Lidia's Kitchen

LIDIA

Buon giorno! I'm Lidia Bastianich, and teaching you about Italian food has always been my passion. I want to taste it. Assaggiare. It has always been about cooking together... Hello....but it is also about reminiscing, reflecting and reconnecting through food.

ERMINIA

Mmm! Delicious.

LIDIA

For me, food is about family and comfort. Whatever you're making, always remember tutti a tavola a mangiare.

ANNOUNCER

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. Authentic and original -- Amarena Fabbri. A taste of Italy for brunch with family and friends. Amarena Fabbri -- the original wild cherries in syrup. Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition, yet contemporary. ANNOhand-crafted provolone.rs, AurMade in Italy.onal Rovagnati Gran Biscotto, a true Italian ham. Crudo o cotto? Gran Biscotto. And by...

LIDIA

I love getting my hands in the dough. I love making pasta, making crostata. Nonna Rosa taught me all. And I still have that passion, and I want to teach it to my grandchildren to carry on the pleasure of having the dough in your hands. Kneading dough. A buttery, flaky crust filled with a rustic, savory filling makes this dish perfect for any time of day. Nothing beats fresh ribbons of pasta with a simple sauce of mixed mushrooms. The kneading board at Grandma's would come out at least three, four times a week. For the bread, twice. For pasta, another two times. Certainly, Sunday was homemade pasta day. It could've been gnocchis, it could have been fuzis, it could've been tagliatelle. So I loved making pasta with her. That was my job. And one of the things that she made often was frittole. That's the fried dough. She whipped that up together, fried it in the oil, a little sugar on top, and that was good. Crostata with kale, butternut squash, and ricotta. A crostata means something enveloped in dough. Very typical Italian. So, here we have some shredded butternut squash. And butternut squash, you know? You can do it with any squash, but this is how butternut squash more or less looks. You cut the top and the bottom. You peel it just like a potato, with a potato peeler. And the seeds are usually in this bulby part. So, you cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and you grate it just like that. And here I have some raw Arborio rice. And what's going to happen is that the Arborio rice, which is starchy and dry, will absorb some of the water and the juices from the butternut squash. So, we'll leave that for about a half an hour and let that happen. So now let's make the dough -- flour. Let's put some salt in here. Okay. And we'll get it slowly to turn, and we'll put in some olive oil. And water. Okay. A little flower here, just like that. Let me just dump the dough right here. You want it to be a soft dough just like that, very pliable. Give it a little kneading. Okay. Okay. Piece of plastic wrap. And you let the dough rest. In the refrigerator is fine. You can make the dough a day before. You can make double batches. You can freeze the dough and then bring it back to room temperature. So it's very forgivable, this dough, and very practical. It is those times with grandma in the... that I acquired my passion for dough kneading and making. Whether it's bread, pasta, there's something that remains with you. When your hands are into the dough and you are sort of molding, you are working that dough into some sustainable, delicious food. So, let's assemble the crostata. The squash and the rice. Okay, that looks good and ready. Next is the kale here. This is actually this. If you boil this down well, wring it dry, and then chop it up, this is what you'll get. And you'll want to add that to the filling. Let's put some salt here now. The ricotta, you just plop it right in. You'll need some eggs. Whisk them up a little bit. So let's... Okay. Let me try to give it a little mix here. Let's add the scallions. Here I have some milk and some cream. The cream gives it richness. And add the milk. It'll give it some creaminess, but, also, you know, there's rice in there. It needs to cook, and it needs a certain amount of liquid to do that. So let's get this into a good mixture, nice and even. Let's put in the cheese. And the cheese will, of course, give it loads of flavor but will also absorb some of the milk. And raisins. That little sweet touch, you know. When you just bite into something, there's a little sweetness, that's good, that's good. Especially I like it in this crostata because the kale has that bitter element, and this kind of balances it out. And we are ready with the stuffing. And let's roll out some dough. Ultimately, the crostata will be baked here. A little bit of oil, and get the sheet pan ready for baking. And get into the dough. Okay. You're sort of shaping it into a rectangle. Whatever your vessel is that you're gonna bake it, you want to go in that direction. Put in some more flour. Now we're gonna begin to roll it. Just a little more here. Okay. Pick it up. We'll stretch a little bit this corner. Okay. This is where the stuffing will go now. Okay. And we just push it into place. So now we pull just the sides up, and we make the edges just like that. You let it kind of... settle in. you prepare a hot oven, 375. And just like this, not covered, you put it in the oven in the middle shelf, 40 to 50 minutes. Bread takes a while, but some of the quick doughs that I love to make are, of course, focaccias and pizza dough. And, you know, there's different ways of making pizza dough. You can, you know, do it in two hours, but you can give it that long rise of two days. And kids love making pizza. So, Julia and I got into it, and I said, "Okay. let's try to make the two-day raising pizza and let's see if it really makes a difference in the taste." And it did. The crostata is done. I left it to kind of cool off at room temperature, and now we can cut it. Let's kind of loosen it up. And I really want to stress the fact that I want you to relax. There's nothing super fragile about this crostata that you out there cannot handle. So, you take a large spatula, and you go underneath, and you help yourself and just slide it just right out like that. You want it at room temperature, you don't want it warm, because then it will kind of break easier. And you go along... cutting equal pieces. Okay, so... And let's cut it into squares that are kind of easy to handle. Okay. And, you know, I'm gonna kind of play a little bit with it. I think a little bit of green here and there, and this is beautiful basil. So, I think I want to taste one. Of course. I like the corner piece. I really do. I like the the crust on it. Let me taste it. Mmm. The ricotta, the vegetables of the kale, and then I got a little bit of raisin, that sweetness. Feels like a burst of sweetness in the middle of this savory tart. It's really delicious and easy, and you can make it. Sharing recipes. Butternut squash and Brussels sprouts panzanella. I love being in touch with my grandchildren. And, of course, now that they're off to college here and there, the only way is the Internet.

