-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, handcrafted provolone, made in Italy.

♪ -Olitalia -- From chef to chef.

-When you don't know what to cook for dinner, always turn to the Italian staple pasta, pasta, and more pasta.

For easy cleanup, I cooked cauliflower with penne and dressed it all with a green olive pesto.

I like to think of this as a warm pasta salad.

It saves well.

Plus, it's a complete meal with protein, vegetables, and, of course, the pasta to fill you up.

Two bowls of pasta are better than one.

Ever since I can remember, I ate pasta.

In the north of Italy, where I come from, pasta was fresh pasta.

So I recall growing up making pasta with Grandma, with Mother.

You need to knead the pasta, you need to roll the pasta, and then you need to shape the pasta.

So, some of the common shapes in that area were the fusilli garganelli.

Either way -- dialect -- is fusilli garganelli.

It's a dough that you cut in squares, and then you join the two ends.

You pinch them together, leaving a space, basically like a penne.

Then there was the pasadizo, or the maltagliati, which was like a diamond-shaped pasta.

Then there was the tagliatelle, the long thin, and then there was the pappardelle, which were easier to cut.

And then, with all the little left pieces, Grandma would cut them very fine, and that would be for the soup.

And the making of pasta is a tradition indicating a special holiday because it required time.

In Southern Italy mostly, yes, they do a lot of fresh pasta, but what it is really is the dry pasta.

It was made fresh, and it was completely dried.

But it's delicious because dry pasta is only durum wheat, which is a hard wheat, whereas in the north we used regular wheat, which is a softer wheat, meaning less proteins, less gluten.

In the south, the durum wheat grows abundantly and it dries into a good pasta.

So, then all the shapes came, whether it's the rigatoni or it's the fusilli, whether it's the farfalle, whether it's the perciatelli -- There's spaghetti.

So, fresh and dry pasta both have their place, you know?

One, the connotation is fresh pasta is better, but it's not.

It's different.

So, when at home, don't feel guilty if you don't make fresh pasta because dry pasta is just as good.

But if you have time, make some fresh pasta, get the family involved, get your friends involved, whoever's around the house.

Turn that garganelli.

We used to eat a lot all'aperto, in the open, in the garden in the summer, and I just loved it.

This is my garden.

You hear my birds serenading me.

I'm cooking, and we're going to eat right here.

So, pasta.

Everybody loves pasta.

We're going to make some penne, simple penne -- or you can use any pasta that you want -- with a little bit of cauliflower and a pesto sauce.

So, salted water.

When you put the pasta in, you give it one mix so it doesn't stick.

And no oil in the pasta cooking water.

There's been this rumor going around that oil in pasta water is good.

Only in lasagnas.

In large, wide pastas so they don't stick.

But here, you don't want it.

You want nice, clean pasta that sauce will stick to.

And to that, we will add the cauliflower.

It's right in there, cooking it all together.

And just florets, you know, little bite-size.

That's what you want.

I think that's good.

So, cauliflower takes a while, so we'll put it in together.

When the pasta is in there, maybe about 5 minutes, you add the cauliflower just like that.

Cooking the vegetables with the pasta -- it's an old tradition in Italy.

If you put zucchini in there, it takes much less.

If you put string beans, in between.

And then you can dress your pasta any way you want.

So, let's go to the pesto.

Everybody thinks of basil, pine nuts, and garlic.

Well, you don't see any basil, any pine nuts here.

Garlic, yes.

But you can make pesto out of everything that you like, that you have, that's in season.

"Pesto" -- pestare.

You know, to chop.

And that's what this is all about.

So, let's put lots of parsley in this one.

And here I'm going to put some olives, pitted of course.

They'll give a lot of flavors to this pesto.

And here I have walnuts.

You can use any nuts.

How's that?

You can use hazelnuts.

You can use almond.

And of course, pine nuts are for the traditional pesto.

And sometimes garlic takes a while to chop up, so I'm going to crush it and just give it a head start.

Let's put that in there.

And we're going to flavor it now.

Salt, certainly.

The olives have salt.

You know, they're in brine.

They're brined olives.

So I'm always careful.

I always think about, when I add salt, what is salted already in this ingredient list?

Peperoncino, of course.

And so I think we're ready to begin to chop.

I'm going to stop in between if I want to tell you something.

Otherwise, it's very noisy.

We're going to slowly drizzle oil in there to make the pesto happen.

And I'm looking at it.

I like it a little chunky.

♪ So, let me show you a little bit of the pesto.

It looks pretty good -- chunky, nice, green, nuts.

So, I like the pesto like this, chunky, because it'll give character to the pasta.

And you can really process that and make it creamy if that's the way you like it.

Or you can leave it chunky like this.

I'm going to wait for the pasta to cook.

Then we'll just dress it.

And that's how easy this dish is.

Are you amazed?

I'm sure you are.

And it's delicious.

Buongiorno.

Benvenuti to my library.

It's my little special getaway place where I read your e-mails, watch your videos, and I answer all your questions.

Here I have a video now.

Chris sent in a video.

-Hi, Ms. Lidia.

My name is Chris Hernandez.

I would like to know, how do you know when your pasta is ready?

My wife is getting really tired of me throwing spaghetti onto the wall and waiting for it to stick so that I can know that it's ready.

What's your method?

Ciao.

-Oh, Chris, that's great.

I love that.

Yes, the old saying goes [speaking Italian] So, the meaning to that is really to tell you that the pasta, when it's cooked, it has a little sticky side to it that should be left on the pasta because that's where the sauce adheres to.

