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. For over 140 years, Auricchio traditional handcrafted provolone. Made in Italy. Rovagnati Gran Biscotto, a true Italian ham. Crudo o cotto? Gran Biscotto. And by...

LIDIA

The international and vibrant culture of Trieste filled me with excitement. Even though we escaped Communist Yugoslavia and seeked refuge in Trieste, we had a home -- Zia Nina. Zia Nina took me in, literally took me under her apron, and taught me some of the best dishes that I know and still cook today -- Trieste's international flavors. With a hunk of bread to dip in the sauce, this is my favorite way to eat mussels. This dessert, made with light sweetened cream is a delicacy, and the taste of coffee transports me back to Trieste. Istria had become Communist. Tito won the war, and Istria was given to the newly formed Communist Yugoslavia. In 1956, my parents decided it was time to leave, and we literally escaped back into Italy into Trieste. Trieste, we had great-aunt Nina, my grandfather's sister. She was a great cook, and she took me under her wing. Trieste was vibrant, so full of merchandise, colorful. The cars were running. They had a lot of Vespas then, I remember. Trieste has a very international kind of feel. And for me at 12, it was a rebirth, kind of a revival. Mussels Triestina -- This is one of those dishes that just takes me right back to the Adriatic. Nice bowl of steaming mussels Triestina and some bread to mop it up. So, the mussels really take about 10 minutes to cook, so let's do the grill bread. To do a grill bread, or fettunta... Fettunta means "greasy slice." That's all it is. It's just a good country bread. If it's a day-old bread, great way to use it. To get a lot of the garlic flavor, take some garlic, a garlic clove just like that, and you just crush it with a knife. Rubbing this on the bread will impart a lot of flavor without the actual garlic pieces. Let's check. See? It's already acting up. So, let me just turn them around a little bit. So this one, I think, I'm okay with. I don't have to burn it. Yeah, that looks good. Okay. Let's check these. Yeah, I think it's -- it's nice and crusty. So... you take your toasted bread, and you just kind of rub it a little bit with the garlic. And what you want is just a little bit of oil. Just brush it over. So, what you're tasting here is the kind of the essence of the garlic and the freshness of the olive oil. And we have this done. So now let's go to the mussels. Uh, mussels are readily available. They need to be nice and closed. That means that they're alive. To test if they're alive, just have them close up on you. And if you pressure it, it will slowly close, and you can see how it's closing. That means that it's alive, and you want to keep that one. So look through your mussels and just kind of play with them to see if they're alive before you cook them. A little bit of olive oil. A nice, big pot. Start with the garlic. Let the garlic just get a little bit of color. Let's put onions. Lots of onions. That's part of the fun -- the sweetness of the onions. Bay leaves. Fresh bay leaves are the best.

Sizzling

LIDIA

And I'm gonna put just a little bit of salt and a little bit of peperoncino to season the onions. Mussels grow attached to rocks, and those are the best. They also attach themselves to wooden poles in the water or ropes for the boats, the ropes that are set in the ports. So we used to go with our little pail, and all you need is just a little knife, paring knife or whatever. You just get them out and put them in your little bucket, and then we would bring them home, and that was dinner. And usually the mussels -- Now you get them pretty clean. They have a little beard on the side, so you take your paring knife and you scrape that beard away and just wash them thoroughly. Okay. Let's throw all of the mussels in. And I want to add some wine. Parsley. And scallions. And not just the white part. Just go all the way up into the green part, as well. You know, I'm looking at this. Maybe I'd like a little bit more peperoncino. A little bit more oil. And we'll close it, so, this way, the heat concentrates, and they cook quickly. So, stay by it so it doesn't overcook. Trieste is right on the sea. There were mussels, plenty of mussels there. My Aunt Nina taught how to make mussels alla Triestina. Of course, fresh is the number-one priority in cooking mussels, and then she would slice some onions, some shallots, some garlic, and put some wine and some peperoncino and parsley, and then she would drizzle it all -- a little bit of breadcrumbs on top of it all towards the end so that the breadcrumbs would densen the sauce. What I really did is that I opened the mussel, left the mussel on half of the shell, and then scooped up some of the sauce, and then slurped it all in. Mmm! So, here we are, you know? We're... They're beginning to open up. So, take a look at this beauty here. It's nice and plump, and that's how you want it. But I'm going to put some breadcrumbs now... just to pull it together. Just like that. I think that's plenty. Let me mix. Mmm! Wow. Che profumo! What a -- You know? I can close my eyes, and I know exactly what this dish is. And it just takes me back where I used to have it many times. Let's take out the bay leaves. And let's fish out the mussels. Put them just like that. The best way is to serve them like this, family-style. Sort of just pile them up. I'm just going to take the whole pot and just pour it right on top with the sauce. So here I am. Okay. Some for me. Mmm. And you see they're coming out. They're ready. You want them nice and plump like that. Let's put this on the table like this. Communal table. You know, there's something about clickety-clack of the empty shells going in when you're eating at a table, and usually it's quiet because everybody's into their mussels. Click-clack. Just like that. Let's see.

