"

Without missing so much as a quarter of a beat, he says, "Oh, you don't know?"

- "It's 'cause you're adopted."

She doesn't see the adopted-- - She can't see the adopted kids.

- Can't see adopted kids.

Only real kids.

- So I go to my mother, "Ma, am I adopted?"

To which my mother said, "You think I would've picked you?

"Go play with your brother."

So one of the things that happened in our big Italian family, and my grandmother was the youngest of 17, cooked with her nine sisters.

My grandfather's only vegetable he would eat was artichokes.

- Was artichokes.

- Artichokes.

And every Sunday that they were in season, we had artichokes.

And my mother would stuff them.

She used parmigiano cheese in her stuffing.

We do not.

- You do not.

- I do not.

So we would take big globe artichokes like this and the first thing you do is you take the stem off so that they stand up in the pan.

And Tommy, I would like you in this bowl to mix together the stuffing.

- Sure.

- Which is, these are seasoned Italian breadcrumbs.

While I peel stems and put them in a scrap bowl.

- Okay.

And some oregano.

- Yep.

Oregano, why do you think it is?

But I mean, I know what the answer is sort of.

But we never used fresh oregano.

We always used the dry.

- Always use the dried.

Yep.

- Always use the dried.

Did you know know it wards off the evil eye?

- Oh yeah.

- Oh yeah.

Okay.

- Oh yeah.

- Just checking.

Wards off the evil eye.

That's why they use oregano in everything.

Okay.

So when the stems are peeled, then you need a small scissor.

I guess you can use any size scissor.

But what you're gonna do is you're going to cut this sharp little point off the end of each leaf, because the artichoke is the blossom of a thistle.

So these little points are sharp and will cut your little fingers.

But the beauty of artichokes and you're thinking, why would you go through all this work?

They are so rich in antioxidants.

They give you, one artichoke like this, almost 10 times what you need in antioxidants daily.

So for once in our lives, something that's good for us is also sexy to eat.

So you take all the scraps and they're really high fiber and they're gonna just get discarded and put in the compost.

Now you kind of pull the artichoke apart.

Okay.

So now we're gonna stop that.

Do you have enough oil in there?

- I need a little more.

- Okay.

Put what you think you need.

You know how generous we are with olive oil?

- Oh yeah.

- In our homes.

- Try that.

- Yeah, that's, better.

- Is that better?

- Yep.

- [Tom] That looks right to me.

- Yep.

So when I, can I ask you a question that I've been dying to ask you my entire life?

- Sure.

(Christina laughing) - While we stuff artichokes, which will be like watching paint dry in about 30 seconds.

- Well, there's that.

- How come you hated me so much as a kid?

- I didn't.

(laughing) - Oh, really?

You wouldn't let me go anywhere with you.

- Well that's, you know.

- Then there was the time-- - That's a brother thing.

- Is it?

- Yeah.

- I did mean things to you though.

- You didn't wanna be seen-- - I also did mean things to you.

- ... with your little sister in tow.

- But I did mean things to you too.

- Well... - I did - Only one.

Well, two.

Okay, three.

- He broke my Casper the friendly ghost doll and I pushed him through his drum of his drum set.

- Yep.

My rear end went right through the bass drum.

- Right through the drum.

- Right through the bass drum.

- But Casper never spoke again.

- Well... - But I guess after an entire day of, "hi, I'm Casper, the friendly ghost, can we be friends?"

- I was gonna say that's probably not a bad thing, (Christina laughing) - But it was interesting.

And there were four of us growing up and we had a younger brother.

We have him still.

He's (indistinct).

- We still have him.

- Yeah, we still have him.

- God bless us everyone.

- Everyone.

He's our tiny Tim.

He was the kid, he was a weird kid.

- He was a weird kid.

- He's a weird adult too.

But he was a weird kid.

He used to walk through the supermarket and he would ask him if he licked the bottom of his shoe, if he would die.

- And the answer to that was always yes.

- Or with any luck.

(laughing) - Never.

I never said that.

- And the reason, the reason he was the bane of your existence was because my mom made the mistake when she found out she was pregnant with my younger brother of asking him if he would rather have a younger brother or a color TV.

