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.

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

-Olitalia -- from chef to chef.

-You ask me all the time, "Lidia, what inspires you?"

You know what?

The markets, especially in the springtime -- those beautiful, bright colors, the smells, the aromas.

And it drives me straight to the kitchen.

Get inspired by your spring vegetables.

Here, I use green beans, zucchini, peas, and, of course, asparagus.

You promise you're going to make it at home?

Do it.

When I can't wait for basil season, I dive into my freezer to whip up this delicious dip...

Pretty good, huh?

-Mm-hmm.

-And they were canned beans and a little pesto.

...I pair with the freshest springtime vegetables I can find.

In springtime, the fresh ricotta was always so sweet, filled with the bright flavors of those green fields.

This frittata brings me back to those childhood memories.

Spring has sprung.

And guess what?

Lidia is springing into action right here in the kitchen.

Cooking within season is elementary.

It's the basic of Italian cuisine.

I know that in Italy there's a whole cuisine, la primicia, the first of, the first of spring.

Whether it's the nettles, whether it's the asparagus, sweet peas, the first figs, the first grapes, we knew what was in season, what was coming.

And it was appreciated.

Until this day, your choices of cooking are best when you choose whether the products, whether the vegetables, whether the fruit within the season.

Spaghetti primavera -- spaghetti with spring vegetables.

And, you know, I have my choices here, but I always tell you, you can substitute anything.

So, spring vegetables, whatever you have.

I have the water boiling with salt, a nice, large pan, a little bit of oil in there.

We're going to saut the vegetables one by one right in here, and a little bit of butter so it gets a soft beginning.

Let me start with the zucchini.

And then, depends on the size.

You know, I make it half moon if they're too large.

If they're really small, I make them in round.

So, let's put this to cook.

Let me season it a little bit with salt.

This way the water begins to come out.

And we're going to do the mushrooms now.

Here I have some done already, but this one looks pretty clean.

I always have a wet paper towel and just clean it like that.

And... Champignons -- this is the trumpet mushrooms.

That's good.

This one has the root part, but otherwise it's delicious and soft.

And you can use the whole leg of this.

And then let's do a little bit.

Here I have the oyster mushrooms.

Just like the vegetables -- whatever you have.

So, I'm looking at this, and this is pretty clean.

If you do wash mushrooms, cold water in, out, shake it because mushrooms absorb water in, and then they lose a lot of the flavor.

So, let me do this.

The oyster mushrooms you don't have to even cut.

You just kind of shred them apart like that.

I love going foraging for mushrooms.

In my childhood, every season had its specialty getting from nature.

These free gifts always felt very special, and mushrooms certainly were those free gifts.

We had the spring mushrooms and then the fall mushrooms.

Let's put the mushrooms in.

And you say, "Boy, Lidia, you have a lot of mushrooms."

But mushrooms really are basically a lot of water, and you lose it as you're cooking them.

So, a little bit of salt for the mushrooms.

What I'm going to do with the asparagus, I'm going to clean them, just simple.

These are a beautiful asparagus.

The base here, the stem, you peel it just so you don't lose a lot of stems.

And it's as simple as that.

So, I'm looking at this.

This is still a little tough at the bottom.

I'm going to cut this off like that.

So, I'm looking at it.

The mushrooms take in the oil.

I'm going to put a little bit more oil right in here.

And I'm going to put the peperoncino now.

So, everything gets a little spicy in the kitchen.

The asparagus, and I'm going to cut them sort of in a bite size.

And the string beans -- string beans are simple.

You just take the end, and you check if it has any strings, because that's what you don't want in the string beans.

Even though it's in the name "string beans," you don't want the string.

And I want to cut it again about the same size.

So, here we are.

I'm going to make a little hot spot for my garlic.

I chop the garlic so really you get full flavor of it.

If I just mixed everything all together now, what would happen is that garlic would embed itself in some of the mushroom and zucchini, and it would never get the real chance to cook.

And you want it to cook.

The water is boiling, salted water.