Shell clacks

LIDIA

Mmm! Sweet. Delicious. Now I'm going to have to -- Just a little piece of fettunta. Dunk it underneath to absorb. See? The bread. Sops it all up. And it's delicious. In Trieste, the big open market was Ponterosso. It was an outside market. The farmers would come, and all the canopies were different colors. But what was amazing for me is that I got to taste and know some products, some foods that I had not tasted before. Ah! Oranges, lemons. Beautiful market, bustling with life. Also, my Aunt Nina, after she finished shopping, she would meet her friends at the caf, at the bar, as they say it in Italian. And she always bought me either a bombolone, which is a doughnut, or something sweet for me. So I was looking forward to that stop. Sharing recipes -- orange and raspberry spritz.

Laptop ringing

LIDIA

Julia's calling me. Let's see what she has to say. Hi, Julia.

Hi. LIDIA

How are you doing, cocca?

JULIA

I'm good. How are you?

LIDIA

All right. You're looking good. What are you up to?

JULIA

I'm making a raspberry orange spritz.

LIDIA

Are you?

JULIA

I learned it from you. I saw you make it with Nonna Mima on the show once.

LIDIA

Oh, I do all kinds of spritzes. You know, for us adults, I do it with Prosecco sometimes. How did you make it?

JULIA

I put some raspberry and orange, and I put some mint in it, too. I just used whatever we had in the house because I wasn't gonna eat it. That's a great way to use overripe fruit. You can do it with peaches. You can do it with any fruit that you have. The club soda makes it into a flavorful soda drink. What is your favorite thing to make? I like baking. Once, I made a really good carrot cake.

LIDIA

Yes, you're a good cook. When you go to your friend's house, what kind of food you are excited about?

JULIA

I like going when they have a super-strong, like, culture and they're always making, like, food from where they're from. So I get a range of, like, Greek food and Chinese food,

and it's really good. LIDIA

So this is nice. You get to know each other not only as friends, but as families and the culture behind. And that's what makes America. And it's very important that we get to know -- parents, grandparents -- that we get to know the friends of our grandchildren. Thank you, Julia. And enjoy your friends. And I'm coming over for the spritz.

Okay. LIDIA

Right?

Bye. LIDIA

Bye, cocca. I love you. She is great. She's just wonderful. She's beautiful, humble, and loves to get in the kitchen. And I love that. If I can connect Trieste to a smell, it's coffee. Trieste was a porto franco, a free port, and hence goods can enter without any dogana, any duty. And coffee made its entrance into Europe through Trieste and, of course, left its mark on Trieste. And there's a caf every corner in Trieste, and the aroma of coffee wafts through the streets as you go, especially in the morning as I went shopping with Zia Nina. Coffee panna cotta. Panna cotta, dessert time. One of those quintessential Italian desserts. You can make it in any flavor. And do you know in our house who really loves dessert? You're right -- Grandma.

That's me. LIDIA

She's here. So you like panna cotta, don't you?

ERMINIA

One of the best, yeah. Easy to digest, easy to swallow, easy to everything.

LIDIA

Uh-huh. Today, I'm gonna make it coffee flavor. Is that okay with you?

ERMINIA

Okay, perfectly all right.

LIDIA

Okay, she's happy. We're going ahead. So let me teach you. It's very simple how to make. "Panna cotta" -- "Panna" is cream, "cotta" is cooked. And you begin with just some milk and some gelatin in the milk. With just a low temperature, you want that to dissolve itself. In the meantime, here we have the cream, and, again, you don't want anything to boil because when you boil milk or cream, it changes the flavor, oddly enough. So you just want to bring it up. You want the creamy milky flavor. In the cream, you put some sugar. Did you know all that, Grandma?

ERMINIA

You're more smart than me. I don't know how to cook no more.

LIDIA

But you know how to eat, that's for sure.

