-Buongiorno.

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

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

I'm showing off.

Does this look like a good meal?

So make it.

For me, food is about gathering around the table to enjoy loved ones, share a meal, and make memories.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

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

♪ ♪ -Authentic Italian cured meats.

Paolo Rovagnati -- The true Italian tradition.

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

♪ -Olitalia -- From chef to chef.

-Long, short, twisted, chubby -- you can never have enough pasta.

Juicy, ripe tomatoes create a simple, fresh, classic sauce when tossed with hot rigatoni and mozzarella.

Get ready for the family to ask for seconds.

A combination of asparagus, spinach, parsley, and pistachio make this vibrant green pesto, which I will use to dress up pasta.

It's pasta night.

Let's go and eat.

Never enough pasta.

Pasta is gonna end up on every Italian table a few times a week, at least.

My son-in-law, Corrado, he could eat it every day.

My kids, when they were young, they liked pasta primavera.

And it was good for Mamma because they ate their vegetables.

I had to put in a little bacon, I must say.

And of course, the new generation like their baked pasta.

Ethan loves baked shells.

So pasta -- baked pasta especially -- is a sign of welcoming.

It's a sign of a home well-lived and well-fed, if you will.

Mezze Rigatoni with Raw Tomato Sauce.

No chef can top the flavor of nature and the good freshness in season.

So today I'm going to make pasta salad tossed with beautiful tomatoes, some mozzarella, some pesto.

1, 2, 3.

So I have the water cooking.

I cut already some of the tomatoes.

And what you want to do is that you want to cut small pieces of tomato, not too small, because you want to really feel them, but you do want sort of for them to mingle with the pasta, shall we say.

This is an heirloom tomato.

Do -- Do you need to have an heirloom tomato?

Whatever is beautiful, whatever is in season, you can do plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes.

What's important when you cut tomatoes is that you have a sharp knife.

But if you don't have a sharp knife, a serrated knife will take you a long way without you squashing your tomatoes, if you will.

The tomato's nice and juicy.

Some salt.

♪ Peperoncino.

Just like that.

A little bit of oil.

Just like that.

Okay.

I'm going to toss this.

♪ And I'm going to let this sort of marinate a little bit.

Here, I have some salted water boiling and these are mezze rigatoni.

So here we go.

Let's just... Let's bring it to a boil.

The tomatoes are marinating and we'll get to the pesto next.

Hey, welcome.

And this is the time in my library where I sort of get away from everything and connect with you and answer your questions and see what you're thinking or what you need to know.

Bill from Arizona sent in a picture of his pasta primavera.

He says his wife and him have been watching the show for a while.

And this dish is one he makes very often, viewing my excellent instructions.

Oh, so we cook together, Bill, eh?

Good for you.

Let's check out how your pasta primavera is looking.

Oh, okay.

Well, that looks nice.

You have a nice selection of vegetables.

The portion's a little small, according to me, but, you know, I am delighted that I keep you company in the kitchen.

Bravo!

Bravissimo!

Continue cooking, Bill.

To add even a little more pizzazz, you can put a little pesto in there when you have the spring and the summer and the basil is out.

But it looks great.

Bravo, Bill.

Bravo, bravo!

Okay, so let's move on here.

The questions keep on coming.

Here's a question about making mistakes.

We all make mistakes.

They ask, "How do I tone down a spaghetti sauce with too much crushed red pepper?"

[ Chuckles ] Well, it's difficult.

You know, once the pepper is in -- that's why I say salt, pepper, dressing your salad, always hold off a little bit.

It's always time to add it in.

There's not much that you could do when you have a lot of red pepper except increase the volume of the sauce.

Add more tomatoes.

You know, you think, "Can I add sugar?"

You really can't.

It might buffer it a little bit, but it's a completely different taste.

So making mistakes is quite normal for all of us.

Don't let that stop you from cooking.

Just hold back on those elements until the end, until you taste, and then you can add whatever you feel you are missing.

Let me cut the mozzarella now.

Of course, nice, freshly handmade mozzarella.

All about freshness.

And you can see that this is a mozzarella that, you know, has a nice texture.

It's not that really hard mozzarella.

So, I would, you know, not cut it too small.

Just like that.

And let's throw it in there.

Let's cut.

Okay.

Let me check on the pasta.

Hmm!

It's perfect.

