This year, the Fun Food Feed is featuring longevity blue zone regions (BZ) from around the world, and dishes inspired by them.

Spring’s featured longevity blue zone region is Sardinia, Italy.

BLUE ZONES

A blue zone region is a “small, homogenous geographical area where the population shares the same lifestyle and environment and its exceptional longevity has been scientifically proven.”

National Geographic researchers originally identified five blue zone regions: first Sardinia Italy, next Okinawa Japan, and the Seventh Day Adventists of Loma Linda California, then the Nicoya Peninsula of Coast Rica, and Icaria, Greece.

Nine shared lifestyle habits were found in all five populations:

1. Plant-Based Diet with legumes as a staple
2. Moderate Calorie Intake, stopping eating when feel 80% full
3. Moderate Alcohol of 1-2 glasses per evening (except Adventists, who abstain)
4. Moving Naturally, growing gardens, walking to the store, house and yard work by hand
5. Life Purpose
6. Stress Reduction, with meditation, prayer, naps and socializing
7. Belonging to a positive community, often faith-based
8. Family, with members committed to helping each other
9. Social Circle of several supportive members with healthy behaviors

These populations with a high proportion of centenarians have not lasted indefinitely, depending on the above factors being maintained.

BLUE ZONE REGION – SARDINIA, ITALY

A common greeting on the island of Sardinia, Italy is a kent’ annos, meaning “may you live to be 100.”

Sardinian blue zone region centenarians occupy the rocky highland slopes of the Supramonte mountains.  The longest living here are the men, who spend most days shepherding their flocks of slender sheep and goats over rugged hills of wild grasses and herbs.

One might guess that these pastoral roots would make the cornerstone of their diet meat, but meat is reserved only for holidays.

Daily fare for a traditional Sardinian centenarian family is durum wheat and barley bread and sourdough, fava and garbanzo beans, and whatever is ripe in the garden, including eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, fennel, onions and potatoes.  Their grass-fed pecorino and chopped almonds are common condiments.

These plant-based foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, protein, phytonutrients and prebiotic fiber.

Blue Zone Video:

Sardinian Blue Zone Diet Video:

This Spring’s Featured Recipe is for Centenarian-Style Eggplant Flatbread.  What better way to bring Sardinia’s traditional foods together into one dish!  And what better way to bring friends and family together than with good food.

If time is of the essence, substitute pre-made refrigerated whole grain pizza dough, slices of sourdough bread or english muffins, or your favorite flatbread for our overnight flatbread dough below.

Vegetables can be finely diced and mixed with tomato sauce before topping pizza, for a more “classic” look and for the more reluctant vegetable eater.

Centenarian-Style Eggplant Flatbread

Flatbread Rising Time: Overnight or ~18 hours

Preparation Time: ~60 minutes
Yield:  ~4 – 8 servings

Flatbread Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup (350g) water
3 cups whole wheat (330g) and/or barley flour (250g)
1/4 teaspoon (3g) yeast or 1/2 cup (120ml) 1:1 sourdough starter
(if using starter, reduce water by 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon (6g) salt

Topping Ingredients:

1 eggplant (500g)
1 zucchini (120g)
1 fennel bulb (100g)
1 onion (120g)
peeled cloves of 1 head garlic (50g)
olive oil
1/2 cup canned/cooked chickpeas (100g dry, 75g cooked)
reserved chickpea aquafaba from can/cooking water reduced until egg white consistency
1 jar tomato sauce (500g)

Optional toppings: Pesto (recipe below), fresh basil leaves, Kite Hill Cream Cheese-style Almond Spread or chopped almonds

Equipment:

large bowl
damp cloth
knife
cutting board
large baking dish
measuring cup
spatula
large spoon
rolling pin
pizza pan or baking sheet

Instructions:

1.Mix together Flatbread ingredients (water, flour, yeast/starter, salt) in bowl.  Cover with damp cloth and let rise overnight or ~18 hours.

2. Roll dough to 5mm thickness and place on lightly oiled baking sheet.  Let rise on preheating oven range as prepare vegetables.

3. Cut vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, fennel, onion) into bite-sized pieces.

4. Toss vegetables in garbanzo-aquafaba (or a little high-heat oil if preferred), to seal in moisture while baking.

5. Arrange vegetables, whole garlic cloves and chickpeas in single layer on lightly-oiled or SilPat-mat-lined baking sheet.

6. Bake at ~400F until vegetables browned on one side.  Flip vegetables.  Continue baking until vegetables soft, ~20 minutes.

7. Top flatbread dough with tomato sauce and decorative arrangement of vegetables and garbanzos.  Dapple with optional almond spread or chopped almonds.

8. Bake at ~400F (205°C) until crust golden.

9. Decorate with optional Pesto and/or fresh basil leaves.

Pesto

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Yield: ~1/2 cup (120ml)

Ingredients:

4 ounces (110g, 1 large box or about 2 cups) fresh basil, stems removed
1 small handful (1 – 2 Tablespoons (15ml – 30ml)) of pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios or macadamias
1 zucchini, roasted until soft
small handful of olives, or a splash of high-quality extra virgin olive oil (preferably certified by the California Olive Oil Council)
1 generous sprinkle (1 – 2 Tablespoons (5ml – 10ml)) of nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon white miso paste
1 to 4 cloves (3g – 10g) garlic to taste
fresh zest & juice of a lemon to taste
salt & pepper to taste

Equipment:

Blender or food processor
Measuring spoons
Rubber spatula

Instructions:

1.Blend ingredients until a smooth, fine-grained texture, scraping down sides with rubber spatula as needed.

2. Adjust seasoning to taste.

References:

Blue Zones website

Buettner, Dan. The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and living like the world’s healthiest people. National Geographic Books, 2015.

Pes, Giovanni Mario, et al. “Male longevity in Sardinia, a review of historical sources supporting a causal link with dietary factors.” European journal of clinical nutrition 69.4 (2015): 411.

Poulain, Michel, et al. “Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia island: the AKEA study.” Experimental gerontology 39.9 (2004): 1423-1429.