No oil in the pasta-cooking water -- you want the pasta to be a little sticky so the sauce adheres to it, and that's what you want.

So, here is the garlic, nice color.

Let's put the pasta in.

And just...there.

Sit.

So, here we go.

And you do want the pasta-cooking water to come back to boil as soon as possible.

Next is the tomatoes -- nice, firm plum tomatoes.

Let me throw it right in.

You want a nice, ripe tomato.

These are Roma tomatoes.

The plum tomatoes are great.

And you can use the whole thing.

Just cut them in squares and throw them right in.

I mean, if you don't have fresh tomatoes, can you throw in some canned tomatoes?

Yeah, you can.

You know, even the San Marzano, you squeeze them, and you can throw them in.

But we're in springtime, and we want all our vegetables nice and fresh.

Let's check on the pasta.

It's boiling.

Let me get just a little bit of the pasta water.

You see all this little caramelization?

You want it all.

You don't want it to burn.

You want it all to become part of the sauce.

So, we put just a little bit now.

Mm.

And that will loosen up.

Okay.

So, we are well on our way, and I have some time.

So, I want to talk to you.

You guys send me some nice questions on social media.

So, here it is.

Margarita -- "I will be starting my garden soon, and I'm curious if you start your garden with seeds or plant?"

I do both, some seeds and sometimes even the plants, but sometimes I go to my local gardener, and I get these beautiful organic plants that are already on their way.

It depends how much time I have.

So, let's see the photo that you sent me.

You do have all the herbs, the tomatoes, the zucchini, cucumbers.

Brava!

The zucchini plant will take over.

Let me just put some cream in here, and you can do it with or without cream, but just cream kind of mellows it out.

Let's lower this down.

I am still with you, ladies.

I want to see all those pictures.

Let me put the string beans in there, the asparagus in there.

You know, because it's all a question of timing.

I don't want the pasta to overcook.

And I want the vegetables to be cooked.

So, you see, they're cooking right in there with that.

And we'll pull them all together.

So, let this simmer slowly.

Let me get back to these beautiful pictures.

Wow!

The tomatoes, the zucchini.

You had them all over the place, bushels of tomatoes.

You're doing a fantastic job.

Thank you very much for sending me your e-mails.

All of you out there, just keep on sending.

I am going to read and send you back answers.

So, here we are.

This is ready.

Let's mix the pasta a little more.

Just let's give it one boil.

I'm going to put the peas.

So, if you have the fresh peas, you know, you can give them a boil, also.

Or if you have your frozen peas, you just defrost them and put them here in the last few minutes, and you are all set.

Well, let me get a spider, and let's fish it out.

And always, I tell you, leave it a little bit al dente so that you finish cooking it in the sauce.

Let me fish out all the veggies.

Okay, I think I have everything out of here.

And always leave a little pasta water.

You never know when you might need it.

So, always, even if you drain your pasta, save a little bit of the pasta water because you might need it when you are dressing your pasta, just like that.

I'm looking.

There's a little sauce here.

But that will kind of pull together when I put the cheese and shut this off.

Let me bring the plates.

And for Lidia, I'll put some cheese.

More.

You know, when you're tossing pasta, it's always good to kind of pull it up a little bit so that the sauce kind of coats it going down.

Okay.

Now, this looks pretty good.

Put it down and then you twist it just a little bit like that, a little bit more.

Not too much -- you don't want to overdo it.

Okay.

Okay.

And a little bit for Lidia, right here.

So, now we have the sauce.

We have a lot of veggies.

I love my vegetables, and I love it on my pasta.

So, I'm going to put some more vegetables right here on the pasta as I'm serving it.

Just like that.

And, of course, Lidia, she likes her vegetables.

So, here we are.

Mm-hmm!

Bring it to the table now, one.

And here is two.

Let me just do a little assaggio here.

When you twirl your pasta, you don't need a spoon.

If you use a spoon, you give it away that you're not Italian, and everybody wants to be Italian.

Delizioso!

With pasta, certainly some wine, but a nice pitcher of different citrus lemonades with mint and thyme could be a delicious option.