- Guess what?

- (laughing) A 9-year-old boy, what do you think he said he'd rather have?

- They were so disappointed when I said that.

- And you kind of never, never forgave him for being the option.

Take the lid off that pot.

- Yes ma'am.

- So now when you prepare these, they're gonna go into the pan.

Bring the pan over here to the cutting board, baby.

- You bet.

- Because I'm gonna sprinkle these breadcrumbs on top again.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So these are gonna go into the pan.

Now you also, we took, yep.

We took the trouble to peel the stems.

The stems are gonna have the same tender texture as the heart.

So if they feel good and they're nice, bright green when you peel them, don't toss these.

- No.

- It's that same gorgeous texture.

Now if you don't mind drizzling that with a little olive oil while I clean my hands.

- Okay.

There you go.

- Then we'll drizzle the whole thing with a little salt.

Just a touch.

- Just a touch.

'Cause there's already salt in the breadcrumbs.

- In the breadcrumbs.

And you don't want them salty.

- No.

- And now you're gonna add water to accumulate about an inch.

You could say the thickness of your stems.

And these are gonna get cooked, covered for about an hour.

And then they become very tender.

And the way you know your artichokes are done is you can time them but that doesn't always work.

If they're really big, they can take longer.

If they're small, they're gonna go faster.

If you can pull a bottom leaf off easily, carefully, don't get burned.

Use a tong if you have to.

Then you can easily, you know they're done.

If you look at them when you open the pan, which you can't tell now 'cause they're raw.

But if the leaf has like a white line in where it's cut, they're not done yet.

They're just not done yet.

So these are gonna go up and they'll cook for about... - 45 minutes an hour.

- 45 minutes to an hour.

- Yeah.

- So then after that, how do they look?

- How do they look?

Why, (Christina laughing) they look a little something like this.

(Christina laughing) - So these are the finished artichokes.

And you can see the breadcrumbs.

You can see the richness of them.

There's no white lines, shall we?

- Absolutely.

- Every Sunday, this was our thing.

- Every Sunday.

- Every Sunday.

And then to eat an artichoke, because these are stuffed, you literally pull them on the, crush your teeth and take all the meat out of each leaf.

So while we enjoy these, we're off to Pompeii to cook with our little Italian brother Antonio Mosca.

- Oh, Antonio.

- Yep.

(energetic music) Thanks, baby.

- You bet.

Thank you.

(indistinct) (Christina laughing) (energetic music) - Ciao, Antonio.

(both speaking foreign language) How are you?

- Very well.

- So I understand we're going to the market this morning.

- Yes, we are.

- Because you, my friend, would like to get more vegetables in your diet?

- Well, think it will be healthier, that's for sure.

- Easy cooking now, easy, easy?

- Easy.

(indistinct) difficult.

- Because you're busy.

- Otherwise you will be cooking otherwise.

(Christina laughing) - That's okay.

- Okay, let's go.

- I'm down, but let's go.

- There is a market not that far.

- This way?

- Yeah, that way.

- Okay.

(energetic music) Okay, so Antonio, what I think is best to keep the recipe easy is to give you more green in your diet.

We're gonna make this with rigatoni, with pasta.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- I won't think about the broccoli with sausages we eat normally.

- No, no, no, no.

- So that's something that we'll-- - We're gonna get this though, we'll get this.

- Cancel from my diet.

- We'll get this.

- But broccoli are amazing.

- Say it.

Let's get a broccoli.

- One or two.

What do you say?

(Christina speaking Italian) - One.

(speaking Italian) - What are you doing with that?

- Huh?

(indistinct) We're gonna make pasta.

You'll see, we're gonna make that look like spaghetti.

- Okay.

- We're gonna cut it real thin to look like spaghetti.

- Okay.

- And then we'll shred the greens.

(Christina speaking Italian) - Do we have onions, garlic, something?

- Do you need, you have onions or garlic or no?

- No, I have (indistinct).

- Yeah, we use that.

(Christina speaking Italian) (seller speaking Italian) - 3.50.