ERMINIA

Oh,

that's it. LIDIA

So coffee. Some instant coffee here. A little of sambuca. You like the sambuca?

ERMINIA

Oh, that's it. Give me a little zing.

LIDIA

Yeah. And a little bit of vanilla. Oh, okay. So let's mix this. So this is the cream with the coffee flavor with sugar. It's like a good caff latte. So tell me, Grandma, when you were young, what were desserts -- the desserts that your mother made for you?

ERMINIA

We was not, I tell you, very rich. But she used to do a lot of palatschinke or crepes suzette,

how you call it in French. LIDIA

Uh-huh.

ERMINIA

Because she have flour at home, eggs from the chicken at home. She have almost everything in the house. And for her, it was that an inexpensive cake for the family.

LIDIA

And we still make them today at home. Not only the grandkids -- Your great-grandkids love them. And when they come over, "Nonna, can you make some palatschinke? Can you make some --" We call them actually omelet. "Can you make some omelet?"

ERMINIA

Do you want me to tell you something that happened to me? One day came a young boy from Ireland to visit us, and I was making palatschinke or omelet, how you come on to call. He came, and he said what I'm doing. I said to him, "Some kind of sweet my children like." He said, "May I taste one?" I said, "Sure. Sit down." The most that I can eat in my life is four of them. Do you know how many he ate? Seven.

Seven. ERMINIA

Seven.

LIDIA

Did that make you happy?

ERMINIA

Very, very happy. He never forgot. He kissed me and hugged me. He was so happy. He said that he would be back.

LIDIA

So let me shut off the cream. I don't want it to boil The milk, as well. The gelatin has dissolved. Let's just mix it in. Okay. And you see, Grandma, that's as simple as it gets. We have the base for panna cotta done. Okay. And since I know that you are curious and you like to taste everything, here, before I put it to chill. Sweet enough?

ERMINIA

Give me more.

LIDIA

Well, I got to chill it. Some salt just to offset it. And here are the ramekins, and we'll just put them in. You can make it a day, two, or three in advance. You keep in the refrigerator, it solidifies, and then when your guests come, you just pull it out and unmold it, and, voil.

ERMINIA

Thank God I have you. You try to satisfy all my desire. That's beautiful.

Thank God you had me. ERMINIA

Okay.

LIDIA

Because I wouldn't be here otherwise.

ERMINIA

You look like a teacher.

LIDIA

You are a teacher.

I learned from you. ERMINIA

I was a teacher, but to write and to read and not how to do the cake. I remember you started to cook when you was 12, and every night

when I came from work at 12

00, I have one different cake, and I said, "Where do you learn to do every day different cake?" You said to me, "It's everything on the box. I read."

LIDIA

She's right. She's right. When we first came to the United States, I discovered -- Since she was working late, I was in charge of dinner, and I discovered this premix cake boxes. I thought I discovered the world. All you had to do is open the box, put an egg, maybe some milk or butter, put it in the oven, and voil. And so every night, we had a different, whether it was chocolate devil cake, whether it was lemon cake. Every night we had a different.

You are right. ERMINIA

Yeah. That's it.

I didn't forgot. LIDIA

This is the panna cotta. You put it in the refrigerator, In about two, three hours, it should be solid, but I think overnight is best.

ERMINIA

I put my note -- Save two for me.

LIDIA

Two? Yeah, you can have two.

ERMINIA

That's it. For sure.

LIDIA

I have two reserved already. The rest are for you and me. So, Grandma, do you have any specific...

Conversing in Italian

LIDIA

You can see the day from the sunrise by the morning.

ERMINIA

And then I saw that you will be a good cook, a good mother, and a good friend.

LIDIA

So after all these years, so how's my cooking now?

ERMINIA

You have to be born to be somebody. Do what you like, and you will be happy.

LIDIA

You have to be happy in what you do.

ERMINIA

If you don't like what you do, you better change right away.

LIDIA

That's your advice?

ERMINIA

Yeah.

LIDIA

Absolutely. You can be good if you love something and if you do it with passion. Good. All right, Grandma. Alla salute. Nostra...

ERMINIA

La nostra famiglia.

LIDIA

Altro 100 anni? Another 100?

ERMINIA

Why not?

LIDIA

So, Grandma, dessert is here.

Conversing in Italian

Speaking Italian

LIDIA

Okay. Restare a bocca asciutta means that you're kind of left there standing with a dry mouth. But I told her that's not her case today. She has her dessert.