So, I'm going to get back to my pasta while it's hot.

And you promise you're going to make it at home?

Do it.

-Pesto di Fagioli Cannellini.

-Julietta mia.

You know, every time you come to my house, Nonni wants to please you, wants to teach you something.

And I know how much you like the dips that we have at our restaurants.

-Mm-hmm.

-And so, I thought that I'd make you a quick lesson in making a good dip with crudits.

So, put the beans in.

You're going to be doing.

-Okay.

-And, you know, canned beans are good.

Drain them.

And then I pulled out a little pesto.

So, we're going to flavor it with pesto.

You can flavor it with pesto, with olives, with different flavoring.

-Mm-hmm.

-But I know you like your pesto.

-I do.

-So, pick up the pesto and throw in as much as you think.

You know how strong pesto is, okay?

I think that's a -- -Is that good?

-Yeah, I think that's enough.

-I think that's good, too.

-Yeah?

-Yes.

-Okay, let's get this back on.

Would you like a little more pesto?

-Maybe, yeah.

-Go ahead.

Go.

-Do you think that's good?

-That is up to you.

Do you want to taste it?

You know, it's always -- You can -- you can always taste it.

Go ahead.

-Should I get a new spoon?

-Oh, you can just... -My finger?

-Yeah.

You washed it -- right?

-- before you came here.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, that's... -Mmm!

That's good.

-It's good enough like that?

-Yeah.

I like it.

-Okay.

Is it missing a little salt?

-I don't think so.

-Is it missing any oil?

-Maybe a little bit.

-Put the oil in.

Again through here.

How much?

-Maybe a little more.

I think that's probably good.

-Okay.

And you like it nice and smooth, or you like it chunky?

-I'd rather it be smooth.

-Very smooth?

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay.

-I think that looks good.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, I think that looks good.

-Okay, so let's take it off.

-How can I make this at school if I don't have a food processor?

-Well, you have the blender.

You said that.

That will do it.

But you can also mash it with a fork if you really are... -But that wouldn't make it very smooth.

-No, it wouldn't.

You're right.

So, collect it all around, mix it good.

And serve it here.

-Oh, okay.

-So, bring this here, like that.

-I like the color of it.

-You like it?

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, good.

You can help yourself with the spoon, you know.

-Would that be easier?

-I would do it this way, yeah.

That's it.

-Oh, and then go like that?

-Yeah.

Yeah.

Does it work?

You can sort of increase the flavor of this.

You can put some cheese in there if you'd like.

Let's taste it.

Pretty good, huh?

-Mm-hmm.

-And there were canned beans and a little pesto.

Okay, so we're ready.

Beautiful presentation.

Does it need spoon or -- no, I think you can... -No, I think we use... -You can dig in.

I'm going to do a crudit.

Which one are you going to choose?

-I was going to do it, yeah.

-I was going to do an asparagus.

-Oh, yeah, I was gonna say, have to pick something different.

-Okay.

-Mm.

-Mm.

Good, huh?

-It's really good.

-So, there you have it.

It's good, easy, just like that.

Frittata di spinaci, pane, e ricotta.

Of course, frittatas.

We made frittatas all the time.

I'm going to make this a simple frittata with leeks, spinach, and ricotta.

We had goats.

We milked them every morning.

And whatever we didn't eat or grandma sold to the neighbors or gave to the neighbors, we turned into ricotta.

Let's start with oil.

This is a nice 10-inch pan, but you can make it in 12.

Because frittatas, they are so reusable in every sense, you can eat them the day after.

You can eat them at room temperature.

And salt.

I use leek in this, but any form of onions or scallions are also very good.

You know, I give you recipes.

That's a guideline.

But you can turn them into your favorites.

And if you have a nice memory of things that you put in the frittata, then by all means.

Spinach, a few leaves here, a few leaves there because you don't need a big amount, and add it to the leeks.

The interesting part, and I loved it, and one of my jobs was to go and get the eggs out of the chicken coop.

Grandma had this room.