Ringing

LIDIA

Miles is on, calling me. Hi, Miles. How you doing?

MILES

Nonna, how are you? Haven't seen you in so long.

LIDIA

I am fine. It's great to hear from you. How've you been? Life has been good. You're in your junior year now at Providence College, huh? And how many are you in your dorm this time?

MILES

So, we have nine kids in our house.

LIDIA

What? Nine kids?

MILES

Yeah.

LIDIA

You better -- You better start cooking. I better give you big recipes. And I made a panzanella. Panzanella's usually a summer. Tomatoes and onions and bread, you know that. But I made a fall version with butternut squash, Brussels sprouts. Roasted the vegetables, gave it some good flavor, and then tossed it all into a panzanella. What do you think of that?

MILES

That sounds amazing now. Wow.

LIDIA

Would you add anything else? Some salami, some prosciutto? What would you add?

MILES

Maybe some prosciutto, maybe some cheese, too, on top. It sounds really good. I mean, I can't wait to try it out with my friends in our house.

LIDIA

Good, good, good. So, tell me, what do you do in this with all these friends?

MILES

For dinner we usually have a sit-down at the table where I'm sitting right now, actually. And yesterday we had some flank steak with corn on the cob and rice, and it was actually pretty good.

LIDIA

And who cooked?

MILES

I did.

LIDIA

Good. Oh, I'm so proud of you, Miles. And anytime you need a little tip on a recipe, just Zoom on Grandma. Keep me posted on what you're cooking, okay? Ciao!

MILES

Love you. Ciao.

LIDIA

Grazie. Grazie. Thank you for calling me. So, I want to know what you're up to. What are you telling your college kids to cook or the kids that you have at home and what you share with them? I'd love to know it all. Pappardelle with mixed mushrooms. We'll make some pappardelle, then a quick garlic and mushroom sauce. And some of the memories of my youth, you know, foraging for mushrooms. Grandma would make the pasta. I would help her, delicious. Now, pasta, you know, everybody is afraid of making pasta, but it is the easiest, the easiest. I have here 2 cups of flour, three eggs... ...some salt, some olive oil, and let's whisk this. Okay. This liquid should bind all of that flour. Just in case it doesn't, I have a little bit of extra flour or a little bit of water, whichever one I need, so let's start with the measured parts.

