Imagining a Sustainable World

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Teaching children to think and live sustainably is an obligation we have to our children, ourselves and to our planet. Sustainability can be fun and it certainly should be delicious. Children are passionately curious. Digging hands into dirt, planting seeds and harvesting is an experiential way for them to learn about food from its source.

A recent day with Dan and Nanette Bercu at Sunset Ranch showed the fifth grade class from our boys’ school the cycle of life, from planting and harvesting to eating healthy and delicious food while it’s still warm from the sunshine. For city kids in Los Angeles, it’s not every day that they get to pick dry-farmed tomatoes, fetch warm eggs from a chicken coop, carve home-cured prosciutto, pluck squash blossoms, wild basil and pungent red onions, and eat the fruits of their labor on wood-fired pizza on a mountaintop farm in Malibu.

Through the gracious hospitality of the Bercu family, these children had the good fortune of learning, if only for a moment, about the wonders of sustainability. Dan said he hoped everyone would leave the farm dirty and well fed. Not a bad couple of objectives for our fifth grade friends.

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Prosciutto Tomato Pizza

Here’s a quick and easy home baked version. Feel free to customize it with your own garden crop.

2 tablespoons olive oil plus additional oil for drizzling
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
2 cups your favorite pasta sauce
1 pre-made pizza crust, 12 inches
3 to 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
8 slices prosciutto
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
4 to 5 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (garnish)
Olive oil, to taste

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat until rippling. Add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring often for 5 minutes or until they're soft and aromatic. Stir in the oregano, turn off the heat, and set aside.

Spread a thin layer of the pasta sauce on the pizza crust, followed by the onions, mozzarella, tomatoes, prosciutto and Parmesan cheese.

Turn the oven down to 400 degrees and bake the pizza for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling hot and golden brown. Sprinkle with basil and lightly drizzle with olive oil just before serving.

Makes 4 servings

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