It was actually a little cantina, and she had doors, and she had little kind of stepladders.

And the stepladders for her -- it wasn't a regular stepladder.

It was just one main stick.

And then she had across little boards nailed, and the chickens would go up these little boards into their little nesting ground, which would be a box.

She would kind of layer and make their bed with straw because, you know, she grew wheat.

She saved the straw, and the straw was for the animals.

So, one of my jobs was to help her to change the straw beds for the chickens, but the other one was in the morning, usually, to go and collect the eggs.

So, I had my little basket, and I would go in, and usually the chickens were out.

They get up early in the morning, but some chickens remained in their boxes to lay the egg.

And boy, let me tell you, they gave me a hard time, you know, just kind of looking at me.

"What do you want?"

But I would stick my arm underneath her and go underneath, and she would peck on my arms, but it didn't hurt.

But she would peck at my arm, telling, "Get out of here."

But I would get the egg.

And sometimes there were already two eggs laid in there.

Okay, so here we are.

This is wilted, and let's go to the eggs.

Make sure you put salt, enough pepper.

Okay.

Some milk.

You can put some cream, but milk just loosens it up, especially since we're going to put in the bread.

The bread is going to drink up the liquids.

So, grated Grana.

Cheese is always good.

And this is leftover bread, day two, three-days-old bread.

Soak up the eggs a little bit.

This frittata, we will pour it in.

Make a nice sort of edge underneath, a nice crust.

And just let it form a crust on the bottom.

I have an oven preheated at 375 degrees.

And we'll put it in there and let that finish.

So, kind of decorate it.

The tomatoes just on top, like this.

Mm-hmm.

Some ricotta, just straight ricotta.

You don't have to put anything in it.

Put it kind of in between.

All right.

And I'm going to top it with some grated cheese just to form the crust.

And now I will put it in the oven just like that, 375 degrees.

And this will take about 15, 18 minutes in the oven.

And it's going to be done.

The frittata is done, crusty top, and it's going to be delicious.

Here's another e-mail.

Marilyn writes, "Celia, my six-year-old granddaughter, made a book about the fun things we do together.

You have a page in that book.

It's a drawing of us snuggled up in bed watching you cook, deciding what to cook.

Celia writes on that page, 'Lidia is such an amazing chef.'"

Oh, thank you, Celia.

And, Marilyn, thank you for sending me.

I love being with you two guys.

Let's take a look here.

Oh, she made a drawing.

Beautiful drawings.

Mille grazie!

The frittata is ready.

I let it rest a little bit so that we could cut it properly and serve it, although I like to serve it still warm.

So, just go a little bit around, make sure that it's loose, and then shake it a little bit, and then it will come out, just like that.

That's simple.

And you cut it in half.

A serrated knife is good because you have bread in here.

And let's see, a nice piece like that.

And let's put it right in the plate.

Mm.

And...three.

And, of course, for Lidia.

Now, good things go together.

This is an ideal brunch, so a mimosa could be really a good idea.

And it's time to taste.

Mmm.

So good.

The spinach, ricotta, the tomatoes, the bread, the egg -- it's perfect.

I invite you.

Come and join me.

Certainly plenty of -- I can cut some more.

There's plenty of the liquid flowing.

And, as I say, Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

I bet you wonder, "Lidia, what gets your creative juices going?"

What really excites me and gets my creative juices flowing is the product, whether it's at the market, what I taste.

When I see a product, it talks to me.

It tells me, "You can do this with me.

You can do this."

And my mind begins to explode.

And my function as a chef, as a cook, is really in response to that product, to exalting it, just making it the best that it could be with the simplest approach.

It's not about altering a product, but it's about exalting a perfect product in a perfect season, in a perfect setting.

-Did I tell you what is my favorite song?

-No.

Tell me.

-"Mamma."

-Beautiful song.

[singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] [singing in Italian] -I know -- that song, I love it, and I think anybody that has a mother, that is a mother really relates to that song.

And that's for your, Grandma.

-Thank you.

-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, call 1-800-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.

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...