Whirring

Grinding softly

Grinding stops

LIDIA

And in making pasta, this -- what should happen is that the pasta should gather around the bowl. It's a little sticky, but I can put a little flour there, or I can put a little flour here. Just a little bit, not too much because then you'll need to put some water, and you try to just balance the dough so it's a nice, soft dough, wraps into itself. The dough all collects.

Whirring

LIDIA

That's what pasta is all about, just that. Gets right off the sides like that. Take it off. And you see? No big deal about making pasta. Everybody makes such a big, complicated situation. No, no, no, no. You have to work it enough so that the glutens build in there so the pasta becomes resilient. But you still want it soft, so let me just mix it a little bit, have a little bit more flour to it. And the pasta is done. We'll wrap it in plastic wrap just like that, nice and tight. You let it rest. You can leave it outside for half an hour or an hour. I did make one an hour ago, so you have it here ready. And you're asking, "Why is that one so much yellow?" Because this one still has the flour on top here from here, and it will absorb it and become as yellow as that. So let's go on to form our pappardelle. I'm collecting a little bit of flour. I'm going to cut it in four pieces. And this is a little cranking machine for pasta, and it's the simplest, the easiest, and you can attach it to your cutting board as you can see here, to your table, and move on. And what you do when you roll pasta, you first shape it. You want as wide as this, so you're going to work on passing the pasta so it becomes as wide as that. So I am beginning to shape it just like that. You first start with the widest that you have because it's easy, because you want the pasta to stretch.

Cranking

LIDIA

Okay. So now I'm going to tighten it up. From zero, it goes all the way up to eight, nine. And I'm going to do three intervals -- the widest next one, and then ultimately the size of the pappardelle that I would like. So I have it now at three. We started at zero, and we go in the same direction. So now I'm changing the size from three to six. You don't want it too thin or too long because pappardelle also is a nice, thin pasta, and if you have them too long, they do stick together. You know, when I was small and making pasta with Grandma, we didn't have any cranking machine. We had a rolling pin, and we rolled it and rolled it until it got thin, and then we cut it, so this is a shortcut here. We can cut it like this, or we can cut it the long way like that, like that, like that, and like that. And if there's some pappardelle that comes a little bit odd-shaped, I wouldn't worry about it -- you know, like a little corner piece. And when you're cutting it, make sure that you put enough flour. We make a bunch, and here we go. That's one portion, or you could do it -- If you want the long ones, I'll show you another way. Just like that, make sure you put enough flour, and you roll them. But this one you cut with a knife. There's many different ways of cutting your pappardelle. Okay, so we finished cutting the pappardelle. Make sure that you put flour. You put them on a clean towel. Let's cover them. Let me clean up, and we'll make a quick mushroom sauce, cook them, and have a nice plate of pappardelle. The one thing that stayed in my mind in pasta-making, the importance. Especially, you know, being a girl, that if you wanted to get married and wanted to get a good husband, you needed to know, I know, six, seven, eight different shapes of pasta and gnocchi and fuzi and passateli and tagliatelle. And you needed to know how to make them before you could get a good husband. So that stuck in my mind. I'm still working on the shapes of pasta. We made the pappardelle. Now let's make the mushroom sauce. And the mushroom sauce is really quite simple -- a nice saut pan, olive oil, sliced garlic, and if you put sliced garlic, it will remain in there. If you put whole garlic cloves, you'll crush them. You can pull them out, so it's whatever your choice is. Mushrooms, you know, whatever is in season is good. Some mushrooms are better than others. That's just the case, you know -- chanterelles, morels, shiitake, porcini. The more diversified, the better I think your sauce will certainly be. Just wash them lightly. Mushrooms are not to be soaked in water because they're very spongy, and they absorb water. So even though it looks like an awful lot of mushrooms, we'll get maybe half of all of this in the sauce.

Sizzling

LIDIA

Put some salt. And I'm just going to put a little bit of stock to let...

Sizzling

LIDIA

...the mushrooms begin to cook.

