LIDIA: Buongiorno.

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

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

So what does that mean?

You got to cook it yourselves.

For me, food is about delicious flavors... Che bellezza!

...comforting memories, and most of all, family.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

ANNOUNCER: Funding provided by... ANNOUNCER: 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.

ANNOUNCER: Authentic and original -- Amarena Fabbri.

A taste of Italy for brunch with family and friends.

Amarena Fabbri -- the original wild cherries in syrup.

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

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

ANNOUNCER: Olitalia, "From chef to chef."

ANNOUNCER: And by... LIDIA: Bread is the pillar of the Italian cuisine.

Beans are, too, in many of the regions.

Some are even called mangia fagioli.

Bread serves up the flavor two ways, one fresh with tomato and ricotta, the other warm with smothered kale and melty Fontina cheese.

Both are delicious.

Make your life easier with this quick and easy stew that packs flavors with little effort, starring monkfish and canned cannellini beans.

What's better than bread and beans?

Tell me.

Bread is extremely important to us Italians, and everybody had a plot of land.

They grew most likely their grain and developed their flour.

I know my grandma and grandpa milled our grain.

And I remember going with Grandma to the mill to mill the flour for the use for the next two months.

And, of course, then the making of the bread with Grandma.

And the baking of the bread also was a communal experience.

There were two communal ovens, and there were days, two days a week, where they were lit.

You had to bring your own wood and wait in line for your turn to come.

So all the women would knead the bread, wait for the bread to rise, and then, on a board, would bring it right to this oven.

And in the oven they went.

And they waited there while it baked.

When it was finished, bring it back home on the same board, this hot, warm bread.

And there's nothing better than the aroma of a freshly-baked bread.

So bread was the basis, but we were taught to respect it very much.

Even a small piece of bread, if we dropped or anything, we had to kiss it and eat it, or we would give it to the animals.

The chicken would get it before we get to it.

So bread was extremely important.

And even though they go and buy bread today, the respect for bread is always there in Italy.

I'm in my garden.

Beautiful.

Doing some crostini.

Crostini are easy and a great way to sort of entertain when you have people coming and visiting.

Crostini needs toasted bread -- a nice country bread.

And you go right into a pan like that.

And this is -- How do you weigh down your bread So it really makes full contact with the pan and gets nice and brown?

With another pan, a little smaller, just on top of itself.

A little bit of oil.

I toasted it on one side, and let's get the other side going now.

In the meantime, I am going to make a topping for one crostini, and that's going to be with bacon.

Let me just cut it in small lardoons, if you will.

So could you do it with that bacon if you're doing bacon?

Absolutely.

Just keep in mind that we're finishing off with cheese, with Fontina cheese and with ricotta cheese.

So just a drop of oil to get things going.

Okay.

And kale, onions, and bacon.

That sounds pretty good, and it's easy.

Again, you know, you can use other greens.

You can use escarole, you can use broccoli di rabe, you can use spinach, you can use everything.

Kale, it's great.

It's, you know, very nutritious for you.

Pull it right off the stem just like that.

And voilà!

♪ Shred it.

And, you know, you can do this just as a vegetable.

Okay.

You can do it just with oil and garlic and smother it.

So, the bacon is nice and caramelized.

Let's remove some of the fat.

We'll leave just a little bit because we have to cook the kale, the onion.

So let me throw in the onion.

♪ Let that get wilted.

And so, now let's throw in the kale.

Okay.

Okay.

♪ I will season it a little bit with salt.

Now, the bacon has some salt, so keep that in mind.

A little peperoncino.

We want a little bit of spiciness.

Okay.

And just a little bit of water to begin to wilt this.

I am going to cover it so it can raise the temperature so it cooks quicker.

So, the next crostini we have is as simple as it gets.

And especially in the summertime, when you have the ripe cherry tomatoes, the cranberry tomatoes, whatever you have that's nice.

Cut it in quarters because I want it to stay on the crostino itself.

Just like that.

Here we go.

And I'm going to add to that some capers, and it's delicious.

It has kind of that almond-y flavor, so it's great with seafood, and it's great on crostini because it brings you that extra dimension.

Tomatoes, capers like that.

So here, let me get some basil.

Okay.

♪ And I don't want to over -- over-chop the basil, either.

♪ Put a little bit of salt.

And oil.

♪ Mmm.

So we're almost ready to assemble our first crostino.

And six of each, and that will be fine.

I kind of like how it looks just like a salad on bread.

And if you feel that these are going to fall off, you can chop them smaller.

I kind of like this look.

And once you let them sort of rest there, they will seep into the bread, the juiciness.

So just take a dollop of ricotta and put it right on top of -- Let's check these, the kale.

Let me just wilt it down, like that.

Lower it a little bit.

So... ♪ Okay.

So this is one crostino.

Let me now finish this other crostino.

And I have here some Fontina cheese which will go on top.

So, in the pan while the bread is almost toasted on the bottom, I'm going to top it with Fontina cheese.

And the Fontina cheese should melt on top, right and the pan.

The heat of the pan will melt the Fontina cheese, and we'll have a great crostino.

