Lidia's Kitchen

-Buongiorno.

I'm Lidia Bastianich, and teaching you about Italian food has always been my passion.

Just like that.

You got that right.

It has always been about cooking together and building your confidence in the kitchen.

For me, food is about gathering around the table to enjoy loved ones.

Your family is going to love it.

Share a delicious meal and make memories.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

"Lidia's Kitchen: Meals & Memories."

-Funding provided by... -Every can of Cento tomatoes is born in Italy, where they are grown and ripened in sun-drenched fields and then harvested by local farmers who select them just for us.

Cento -- trust your family with our family.

-Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition, yet contemporary.

-Authentically Italian Prosecco DOC -- the Italian sparkling art of living.

-For over 140 years, Auricchio traditional handcrafted provolone, made in Italy.

-Olitalia -- from chef to chef.

-When working with simple recipes, don't forget to source the best ingredients and give them the respect they deserve.

In this minestrone, I use cabbage, squash, and kale.

I encourage you to think of this recipe as a template for any hearty winter vegetables.

Let your senses guide you.

Soup and salad make a great dinner, and this salad is easy to pull together, full of color and flavor.

Let's go find that flavor!

Hikers, bikers, sailors have compasses.

Lidia has aromas.

The aromas take me places.

They take me to a dish.

They take me to a memory.

I build flavors with the different aromas, whether it's the rosemary that I remember playing hide and seek into the bushes, whether it's the bay leaves, whether it's collecting sage, all these flavors, all these memories bring me to a place, a place where I can build, I can cook, and I make the delicious recipes that I share with you.

Minestrone Invernale.

Things are perking in my kitchen.

Bubbly, bubble, bubble.

And I love long cooking techniques.

First, let's start with a pestata, and the pestata of pancetta, bacon, but if you're a vegetarian, you don't have to use pancetta.

You can just go on with the vegetables, and the soup will be good.

Some garlic, and let's make the pestata.

So you want the pestata to really be like a paste, so to disintegrate and give flavor to your soup.

Let's put a little bit of olive oil just on the bottom.

Let's render this down while we make the vegetable pestata.

These are sage leaves.

So let's put that in.

Onion, celery... and thyme, lots of thyme.

So let's make a pestata out of the vegetables.

Mmm.

The aromas.

It reminds me a lot of my grandmother.

You know, soups -- yes, they take a lot of sort of ingredients in the assembling of it.

But once they're bubbling away, they're such a venue for so many different things, and then you freeze them and you have it for weeks to come.

So here we are with the vegetable pestata.

And you want to give it just a little bit of cooking time, and then we'll build up the soup.

And now we use the tomato.

These are peeled tomatoes, San Marzano.

Squash them.

Just like that, put them in.

This soup takes about 5 quarts of water.

I'm gonna go in a minute to the sink.

In the meantime, let's assemble all the basic ingredients.

Here I have cannellini beans.

So you take the dry cannellini beans, fill this up with water.

The next day, you drain it.

So now they're ready to cook.

Let's add them all in.

This is split peas.

I love split peas.

I just wash them.

And what they will give to the soup is that kind of very mellow, almost velvety texture because they disintegrate into the liquid.

So let's put that in.

So now let's do some seasoning here -- bay leaves.

I love my bay leaves, especially in soups.

Peperoncino, salt.

The heat, full speed ahead.

I'm gonna go get the remainder of the water, and we'll let this cook for a good half hour to 40 minutes before we add the next vegetable.

Welcome to my library.

Cozy and comfy.

Here is where I read your messages, your videos, and I answer.

And here I have a video from Caitlin and Jeff.

"We fell in love with your show the past couple of years and follow your guide to cook while taking classes at Pennsylvania State University.

Here's our video question."

-Hi, Lidia.

I'm Caitlin.

This is Jeff.

And today we're making chicken piccata meatballs.

-Do you have any unique takes on traditional meals that you like to make?

-Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

-Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

-Oh, I could kiss the screen.

Look at them.

Look at them, how adorable.

Do I switch traditional recipes?

Yes, all the time.

One of the classics that I've kind of switched around is bread and zucchini lasagna.

Instead of the pasta, I put all bread.

I made the sauce, and I layered it with thin zucchini and cheese, just like a lasagna.

Give it a try, and keep on cooking.

And, tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Bravi!

Ah!

I told you I'd be bubbling.

So we lower it a little bit.

The peas are kind of disintegrating, and that's what you want.

And to this, we will add now the carrots.

And again, you know, I want it about the same size so they cook at the same speed.

Now, I wanted to show you to take you through all the steps.

But you could do all this preparation before.

All right, so let's add this to the bubbling soup and the Savoy cabbage, I just de-core.

And we'll shred it like this.

Now, it looks like a lot of vegetables, and there is, but vegetables, once you really let them cook, they lose a lot of volume because of the water.

So let's put this in.

If you don't have Savoy, could you put regular cabbage?

Absolutely.

And so now let's do some kale here.

This is a little tough, so I'll leave it out.

If you're -- if you have young kale and you want to use the stems, by all means.

You know, I also like Swiss chard in soups like that.

So here we are.

You let this cook for a good half hour.

And we'll prepare the squash.

Now, the squash takes the least amount of time to cook.

So let's do some cubes of squash.

Just keep in mind that a soup like this -- Lidia-style, nice and velvety and full of vegetables, and the vegetables are nice and mellow, full of different flavor -- takes about two hours in total, but at the end of two hours, look at the gift that you're getting.

So I'll finish this, I'll add it on, and then we'll taste it.

Okay, another e-mail with a photo.

"I made a large pot of minestrone!

Take a look!"

And it looks delicious.

That's a potful.

You're gonna have here two or three meals for sure.

And when you put it in the freezer, don't forget to mark those containers with what's in them and the date.

Enjoy.

All right.

Look at this pot of goodness.

I think I did a good job.

You can do it.

Let me first taste and see how the seasoning is in here.

Salt.

Always taste like this.

At the end is when you can, okay, it needs a little salt, a little peperoncino, and even though I have cheese at the table, I'm gonna put some cheese in it now so it really flavors and melts.

Mmm.

I think we're ready to serve.

One, two.

Okay.

Now, you know how I always use a little plate so I don't dribble all over the place.

And, you know, maybe pick up the vegetables first so that you build up and you get enough vegetables.

You can always add the liquid part of it, but you still want to be able to recognize all the vegetables.

You don't want them to completely be disintegrated.

Let's go to the next.

Okay.

Mmm.

Delizioso.

Let me put a little bit for Lidia here.

All right.

I'll let that cool.

That looks pretty good.

Nice and steamy.

And some good bread.

Some good crusty bread -- crostini, taralli, which are from Puglia, this delicious little crunchy.

And, of course, some Grana -- grated Grana, but also a few chunks of -- let's say that you want just this for the main course and for the food.

You want some chunks of cheese.

You grate some cheese, and voil, we go on, just like that.

You see?

A good meal, and makes you feel good, as well.

So let's taste this big minestrone.

Mmm!

It's delicious.

The soup is great.

It just kind of warms the soul.

You get the beans, then you have the squash, the little sweetness.

Then you have the kale, a little bit of bitterness.

Different flavors and textures that makes this soup, mmm, delizioso.

-Salute!

-Salute!

-It always brings me such joy to connect through food.

My friends are everywhere, from Italy to New York.

We always end up discussing all things delicious.

I'm going to introduce you to Mark Randall, a honey of a guy who loves his bees.

He said he was going to call me, and we're going to talk some honey food.

[ Computer chiming ] So here he is.

Hi, Mark.

-Hey, Lidia.

Nice to see you.

It's great to see you again.

-Yeah, pleasure.

I'm waiting to be sweetened up with all the goodies that you sent me.

You are a designer, actually, by profession, a teacher, right?

-Yes.

Yes.

I teach at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

-All right.

But what you really love is?

-Honey and bees.

-It would look difficult to me, but you seem to be very much at ease around your bees.

-Yes.

I've been doing it for a long time.

In my bee yard upstate, I actually house my bees in an old chicken barn to keep them away from the bears.

On Saturday, I went and picked up bees, and I put them in the hive to get my colonies going so that they can start making honey.

-So you sent me a light honey here.

What is a light honey?

And I'm going to taste it.

-The color of the honey is dependent on which flowers the bees are going to.

So the bees where I am, in upstate New York, they're going to wildflowers.

-So now I'm going to taste this darker honey.

When is the season for this honey?

-So that honey is made in late August and early September.