And I'm going to fish it right out and put it right in here.

The fact that it's warm, it's okay because it warms up the tomatoes, melts up a little bit of the mozzarella.

I never rinse my pasta.

You can drain it.

That's okay.

But, do not rinse it because you want that little stickiness to the pasta.

That's where the sauce will adhere.

So let's make a quick pesto.

Garlic.

♪ Basil.

Parsley.

♪ I'm going to put a little bit of salt.

A little bit of peperoncino.

♪ And... let's get going with the oil.

Don't be afraid of the oil because you have no condiment in here and you need to dress all of this up.

Let me just mix.

Let me see how this is.

Mmm!

You could add to this a little grilled chicken or boiled chicken.

You can add other vegetables.

This can just be built on and on.

Let's put the pesto.

Mmm!

This pesto looks good.

Let's give this pasta a mix.

So... Alright.

And now the grated cheese.

And that goes on just before you serve it, the last minute.

A little bit of grated cheese kind of binds the whole thing because there's -- you have a lot of juice on the bottom from the tomatoes.

Alright.

I'm just going to give it a minute to all settle together.

I'm going to clean up and we'll be ready to serve it.

So Aaron's mom sent in this video.

She says he wants to be just like Lidia and host his own cooking show.

Let's take a look.

That's great.

We need new talent.

-So what are you doing?

-It's like, um, I'm watching Lidia, but it's different 'cause I'm cooking.

-Okay.

What are you cooking today?

-I'm cooking a chocolate sandwich.

-Chocolate sandwich?

-Wow.

-I'm doing it on this Zoom.

-[ Laughs ] -You're cooking on a Zoom?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

-So they can copy me.

-Oh, okay.

Who's they?

-Well, they're my friends from kindergarten and -- and...preschool.

-Oh, okay.

-This guy has potential.

Maybe I'll invite him on the show.

Love his attitude.

Love his delivery, as we say in our industry.

Bravo!

Bravo, Aaron!

You are fantastic, huh?

You know, I want to see what you're learning.

Now watch Lidia, and then you make your own video on what you learn from Lidia, and then your viewers can learn from you.

Thank you very much, Aaron.

Keep on sending those videos.

You are great at what you do.

Alright!

This is so delicious.

The freshness of the tomatoes, of the pesto.

Everything is raw and, yet, it seems cooked into a sauce.

Let me plate it now.

We're ready to go to the table.

♪ And you see how juicy it is?

You know, the tomatoes have let their sauce and then it combines with the cheese.

And, as you notice, I just use a little plate to follow me.

And you see?

There's a drop there, so.

And, you know, sometimes people tend to really kind of position food.

I like food just to flow where it might and the plate looks kind of more natural, I think.

A little bit left for Lidia and maybe a little refill.

Let me put a little piece of mozzarella.

Now, let's put some juice here.

♪ Okay.

I am going to, now, officially taste.

And tomato and the sauce.

Mmm!

Deliciously fresh.

I like it.

It's kind of just warm.

The pasta kind of warms everything up.

So, this looks beautiful, nice and fresh.

Here we are.

And, of course, it needs just a little bit of decoration.

I have here some beautiful basil to kind of refresh the flavor of the basil inside And what would I drink with this?

Well, I would drink a lot of things with this, but I think a nice Sangiovese.

I happen to have a glass right here and it has a lot of body, a lot of flavor.

And, here, the freshness of the ingredients are intense and a good glass of Sangiovese will do it right.

So, salute!

♪ Some of my favorite times in the kitchen has been teaching my grandchildren to grow into confident cooks.

And these days, even though they are living on their own, that doesn't mean they stop asking for advice.

Sharing recipes -- Cheddar Frico with Ditalini.

You know how I love to connect with my grandkids, and I love it especially when they have a question for me, a cooking question.

I know they're cooking and I know they're reading, and I'm waiting for a call.

[ Call ringing ] Here it is.

Hi, Miles.

How you doing?

-Hi, Nonni.

I'm good.

How are you?

-Alright.

You need to cook something.

Are you calling me to get some recipes?

What's the story?

-Yeah, I'm calling you because I got some leftovers in my fridge.

I got some cheddar cheese and some cooked ditalini.

And I was wondering what you think I should do with it.

-Oh, that's simple.

That's delicious, too.

Let's make a frico.