Okay.

This is good.

Let me put a cover on so that this, the heat really melts the cheese.

Let me clean up here, and then we'll be ready to plate.

Welcome back to my little library.

This is where we share a lot of my knowledge with your questions.

Here I have Shari and Karen.

We were looking at one of your books, and we found a recipe that we would like to try, but we have a couple questions about it.

The bruschetta with prosciutto and figs, and it looks amazing, but in order to cut down on sugar, we were wondering if we could eliminate the honey from the balsamic reduction.

Additionally, we would like a recommendation to go with it with wine.

Thanks, Lidia.

Thank you.

All right.

The bruschetta is quite easy, the fig bruschetta and prosciutto.

And, yes, absolutely, you can eliminate the honey.

What you would need to do, most likely, is just to cook it a little longer so it gets nice and syrupy.

Honey usually emulsifies things and ties things and makes them viscous.

In this case, just cook it a little longer.

And I think the wine that goes really good with that is the Friulano.

It is light, at the same time complex.

It has an almond finish, and it has a nice acidity and would pair beautifully with this bruschetta.

Have fun, ladies.

Have a good wine to go with that bruschetta.

Okay, great.

All right.

This crostinis are done.

I have some fig leaves.

In Lidia's garden, it's very much like Italy -- the grape trestle and figs.

And my grandmother, whenever she would serve cheese or something, she would have a board.

And if the board was the board that she chopped everything on, she would cover it with fig leaves, like that, or grape leaves, for that matter.

And that looks pretty nice.

So if you have some good leaves in your garden, make it happen.

So here it is.

All right.

Look at this.

Mmm.

♪ Three.

♪ Nestle these in right here, like that.

Mm-hmm.

And maybe this one I'll put right in the middle like that.

And that looks nice.

I'm going to accent on the basil right here.

Now, let's Lidia kind of cut these and taste them.

The kale crostino.

[ Crunches ] Mmm.

Delizioso.

That's pronounced, the bacon and the onions and everything.

And this should be refreshed.

Mmm.

These are two great recipes, easy to make.

Get the Lidia flavor in your house.

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

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

Hi, Ethan.

How are you doing?

I'm good, Nonni.

How are you?

All right.

Well, you need some good nourishment.

Are you cooking anything?

Yeah, we made some garlic bread, like -- like you taught me.

Oh, good, good.

So in the toaster?

Yeah, we put it in the toaster, just some kind of leftover bread, and we rubbed some garlic on it, some oregano.

And then you did one, did I hear, with cheese?

Yeah, one with some shredded provolone.

Used some of your marinara sauce to dip it, and it was a very good snack.

Everyone enjoyed it.

So did you, again, rub it with garlic?

We rubbed it with garlic and an oil and cheese.

It was like cheesy garlic bread.

Nice.

Very nice.

And toasted.

The third one, what one was that?

I heard something about a tomato.

We didn't have any tomatoes up at school, so... Oh, no tomatoes.

How can that be?

Next time you come here, we'll give you a bagful from my garden.

Well, let me tell you how to make it.

You need a ripe tomato, and you cut it across in half.

You toast your bread, garlic, oil, and then when it's still hot, you take this half a tomato, and you rub it into this bread that's been toasted, and the tomato leaves its juices, and it becomes a delicious garlic tomato toast.

It's really good.

It's very simple to do.

You know, there are so many things that you can do with toasted bread, like this garlic bread -- cold cuts, cheese.

You just put it on top with a little bit of oil or fresh pepper, and you got yourself a whole meal.

We always have some cold cuts laying around, so we can throw those on top.

All right, I love you.

I miss you.

Keep me posted, and keep on cooking.

Okay.

Love you.

Love you, too.

Bye, Nonni.

Bye, cocco.

Ciao.

I always feel good when I feel like I give them a piece of information that's going to make them feel better, that's going to nourish them.

That's a grandma for you.

Monkfish brodetto with cannellini beans.

Monkfish is one of my favorite fish.

The tail of it is delicious.

It's almost like make-believe lobster, if you will.

And it's nice and solid.

Usually you can buy the whole tail with the bone in the middle.

It has one central bone.

It doesn't have a lot of the little bones, so it's a good fish to have, even for children.

I'm going to cut it into chunks.

♪ Season it a little bit with the salt.

So, like this now, when it fries and the sort of -- the meat tightens, it will absorb the salt.

Lightly flour it.

And I have here vegetable oil.

When you lay fish in hot oil or, for that matter, meat or whatever, away from you.

[ Sizzling ] And I know that a lot of you have the problem with fish or frying, for that matter, other things, it sticks to the bottom.

Do not touch it anymore.

You have to give it a chance to form the crust.

A plate with a paper towel ready to put the fish.

So, I'm looking.

Yeah.

You see, if you leave it alone, if you give it a chance, it happens.

So I don't need to cook the fish thoroughly because I'm going to braise it with a sauce and cannellini beans.

I just want to give it that crunch.

So I think that the monkfish has a little crust on it.

Okay, so we have the monkfish.

I'm going to close this, let the oil cool.

Just got the oil clean-up, and then we'll make the brodetto.