(Christina speaking Italian) (indistinct), isn't it?

Good deal.

- It's unbelievable how-- - Good deal.

- ... we got all this for less than five.

(both speaking Italian) - Thank you very much.

- Okay, Antonio, let's go cook.

(Antonio speaking Italian) (energetic music) I'm so happy to be in the kitchen with you, Antonio, in your, actually your new kitchen.

- Yeah, actually-- - Last time I saw it-- - I'm so happy to have you here.

(Christina laughing) So frankly, so happy to have a chef in my kitchen.

- Last time I saw this kitchen-- - It's just a big new kitchen.

- It was not a kitchen.

- Not really.

(both laughing) No, it was more like the ruins.

- Okay.

- It was more like the ruins.

Fortunately, now it's much better we say.

- So I met this lovely, my lovely little brother I call him, many years ago, 10 years ago, easily.

A group of friends were all coming to Pompeii and we usually just wander around and don't really know what we're doing.

So the owners of the place we were staying, I asked them if they knew a guide and they said, "Well, we'll call somebody."

And over walks Antonio.

And I introduced myself and my friends and he said, "Have you ever been to Pompeii?"

And I said, "Yeah, a million times."

And he said, "What have you seen?"

And I said, "Oh, you know, the forum and the brothel "and some houses."

And he said, "Oh, so you've never seen Pompeii?"

And I thought, oh.

By the end of three or four hours, (Antonio laughing) I realized I had never seen Pompeii.

So every time I come with friends, I call Antonio and he shows us something new and exciting in the ruins.

So much so that I'm almost as passionate about Pompeii as you are.

Although no one could be as passionate as you.

- Of course you know that it is not thanks to me, but it's thanks to the ruins.

- Ah, the ruins are amazing.

- Let's be, (indistinct) I would say thanks to the ruins and the Vesuvius, our big friend.

- Exactly.

- Overlooking us from the other side of the island.

- So now we have to be friends with Vesuvius.

So Antonio and I, over the years have become, he's become like family.

He's like my, I always call him my little brother.

So little brother, you need to eat some more vegetables.

- Yes.

- So we're gonna figure out an easy way for you to do that.

- That's next goal for my diet.

- Okay.

- More vegetables.

Let's start to learn something more.

- Put some olive oil in the skillet for me.

This is a basil scented oil?

- Mm-hmm.

- Lovely.

So what you would normally use, put in for pasta for you, let's say and me.

And then while we're at it, if you could add some salt to the water so we can cook the pasta.

- Mm-hmm.

- Because this dish is fast.

- Okay.

- So it's gonna happen in the same time.

- Perfect for my normal life.

- It takes (indistinct).

So Antonio, how many years have you like, (speaking Italian), how many years have you been a guide in Pompeii?

- Well, I guess, let me think about 10, 11.

- Wow.

- 11 years.

- And you tour every day?

- If I want, yes.

(Christina laughing) If I want, I can do tours every day.

Winter time is a little quieter, as you know.

So normally winter time is the time I have for my... - Yourself.

Your life.

- For my life, driving a little bit.

- So we're going to cook the rigatoni until it's tender.

About seven minutes.

While that starts to cook, my love, take zucchini and with, want me to show you or you do it?

Do it.

- I will do that.

- Okay.

- We do that, so this.

- I'm gonna cut the onion into half moons.

- Mm-hmm.

And so Antonio, because we're using really nice olive oil, that's basil scented, we're not gonna turn the oil on until we put the onions and the garlic in.

- [Antonio] Okay.

- Because if you turn the oil on too soon, you lose the flavor of the olive oil.

- Oh, okay.

- You can cook it, but you'll lose that lovely basil scent that's in that oil.

And then the other thing is, you see this right here?

- Mm-hmm.

- This little garlic clove.

If you pull this out?

- Ah, have to dig it out.

- You'll never have garlic breath.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- That's good for the girls.

- Ah.

- Not so good in case we have vampires arriving the-- - Well if you have vampires, you kind of want garlic breath.

(laughing) - Okay.

Just in case of a vampire invasion, I will not take it out.

