As part of the Food & Finance High School gala and innovation lab, I teamed up with my CSA Local Roots to educate guests about food scraps you can eat. Thanks to Orwashers for the bread and a generous bushel of leftover produce, I was able to create a no-waste food scrap strata.

• Vegetable peels, mushroom stems and cheese rinds can be used to make an easy broth in a slow cooker overnight.
• We took day-old bread and dried it even further so it would soak up our eggs and rich mushroom broth.
• The rest of the vegetable odds and ends were chopped up for our strata.
• Kale stems went into an umami-packed pesto with leftover cheese and miso.
• The eggshells are currently soaking in water (a trick I learned from Claire Matern!) and used to water plants. Eggshells still have protective nutrients to give!

Here are the scaled down recipes if you'd like to try it at home.

FOOD SCRAP STRATA

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Preheat your own to the lowest setting. Spread the bread out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Dry the bread in the oven with the door cracked or held open with a wooden spoon for 2 to 4 hours, until the bread is completely dry.

Combine the beaten eggs with the broth in a large bowl. Fold in the chopped vegetables. Soak the cubed bread in the broth mixture for at least 15 minutes. If you prefer a moist strata, store it covered in the refrigerator overnight.

Generously butter an oven-safe pan or pot with a lid. Pour the strata mixture in the pan and pack it down with a spoon or spatula. Salt the top of the strata and dot the top with cubes of butter.

Bake at 400 degree for 40 minutes covered with a lid or tented with foil.  Remove the cover and bake for another 10 more minutes to brown the top. Let the strata rest for 10 minutes before serving. Finish with kale stem pesto and course ground pepper.

KALE STEM PESTO 

Makes 1 pint

In a food processor, combine the kale stems, cheese, miso, and garlic. Pulse a few times to break them up into small pieces. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides and continue to blend. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, blend one more time and taste if you like it. Transfer the pesto to a clean container and top with a light layer of more olive oil if you don’t intend to use it right away.

And we were so excited to meet and feed gala host Tom Colicchio! We're so glad to be on the same page about sustainability and using food to its fullest potential.

How do you use up your food waste? I want to hear about it! Tweet me: @Randwiches.