Arlene wrote in, and she said, "I've noticed when making many of your dishes, you use an enamel cast-iron Dutch oven.

Because I feel like this is an investment in cookware, I wondered if you can recommend the best size."

It is.

It's an expensive cookware.

But if you treat it properly, it will last you forever, and you can cook whatever you want in these vessels, if you will.

You can braise, you can make stock, you can roast.

But I would say a reasonable size for four people is six quarts.

They go by quart size.

So, they have smaller ones.

They have four quarts.

They have eight quarts.

You decide.

So, Arlene, I hope you're having fun choosing your Dutch oven because it's worth it.

You'll get a lot out of it.

So I emptied the vegetable oil, and I'm ready to proceed with the actual brodetto.

Little bit of olive oil.

♪ Onion.

♪ ♪ Let's get the onion in there.

Going to put a little bit of salt.

The salt gets the water out of the onion.

So the thyme.

You grab it by the top, and you kind of just pull the leaves right out of...

There we go.

Okay.

I think that's enough.

I'm looking.

The onion is at the right spot.

Let's put the tomato paste right in there.

And I want to give the tomato paste an extra layer of flavor by caramelizing a little bit.

Okay.

Pinch of peperoncino.

I like my brodetto spicy.

And we will put the monkfish right in now.

So the monkfish is a resilient fish.

It's not like your regular white fish, bass or branzino, and that will break.

It will stay in one piece.

Of course, you cannot abuse it in the mixing, but nice and easy, it will be fine.

Just like that.

This is the thyme.

Flowers and all.

And now I'm going to put vinegar right in there, directly into the bottom of the pan.

Let the vinegar just get a boil.

And, you know, the brodetto is an old fisherman's recipe.

For that matter, a lot of the cultures use the idea of putting vinegar, especially the fishermen out at sea, because vinegar is a preservative in the sense that the acidity keeps the food fresher longer.

And now we'll add the water.

Okay.

Let me put some salt.

Let's put beans.

These are canned beans.

You have to put them in to the sauce at the right time because you don't want to overcook them.

So, the brodetto is just about -- Maybe another 10, 15 minutes.

So let me cover it.

Let cook for 10 minutes, and the brodetto will be done, and we will serve it.

Joe sent in a picture of his cioppino.

Wow!

He sent a lot of pictures.

Are you in the business, Joe?

This looks pretty good.

Looks professional.

The cioppino is a wonderful soup, if you will, brodetto, so it looks great.

And look at the scallops.

And you're having some wine.

Wow, that looks pretty good.

The presentation is beautiful.

Fish cakes with lobster.

Looks good.

Very nice.

Very nice.

So, you know, you really impress me when you send in some things, guys.

You're really good out there.

Joe, you keep on cooking, and, you guys, keep on sending in your questions, your messages, your pictures.

Ciao till next time.

A little bit of fresh, chopped parsley, and it's ready to be plated.

♪ A little plate so I don't make a mess.

Now, let me do the other one.

♪ ♪ And Lidia -- where's Lidia's?

Okay, my little plate.

And a little monkfish.

Ah, a little bit more of the peas, I like the beans.

Maybe I'd like a drizzle of oil.

Okay.

Mmm!

And Lidia gets a little bit of oil.

And then I have a little flowering thyme in my garden.

I just couldn't resist putting a little bit of the thyme right into the dish.

Let me taste.

Let's see.

♪ [ Blows ] The beans -- nice and tender, really good.

They absorbed the brodetto and a little bit of the acidity.

It really is delicious.

It's a full meal, and it's a delicious meal.

And, of course, a little vino.

This is beautiful.

And I have some leftover for you.

Oh, yeah.

You can come over.

So, tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Mmm!

♪ Another very important work, shall we say, was to provide and to save the bounty of the summer for the winter to come -- beans, string beans, white cannellini beans.

But if you let them grow and mature, those pots really get filled up with big beans, which are the mature beans, and the pot itself begins to dry, and the plant begins to dry.

And Grandma would let all of this happen.

We would eat our fill of string beans when they were green, and then she would let the whole plant, let it dry in the sun.

And when it was dry, the leaves and all, she would pluck it up like that, shook off the dirt.

She would put a big burlap, and we would sit on little sgabelli, little stools, and we would sit around -- all kids shelled the pods -- and have the beans drop all in one place.

We were kids.

We had fun.

You know, throwing little beans at each other, so on, until Grandma got mad.

Grandma would make this her stash for the whole winter for pasta fagioli and for soups.

And, as expected, Grandma will accompany us to the table with this song.

So, let's go.

[ Erminia singing in Italian ] -ERMINIA: Cin-cin!

-LIDIA: Salute!

Cin-cin!

[ Glasses clink ] ANNOUNCER: 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, call 1-800-PLAY-PBS or visit shop.pbs.org/lidia.

ANNOUNCER: 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.

♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Funding provided by... ANNOUNCER: 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.

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

And by... ANNOUNCER: Authentic Italian cured meats.

Paolo Rovagnati, the true Italian tradition.

ANNOUNCER: 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.

♪ ♪