(both laughing) - We're gonna put big pieces like this so that they can stay in the pasta, but give you a nice flavor.

- Okay.

- And I'm gonna turn the heat on now.

Would you like some hot chili in this?

- Yes, of course.

- Okay, perfect.

Can I have your oil?

- Yeah.

A little.

(Christina laughing) Otherwise-- - Is it (speaking Italian?)

- Yes, it is.

Otherwise we need the... - Fire department.

- Fire department.

(laughing) - Okay, so tell me what you mean by a little.

- [Antonio] A few drops, not that, that's too much.

That's really strong, yeah?

That's okay.

- Si, okay.

It's very strong.

Okay.

All right.

So I'm gonna take some cherry tomatoes and cut them in half.

- Oh, tomatoes.

- So this is sort of a tomato sauce.

But when you cook like this, when you're as busy as you are, sometimes you do what, three tours a day?

Maybe?

- A couple, yes.

Normally.

Yeah.

- At least two.

- But normally I'm out all day.

- [Christina] So you don't spend hours and hours cooking?

- Not really, especially if I'm alone.

Sometimes I like cooking for some friends, you know, cooking for only for myself.

I cook for myself normally if I'm on diet, if I had to lose some kilos.

(laughing) I to cook for myself something lighter than what I normally eat.

- So the tomatoes just went in.

I'm gonna add a pinch of salt to it.

And Antonio, every ingredient in this dish is to improve health.

Right?

So onions are part of the allium family and they help us to open up our lungs and to breathe better, which is a good idea.

Then we have the tomatoes, they're rich in polyphenols, they're rich in vitamin C, they help to relax the body.

We have zucchini, which is loaded with vitamin C and fiber.

And then we have the chili peppers, which are good for circulation.

So they make you feel awake.

- So basically if I start cooking like this, in a couple months, you won't recognize me anymore.

- Exactly.

- You won't have your little brother anymore.

(Christina laughing) - Well, I will.

You'll just be-- - Probably you will see me taller than this.

- Exactly.

It'll still be my little brother, but you'll be-- - Oh, probably blue eyes.

(Christina laughing) - Blonde hair.

- I'll will have again, my blonde hair is... Maybe.

- And this is the most important ingredient, this you call broccoli.

In the United States, we know this as rapini or broccoli rabe.

This is a bitter green, like arugula, like dandelion, escarole.

- Mm-hmm.

- And this helps the liver.

So it helps you to digest.

So we always say the liver is good for detoxing the body, but really it's good for metabolism.

It helps your body to digest fat, protein and carbohydrates.

It's brilliant and it cooks really quickly.

And in America, people like to boil this before they saute it because they don't like the bitter taste.

But the bitter taste is what you want.

The bitter taste, which is delicate.

Just a light-- - Not only the leaves, I mean... - Oh yeah, the stems.

So the stem, right.

So the stem took all the nutrients from the soil up into the leaves.

This is the strongest, most nutrient dense part is the stem.

It takes a little bit longer to cook, but still delicate.

(pan frying) So that goes in.

- What do you think, (indistinct)?

Uh, (speaking Italian), one more.

(pan frying) And these greens, Antonio, as soon as you put the zucchini in, we're only gonna cook it until the greens wilt.

And if you notice, look behind you, there's more vegetables than there is pasta.

So this is more of a vegetable dish.

The pasta's just to seduce you into eating.

- I saw.

(both laughing) - You gotta do what you gotta do.

- Just don't forget, we are in Italy.

- (speaking Italian), I know, I know.

(Christina laughing) Okay, my love.

Put some zucchini in here.

(pan frying) See how fast that wilted and the zucchini, you still want to be very fresh, like almost crunchy.

So add for me a couple of pinches of salt.

Let's try a rigatoni.

One more minute on the rigatoni.

So I'm gonna turn the green, I'm gonna turn these off.

So they stop cooking, right.

(indistinct) (pan sizzling) But the pasta, we still cook for another minute.

So Antonio, while the pasta finishes cooking, when you were starting as a guide, what made you start in Pompeii?

You grew up here of course.

- Basically, yes.

- Yeah.

- And this house is my grandparents' house.