You have the cheddar cheese, you toss the cheddar cheese with a little bit of cornmeal.

And if you don't have cornmeal, breadcrumbs.

But shred the cheese.

Shred it, and then that's the outside of the frico.

The inside, take those ditalini.

You have some of my sauce?

-Yes, I do.

I got a whole bunch in my cabinet.

-Alright, good.

Do you have some ham?

-I think I do in the fridge, yeah.

-Okay.

You have some peas, frozen or fresh?

-I don't have any peas.

I can go buy some peas, though.

I don't have any.

-No, forget peas.

Forget it.

-Okay.

-I want you to do something, because you're hungry, I see.

What you have in the fridge.

-Okay.

-So you take the ditalini, you take some of the sauce and you dress the ditalini.

Take some of the ham and dice it up and sauté it in with the ditalini as well.

A little bit of the cheese.

If you have Grana, that's fine.

Otherwise, you can put a little bit of the shredded cheddar right in there, and you heat that up.

Then you take the ditalini and you spoon them in the center, press them down a little with the back of your spoon, and so that it fills kind of the pan.

Don't press too much because the cheese underneath will move.

You want the cheese underneath to form a crust.

Then the remaining cheddar cheese, you use half for the bottom and the rest to have on top.

You cover the whole ditalini and everything in the pan with the remaining shredded cheese.

Now, the underneath cheese should form the crust and should begin to kind of loosen up in the pan.

Then it's time to flip the frico.

-It seems like it's going to be a little bit tricky to flip it, don't you think?

-It is, but just listen carefully.

Get the bottom crust of the cheese nice and crispy, and kind of move the pan around.

When you see that this frico gets loose, then you can flip it if you feel confident and it will land on the other side in the pan like Grandma will do it.

Or you can just slide it on a plate and then put the empty pan on top of the unfinished side and flip the whole thing over, put it back on the fire, and finish the other side.

That's not complicated.

Can you do that?

-I can do that.

It sounds delicious and simple.

-Oh, it's simple.

It's delicious.

You can make, you know, if you have a big pan, one and cut it in half, or you can make smaller ones, individuals, for each one of your friends, but, you know, let them eat it while it's hot.

Don't -- Don't let it hang around too much.

It's nice when it's hot.

The cheese is crumbly and crunchy, and inside it's oozy, and it's good.

You know, it's like a good Italian version of a crispy mac and cheese.

How do you like that?

-That sounds delicious.

Sounds like something I got to try.

-Alright.

So do you want to let go of me and go right away and make it?

Because I know you're hungry.

-Sounds good.

Sounds like a plan.

-Yeah?

Are you going to have it with somebody else or are you just by yourself?

-I'll probably cook it for my floor.

-Your floor?

There's a lot of people there.

-Yeah, there's five of us.

-Okay, so maybe you make the bigger one and you cut it up, half each.

Otherwise, you'll be there cooking for everybody.

By the time you get to eat, you're going to be starved.

-Yeah.

Won't be starving.

-[ Chuckles ] Enjoy.

Say hello to all the guys.

-They're all waking up right now, so... -They're all waking up, huh?

Say hello to them and tell them I'm coming up there again.

We'll have another meal all together.

-Alright.

Sounds good.

-Love you.

-Love you, Nonni.

-Ciao, ciao.

-Ciao.

-Cavatappi with Asparagus & Spinach Pesto.

Pasta, pasta, pasta.

I can cook pasta every day of the week.

We're going to do cavatappi.

You see it?

And it looks just like a corkscrew, just like that.

So, right in.

Salted water boiling.

I always tell you, just salt the water enough, no oil, because if you put oil, then the sauce doesn't adhere to the pasta.

So let's go and clean the asparagus.

Asparagus -- I have some ready.

Just bend it and see where it tells you to crack it.

Just peel a little bit, especially if they look tough.

These look young.

And we are going to cut it in pieces.

And then what we'll do, we will add it to the pasta cooking water and finish cooking with that and make the pesto in between, and we'll be done.

So here we are.

The asparagus are ready.

Let's start the pesto.

And, you know, one of these is perfect to make a pesto.

Garlic.

Yes, always a little bit of garlic.

Toasted pistachio.

Don't forget to toast your nuts before you use it in a pesto.

We'll put parsley in there.

And then spinach.

And, you know, you always are used to leafy spinach sautéed and all that.