ERMINIA

Ricordati, ho chiesto due. Remember, I ask you for two.

LIDIA

We'll see how you behave. All right.

ERMINIA

Perfetto. Perfetto.

LIDIA

Is it perfect for you?

ERMINIA

Yeah.

LIDIA

Here, while I'm doing that, because you're impatient, clean it up.

ERMINIA

I surely will.

LIDIA

She likes to clean up the pots and pans.

ERMINIA

Leccata padella...

LIDIA

Mmm! Sometimes people are flustered when they have to do a dinner, you know, and, of course, they want dessert. So the best thing is to prepare a dessert in advance, put it all together, and refrigerate it, like panna cotta, like a semifreddo, or like a tart baked, and worry about the rest of the meal. Let the dessert just come together at the very end. Now, Grandma, I have whipped cream. I have chocolate. I have a caramello. I have mandorle. What would you like on yours?

ERMINIA

I want to taste everything. I'm so greedy today.

LIDIA

Let's put whipped cream.

ERMINIA

Oh, Madonna. Que buono.

LIDIA

One like this. And let's put a little chocolate on one.

ERMINIA

Oh! Look nice.

LIDIA

And the other one, we'll do with caramello. Mmm!

ERMINIA

Bellissimo.

LIDIA

Bello, huh? Want to put the mandorle? You want almonds?

ERMINIA

Just a drop.

LIDIA

Like this few?

ERMINIA

That's it. Plenty.

LIDIA

Okay. And just like that.

ERMINIA

Yeah.

LIDIA

And since sambuca is in the dessert, we'll have sambuca.

ERMINIA

Oh. I'll get sambuca.

LIDIA

Fare un cin-cin prima. Salute.

BOTH

Salute! Cin-cin!

LIDIA

Mmm! Que buono, the licorice.

ERMINIA

Let me taste.

LIDIA

That's good.

ERMINIA

Nice and sweet. Mmm! Good.

LIDIA

Sweet, strong -- all the things you like, Grandma. And so this is your panna cotta, and I'll have this. And then maybe we'll switch them.

ERMINIA

If I don't eat everything before than you.

LIDIA

Okay, okay. Yeah.

ERMINIA

I like you taste. Go ahead. Taste.

LIDIA

Okay,

I'll taste. ERMINIA

I like you taste.

LIDIA

I'll taste yours.

ERMINIA

You want me to taste yours?

LIDIA

Sure.

ERMINIA

Mmm! It's good,

too. LIDIA

Mmm! This is just delicious, nice and light.

ERMINIA

I have no time to talk to you.

LIDIA

Okay. Let me talk to them at least. The question is not to put too much gelatin. You don't want it really, really tough. You want it smooth. And that's all. And then you invert it, and you can top it with anything you like. If you make it a vanilla, you can put raspberries or strawberries or whatever. But this is delicious. And, Grandma, I know you're into it very much, but we have to invite them. That's polite. What do we say to them?

ERMINIA

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

LIDIA

You heard the lady.

Speaking Italian

ERMINIA

Mi prendo due, due.

LIDIA

She said, "Tutti a tavola a mangiare, but I'm not leaving you these two. These are mine." So do come. Tutti a tavola a mangiare! With Zia Nina, I began to cook in a different way. She had a unique way of combining spices and aromas. In Trieste, there's a lot of spices used, and that is because Trieste was under La Serenissima, the Venetian city-state, and for 700 years dealt in the spice trade. Whereas most of Italy uses peperoncino, that whole northern area uses a lot of black pepper. We use cloves in our sauces, cinnamon in our desserts and some sauces, nutmeg in our stuffings. And this is all I learned from Aunt Nina. She would use all these spices that were not indigenous, but unique to that sort of cuisine almost of the Renaissance, if you will, of the coming of the spice age. Mussels Triestina. Coffee panna cotta.

ANNOUNCER

The food from this series is all about reflecting and reconnecting. The recipes can be found in Lidia's latest cookbooks, "Felidia: Recipes From 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. Follow Lidia on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @LidiaBastianich.

LIDIA

I'll drink to that.

ERMINIA

Me too.

LIDIA

Ethan. What are you looking for, something to eat? You're next.

Speaking indistinctly

LIDIA

The camera's in front of her. She comes alive.

OLIVIA

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 them together. Okay?

It's a deal. JULIA

Yeah.

LIDIA

Ready?

MAN

You feel that energy.

LIDIA

Come and join us. So I'm going to 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.