-Mmm.

-That's the best honey that my bees make.

-In Italy, we have a dark honey -- chestnuts.

And you just drizzle it on the crumbled cheese, and it is delicious.

Now, honey ice cream.

Ice cream is your other passion.

-What you're having is just honey and dairy.

-Mmm!

-No refined sugar.

You really get to taste the complexity of the honey even though it's through the ice cream.

-Absolutely.

You see, you're talking, I'm eating.

-[ Laughs ] -This is delicious.

There's a sharpness to sugar when you are eating it.

There's no sharpness here.

There's a mellowness, a soft -- -No, no, absolutely.

-I use honey when I cook and I want a nice crust.

I always mix in a little bit of honey on proteins, on vegetables.

Now, you have sent me some of my own cookies.

I have them.

-Oh, well, you sent me that great recipe.

I have some here, too.

-They're called in Italian panmelati.

But tell me how you made my recipe.

-You know, what I really liked about it was, again, like my ice cream, is there's no refined sugar in it.

It's just a few simple ingredients.

It's, you know, ground walnuts, chopped-up orange peel, dry breadcrumbs, and then honey.

-It's simple because you cook the bread in the honey with the orange.

And once it reaches a certain consistency, you let it cool a little bit.

And then you take spoonfuls, and you put a little bit of oil on your palm, and you roll them like truffles.

-They're almost like honey-nut orangey caramels.

They're delicious.

And so, then I thought, "Well, they might be great on ice cream."

I chopped them all up, and I put them on the ice cream, and it was fantastic.

-I have to come and visit your bees.

-Come in the summer so you can come and get some ice cream.

More ice cream, too.

-You know, I usually kind of share things, but I'm thinking how I'm going to put this one in the corner.

[ Laughs ] This is going to be for me.

-[ Laughs ] Right.

Yeah.

-All right.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for your passion, and for sharing it with all of us.

And I'll see you upstate.

-Look forward to it.

Goodbye.

Thank you.

-Ciao.

Ciao.

Insalata di Zucca Arrosto con Carote, Ceci, e Mandorle.

You know, one of those kind of not-enough-time, kind of lazy, "I want to relax" kind of meal.

There's nothing better -- a nice selection of cheese and charcuterie and then this great salad.

And you're looking at this, "This salad?

This is all kind of vegetables."

Yes, roasted vegetable and escarole salad.

So, get yourself some squash, whether it's delicata squash, whether it's acorn squash or butternut squash, whatever you like here.

With the carrots, peel them, cut them.

The important thing about this is that you cut it about the same size so that they cook at the same time, the vegetables.

That looks good.

Let's put it in the bowl.

And this roasting vegetable technique, I'm going to toss it with a green salad.

And it's going to be a great complement for the cheese board and the charcuterie board.

But these vegetables like this can be a great side dish to anything else that you have.

So, let's dress these vegetables before we put them to roast.

Salt.

Oil.

Some pepper.

And let's mix.

So, I want to give it some flavor, flavor of the wild, let's say -- fennel.

Fennel always evokes in me that kind of open space, a Sicilian side -- countryside.

And here you have the fennel seeds.

So, you take these seeds, you grind it just like that into powder, and you put it just like this.

So, you mix it well.

Everything is coated.

And you have a baking pan, so just like that.

Spread it.

Give it a chance for every piece to kind of cook and caramelize.

You heat your oven at 425 degrees and for about 20 minutes, and it is done.

This one is from social media.

George.

"Blue cheese intimidates me.

How can I serve it in a way that I will like it?"

Blue cheese -- in Italy, Gorgonzola -- has a mold in it that actually breaks down the cheese and gives it a lot of flavor.

You can serve it many ways.

I like my cheese with polenta, so making some nice, warm polenta, and then I put Gorgonzola, and that's a whole meal.

You can bake it, bake cheese, but blue cheese gets stronger as it gets cooked and baked.

To anything that you can add the blue cheese without cooking it is the best.

Keep on trying, because it's a delicious cheese.

It's one of my favorite cheese.

So enjoy and thank you.

Thank you, George, for your e-mail.

Ah, that looks good.

Just like that.

Mm-mmm.

Let's add the chickpeas and just spread them around.

I just want them to get a little crunchy, because the chickpeas are cooked.