- [Christina] No way.

- (indistinct) that I used to go with them to the ruins since I'm a kid.

- [Christina] Yeah.

- So from here, 10 minute's walk.

- Yeah, 10 minute's walk.

- A small ice cream.

And then... (Christina laughing) Otherwise, we used to go inside to, you know, basically just opposite was there was like a small oven, you know, to bake some bread.

- Yeah.

- We used to bake pine cones.

- Really?

- Yeah.

Collected in the ruins.

- In the ruins?

- So basically since I work, it's like... - Yeah, yeah.

Actually, one of the times we went with Antonio to the ruins, he showed us a 2000 year old pizza oven that looks pretty much just like our pizza ovens.

- (indistinct) difference.

- Built the same.

Works the same.

And the flour grinder was right there.

So they really, pizza is not a new thing for us at all.

- Not really.

- Okay, my love.

Let's make this dish.

So we're gonna take the pasta and I usually like a little, if you move that.

I like a little pasta, and I don't use a strainer, a colander, because I like to bring a little of the water... - Okay.

- Right in.

It makes the dish seem richer, you know, like you almost make a gravy.

It smells good.

Yeah?

- It smells good.

- And it was so fast and so easy.

You'll do this.

- That's pretty easy, I can do that.

- Yeah.

And if you want protein, let's say that you think you want some more protein, you could just put a can of white beans in or chickpeas.

- Of course, of course.

I guess you also took some pasta from the area, I guess from Gragnano, is it?

- Gragnano, yes.

So why is the pasta in Gragnano so great?

Because it is so great.

- It is great.

- Why?

Because I know you know this.

- First, Italian wheat.

The end of the day, they're making pasta with the traditional techniques.

They dry the pasta for 72 hours.

- Yeah.

Usually it's not very long at all.

- Not at all.

Usually a second.

- So when you're in a supermarket and you're looking at pasta, if the pasta is like very yellow, but it doesn't say there's egg in it, it's been quickly dried.

Right?

- Mm-hmm.

- When it's a light color like this, then you have a traditionally made pasta.

So you see there's a lot more veggies in here than pasta.

- It is even more porous.

- Yep.

And it holds your gravy better.

- (indistinct) look great and I think is amazing.

- Shall we?

- Together?

- Shall we taste?

Si, (speaking Italian).

- It's like the spaghetti.

(Christina laughing) But we don't have have a spaghetti anyway.

- We don't have spaghetti, but anyway.

- Unfortunately.

- We could have used more chili.

- We can put more chili.

- Okay.

So you know, you can use more chili.

Antonio, thank you for having me in your kitchen.

- Thank you for being here.

- Enjoy.

- Cooking this.

- So you see, it's totally easy, even if you're completely busy to cook for yourself, cook for people you love, cook for your chosen family and enjoy.

(energetic music) If we were really committed to caring for each other, we would speak out and vote with our dollar.

So many of us are being gaslit by the food we eat.

From health halos to adjusted serving sizes so that the calories, sugar, salt, and fat look healthier.

We have been sold a bill of goods that's costing us our collective health and we just keep buying it.

Influencers have taken over social media with seriously unsubstantiated claims about everything from oatmeal to seed oils.

Are they doing it to inform us about ways to create wellness?

No.

It's simply to go viral, which is a great way to describe the disease of misinformation that affects us all.

These self-proclaimed experts with their filtered images tell us that eating steak and butter is the only path to health, or about the evils of oatmeal and blueberries.

Seriously, blueberries will kill us?

Do they advise us to skip the drive through and take out deliveries?

Do they tell us to get back to the kitchen and cook real food to create real lasting wellness?

They do not.

Their carefully curated messages are designed to enrich them, not inform you.

So think about that and I'll see you next time on "Christina Cooks."

(energetic music) (Christina laughing) - Go ahead.

I can hear you.

(indistinct) (whistle blowing) - [Announcer] Funding for "Christina Cooks" is provided by FinaMill, the flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs, with refillable, swappable pods.

FinaMill.

And by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan's spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by.

You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at christinacooks.com, and by following Christina on social media.

(bright music)