Here, I'll make a pesto with it.

And that goes to tell you you can make pesto, you know, with all different kinds of verdure.

Put some salt.

Some peperoncino.

And...let's get pesto going.

[ Food processor whirring ] Oil.

Let me just check it out.

The oil is the only dressing for the pasta, so don't be skimpy on the olive oil.

Maybe another whirl and some more oil.

[ Food processor whirring ] [ Whirring stops ] Okay.

So the pasta is cooking away.

And, at this point, I will throw in the asparagus and let it cook together.

They're cooking together.

And you can see the asparagus.

A few more minutes.

So let's clean up, and we're going to be ready to serve the pasta.

Here is a video from Rose.

Let's see what she says.

-Hi, Lidia.

My name is Rose.

Does adding olive oil to boiling pasta water help the pasta not stick while it's cooking?

What's your technique?

And as Lidia always says, tutti a tavola a mangiare!

-[ Chuckles ] Brava, Rose.

Very nice.

But absolutely, in my shows, I repeatedly say no oil in the pasta water when cooking the pasta.

It's not that it doesn't help the pasta to stick.

It hinders the sauce to stick to the pasta when you're tossing it with the sauce.

And I even tell you not to rinse the pasta because you're taking away that little bit of stickiness that's on the pasta, where our sauce adheres to.

You know the saying, "When you throw the pasta to the wall and it sticks, it's done."

That's the idea, you know.

You need a little stickiness so that the sauce is good.

So, Rose, thank you very much for your video and your question.

No oil in the pasta cooking water.

Okay, Rose?

Keep on watching.

This has been a good discussion between you and I.

Good questions.

Keep them coming.

I love hearing from you, and I'm waiting for more.

Till next time.

Ciao.

Oh, the pasta is done, the asparagus are just right, the pesto's here, so straight in the bowl.

You know, I always tell you, do not rinse your pasta.

You can drain it.

This spider here -- inexpensive but so efficient in the kitchen, especially when cooking pasta.

Mmm.

Okay.

We have the pesto on the bottom.

Slowly, let's go all around.

Mmm-mmm.

Oh, you should smell the aroma here.

Even the bees are coming around.

They know what's good.

Okay.

So, I'm looking.

This is flowing pretty well.

The pesto is enough.

The pasta, I just picked it up.

I didn't drain it completely so it has a little bit of water in there.

Mmm.

You should smell the aroma.

I am going to use Pecorino, and Pecorino is 100% sheep's milk.

[ Sniffs ] Mmm.

It's a very pronounced flavor.

You know, grating fresh cheese is the best.

And you know how I like to plate my food.

I just let the food speak.

Let it flow.

It's beautiful on its own.

Beautiful to serve.

Che bellezza!

♪ This is a nice mound of cavatappi with asparagus and pesto -- spinach pesto.

And how about Lidia?

A little plate for Lidia.

♪ This is beautiful.

It's ready to serve.

Let's do it.

Che bellezza!

Che bontà!

And I would like to add a little more fresh cheese, like I told you.

So if you put a little bored with pieces of cheese and a grater, and let your guest help themselves.

Okay.

Mmm!

It's fresh.

You can taste the spinach, the crunchiness of the asparagus, the intensity of the Pecorino cheese, and the pistachios.

Underneath it all, it's really, really delicious.

I certainly have enough.

Come.

Come and join me here in my backyard.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

E bere!

And...

Salute!

♪ Pasta is a great solution to a meal.

You can start from the beginning making your sauce, but it's a great venue also to put leftovers in.

You have those vegetables, you put it in a little marinara.

You have some sauce with some meat that you have braised and toss the pasta, a little cheese.

You can add a little peas for freshness.

It's just endless how you can develop a full meal in pasta.

It carries just everything beautifully.

Really.

Never basta pasta.

You never have too much pasta.

-[ Speaking Italian ] -Si!

-[ Speaking Italian ] -Si!

-[ Singing Italian ] ♪ ♪ -The food from this series makes Italian cooking easy for everyone and showcases simple-to-prepare recipes that require fewer steps, fewer ingredients, and less cleanup, without sacrificing flavor.

The recipes can be found in Lidia's latest cookbook, "Lidia's a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl," available for $29.95.

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

And by... ♪ "Lidia's Kitchen" studio provided by Clarke, New England's official Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.

♪ ♪