I'm going to put a little bit of oil just -- just to bless the chickpeas, and then I'm going to put balsamic vinegar.

Mm.

That's going to really bring another dimension of flavor.

That's good.

Let's put this back in the oven, and about 10 minutes, just until everything is caramelized, and it's going to be ready.

I also like a little crunch at the end, so I'm going to toast some almonds.

And yes, you can toast the almonds in the oven.

But I want it close by, because, you know, they get sometimes burned so quickly.

So this way, I can keep my eye on it.

So, a nice pan like that.

Let's spread them out.

Gives you so much more flavor.

So, escarole.

I love escarole.

I certainly use it a lot.

It is a sort of fall, winter vegetable, but you have it year-round.

It's inexpensive.

I'm going to take out the tougher parts because -- And then I can make a soup out of this.

I'm going to use just the inside, the soft part of the escarole, for the salad.

So, I'm going to put it in a bowl.

So, this is the basis of the green part of the salad, escarole.

Now, if you don't have escarole, you can use other salads.

And I'm looking at this, and this is toasted enough.

Let's check the vegetables.

The vegetables are nice, crispy, just the way I like it.

So we let them cool just a little bit before making the salad, although the escarole is a resilient salad.

Now, with all of this, you have all those goodies on your table, you need to pay attention to some bread, too.

We have breadsticks.

We have taralli.

And here we have carta di musica.

And carta di musica is sheet music.

Usually you just take it like that, and you can bring it to the table just like that.

We have a nice selection here, so they have a choice.

And you know the ricotta salata, which we're gonna grate over the salad.

And I think I'm set to make the salad.

So here we are, the escarole.

Nice.

Beautiful.

Let's put the vegetables.

The chickpea, the garbanzo, is nice and crispy.

The vegetables, look at this, how beautiful.

Now the dressing part.

Oil, of course.

But this is already dressed with oil, so I need it basically for the salad.

And balsamic vinegar.

That's the acidity for this salad.

Now let's plate it.

Let's grab some of those vegetables underneath.

I am going to put on top of this some ricotta salata.

This is ricotta salata.

So, you all know ricotta.

But when the herdsman were up in the mountain, in order to preserve the ricotta, they would salt the ricotta.

And the salt would dry some more.

And salt is a preservative, as well.

So we have salted ricotta.

And this is a brilliant invention.

And dry ricotta is really good, because it's between the fresh and the sort of dry cheese.

Delicious.

And I'm going to put some toasted almonds.

It's not the end yet to this wonderful dish.

Okay.

Just like that.

And the almonds just add that little kind of last taste, crunch.

And that is our beauty.

So, now I'm going to make my own little plate here.

Okay.

A little ricotta salata.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

A little toasted almonds.

Let me taste.

Let me taste and let me tell you.

The crunchiness of the salad, the sweetness of the vegetables.

The ceci have its kind of nuttiness.

So it's delicious.

And with this, I thought, you know, a nice beer would go just fine.

I have my glass.

I hope you get your glass.

Now...

I got it done.

I don't do this too often.

But I wasn't going to go look for the opener.

And in the kitchen, they would, you know, chug it down.

But I'm going to be a lady, because you out there deserve it.

And I don't like froth or foam on my beer.

I'm going to put just a little bit.

And everything delicious.

I want to invite you.

Salute.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Everybody can cook.

Everybody can cook something.

There is a recipe.

It's a map to follow.

But the experience really has to be personal.

It has to transcend.

And I hope that my words bring confidence to you.

Just get in there, follow that map, and you'll make it happen.

-[ Singing in Italian ] -Okay, that was a good one.

-The food from this series is a celebration of the Italian dishes Lidia cooks for the ones she loves the most, from the traditional recipes of her childhood to the new creations she feeds her family today.

All of these easy-to-prepare recipes can be found in Lidia's latest cookbook, "From Our Family Table to Yours," available for $35.

To purchase this cookbook and any of her additional products... To learn more about Lidia, access to videos, and to get recipes, tips, techniques, and much more, visit us online at lidiasitaly.com.

Follow Lidia on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @lidiabastianich.

Funding provided by... -At Cento Fine Foods, we're dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic Italian foods by offering over 100 specialty Italian products for the American kitchen.

Cento -- trust your family with our family.

-Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition, yet contemporary.

-And by...