The asparagus ends are already in the garbage. And now my tidy pile of peelings is growing as I scrape away the epidermis on the lower third of the stalks. Thus prepped, they will cook at roughly the same pace as the tender tips and look pretty on the plate.

Even so, looking at the peelings, I feel a vague sense of unease. Maybe I should do something with them? I don’t have a compost pile, but I do keep a couple of freezer bags for vegetable and poultry trimmings that eventually make their way into broth. Asparagus trimmings might give an off taste to broth, though. Hmmm. They follow the ends into the garbage.
    
These were so-so supermarket asparagus, by the way. Tender farmer’s market asparagus wouldn’t have posed this dilemma. As with thin-skinned eggplant or zucchini, I could have skipped the peeling without compromising culinary quality.

I go one better when I find a cauliflower in primo condition--breaking off the thick leaves at the base, blanching them and tossing with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It’s a delicious trick I picked up from a cooking teacher whose family came from southern Italy, where nothing is wasted.  

At Teatro del Sole, in Florence, I ate an unfamiliar vegetable that turned out to be fava bean pods. “Most cooks throw them away, but not me,” said chef Fabio Picchi. They were very soft and savory, like green beans simmered with pork fat for half the afternoon.  

Along the same frugal lines, the filleted skeletons of sardines and other small fish are fried to savor as a snack in Japan as well as Italy. And recently a restaurant p.r. person tried to persuade me that that fish jaws are going to be a hot trend.   

I haven’t tried cooking fava pods or fish jaws yet, but these days I find myself taking a second look at scraps and trimmings. Sometimes they’re garbage…and sometimes they’re food.

Featured Recipe: Sautéed Asparagus with Capers