Tapping

LIDIA

Rosemary. I'm going to put a little bit of peperoncino. I like the spiciness, the cleanness of peperoncino itself, and we'll let that simmer away. And mushrooms today, you know, there's still people that forage for mushrooms. As a young girl, I used to go forage for mushroom all the time, so I would always go to my Great Aunt Santola Maria, and she told me when you pick up your mushrooms, you cut the mushrooms at the stem close to the earth, and you leave the stem in the earth so that the next mushrooms will come in the same place, and you can't forget those things. Nature, you need to aid it and help it and respect it, most of all. So, here the mushrooms are really nice. I'll add the rest of the broth in. I'll put the butter in now, and that will make the sauce. And now we're ready to put the pasta in the water. Mm-hmm. They're good. Let's make sure that we untie it all. Don't throw the whole lump in there because it will stick, and these, especially fresh pasta, take a minute to cook. Let me just give it a mix. Mmm. I'm looking at the sauce. You know, mushroom sauce is simple, clean, good products in season. I will take out the rosemary. And fresh pasta like this, especially, it needs one good boil, and it is ready. Still has a lot of body. And if there's a little bit of pasta water, it's okay because I use that anyway. As I'm putting it in, I'm going to mix it just so it doesn't stick. And lots of parsley. Lots and lots of parsley. Mmm. Bring this up to the table. And cheese off the fire. And in its simplicity, this is one of the most delicious dishes. I love this dish. Now I'm going to plate it. Pasta, always try to put it in the middle. You want to put the pasta, but then you want to put the mushrooms on top of that just like that. And, you know, flakes of cheese, and you do this with a potato peeler. The cheese will melt in there, and it will be delicious. And then my little plate. Ah, but a little plate can hold a lot. Some mushrooms, of course, I want. And let me grate some cheese on top. Mm-hmm. Let me taste. So, you see, the pappardelle is big and it's long, so cutting it short is not a bad idea. Let me taste. Mm-hmm. Intense flavor of mushrooms. And before I dive in again, I'm going to ask you to come and join me, as I always do. Tutti a tavola a mangiare. Venite! Sunday dinner at Nonna Rosa's house, especially around the summer months.

It was around 1

00, and it lasts forever at sea. And there was always a crowd, always somebody would stop by. And there was a table outside in the courtyard. It was a simple setting, wine glasses for the adults, two baskets of bread, of course, big bread. And of course, antipasto was first, just a little prosciutto, little vegetable salads. And the main course usually was the pasta that we made with a sauce. Could have been a rabbit sauce, could have been a chicken sauce, could have been a duck sauce. So us kids, even if we were at the table, we would go and come, come and go. Every meal, we would come, we would run around the courtyard. We would play some hide-and-seek, then come back. It was a very secure place. As a child, it felt good. It felt good. The family was there. Everybody was together. We were enjoying our food. The labor of grandma and grandpa and everybody else, if you will, and the security. I thought that that life would last forever. And it does in my -- in my recollections, in my memories. It was a very special time. Crostata with kale, butternut squash, and ricotta, pappardelle with mixed mushrooms.

ANNOUNCER

The food from this series is all about reflecting and reconnecting. The recipes can be found in Lydia's latest cookbooks. "Felidia: Recipes for My Flagship Restaurant," a collection of restaurant-inspired dishes for the home cook, available for $35. "Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine" is available for $40, and "Lidia's Celebrate Like an Italian" is available for $35. To purchase any of these cookbooks or order additional products, call 800-PLAY-PBS or visit shop.pbs.org/lidia. To learn more about Lidia, access to videos, and to get recipes, tips, techniques and much more, visit us online at lidiasitaly.com. Hollow Lidia on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at Lidia Bastianich.

ERMINIA

Me too.

LIDIA

Ethan. What are you looking at? Something to eat? You're next.

Speaking indistinctly

WOMAN

Whoo-hoo! That was so good!

LIDIA

Tell those guys to get out of there! I don't want to cover it. Come on, bee. Okay. And then, let's make it together, okay? It's a deal?

JULIA

Yeah.

LIDIA

Ready?

MAN

Feel that energy now.

LIDIA

Come and join us. So, I'm gonna have...

ANNOUNCER

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... Olitalia -- from chef to chef. Closed captioning provided by San Benedetto. "Lidia's Kitchen" studio provided by Clarke, New England's official Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.