But I would say, you know, first of all, look at the box.

See how much time they tell you it should need.

So, say around that time.

Secondly, before you reach the time, just pull out a strand or one pasta and taste it.

I like my pasta very al dente.

I don't know how you like your pasta, but if you taste it, you will know.

So, now you have become the guardian of the pasta cooking in there, and you have the duty to taste the pasta and to tell your wife, "It is cooked.

Pull it out.

Drain it."

And you know what?

I hope you painted that wall after you got all the pasta off of it.

Thanks for the question.

♪ So, the pesto is done in a bowl, and we're going to put the pasta right in here.

But I want to show you how nice and chunky and beautiful it looks.

Never mind the tasting.

It looks beautiful.

And this pesto you can use with many other things.

Now, let's say that you're grilling a piece of chicken nice, and sometimes chicken can be a little dry.

This little pesto, just a spoonful on top of it would be good.

You can toss fish with it, sauté scallops.

And pesto you don't cook.

So, whatever you do to whatever you want to do, you cook it first, and then you add the pesto and toss it or on top or whatever you'd like.

Vegetables.

You steam some vegetables.

A spoonful of this pesto gives it a whole new meaning to vegetables.

So, we're all set.

Let's check on our pasta and cauliflower.

Mmm.

Looks good.

Now let's put it in, just like that.

So I want to collect it all, all the cauliflower, all the penne, everything.

I mean, you know, when you cook pasta, you cook for two, for four, whatever.

You measure it right.

But leftover pasta is always reusable.

You can certainly reheat it a little bit.

Okay.

And just toss it.

Toss it well.

Go all around.

Make sure that the pesto comes up and the cauliflower and the pasta is all dressed.

Now let's put some cheese, although I always suggest you put a nice piece of cheese on the table with a grater because as you're grating it, you're releasing the aromas.

And as it's hitting the hot pasta, all the aromas actually goes into the diner's senses.

So, you can see the cauliflower has also broken into the pasta, which is good, which I like.

Now we're ready to serve.

Let's get the plates for you.

♪ That looks good.

And I'm going to use Lidia's plate to accompany my plating so I don't dribble all over the place.

♪ [ Birds chirping ] ♪ You hear my little bird?

How beautiful is this?

Amongst my garden, my flowers, my trestle, the birds singing.

Mmm.

[ Birds chirping ] ♪ A little cheese for me, chunk of cheese, and let me put some cheese on yours, as well.

[ Birds chirping ] A pesto is a pronounced flavor, so you can serve Chardonnay or a Sauvignon or a blend.

This one is Chardonnay, Sauvignon, and Picolit blend.

Picolit is from Friuli, so it brings me back home a little bit.

And it has a nice body.

So, let's dive in here.

♪ Mmm.

Actually quite mellow.

And the cauliflower has really cooked, and it becomes almost creamy.

So, let me taste the wine that I suggest -- because the only way to learn about wine is to keep on tasting them.

That make sense?

♪ Mmm.

Perfect, perfect, perfecto.

It's good.

It's a nice sort of merenda.

Mmm.

Yeah.

♪ Salute!

-Salute!

-It always brings me such joy to connect through food.

My friends are everywhere, from Italy to New York.

We always end up discussing all things delicious.

Buongiorno.

Good morning.

I am taking you to Bologna today to meet two wonderful sisters.

They make the best pasta in the world, I would say.

How's that?

[ Laptop beeping ] So, good morning, Monica.

How are you?

-Good morning, Lidia.

I'm fine.

What about you?

-Good.

Daniela, good morning.

-Good morning, Lidia.

-You guys look good.

I know you're in your shop, Le Sfogline, which is just behind the market, the Mercato delle Erbe, in Bologna.

What are you doing this morning?

-We are going to prepare tortelloni.

My sister has already stretched the dough, as you can see.

-It's like a piece of silk.

What do you have to do to make a dough beautiful like that?

-First, quality of flour, and eggs should be very yellow, and it's a particular kind of egg.

You can find it in Emilia.

The tradition of pasta all'uovo is typical from Emilia.

So we start making the dough with 100 gram of flour, double-zero; and egg.

-And then you work it by hand?

Or can you do it in the machine?

-[ Laughs ] We always make dough of about 20, 25 eggs, and so it's impossible to use hands.

Okay, I'm very strong, as you can see, but it's very hard to mix together so many eggs with about 2 kilos of flour.

-Takes a lot of rolling, huh?

-Yes.

-So, you know, I always learn something when I come to visit with you.

Last time, you were showing me, I think, a tortelloni filling.

Can you tell us a little bit about it?

-Yes, of course.

This is a variation of the typical tortelloni of Bologna.

In Bologna, we use cow ricotta cheese and Parmigiano-Reggiano and parsley.

This is the typical from Bologna, but we decided to take off the parsley.

We want to be seasonal.

To us, lemon zest is springtime to summertime.

-Absolutely.

Can you show me and our viewers how you make a tortelloni?

-Sure.

Of course.

-Yes, of course.

It's a pleasure.

-My sister is cutting the dough to make squares.

And then in the middle, we put the filling, fold, and stick.

And then we have a triangle.

Then put index here, squeeze the belly of the tortelloni.

Wrap the finger.

This is our tortelloni.

-Beautiful.

Bravi, bravi.

Italy has 20 regions, but they call Bologna La Grassa.

And there's nowhere in Italy that you eat as good as supposedly in Bologna.

So your ladies are really carrying on the tradition.

You know, last time I was in your store, I was impressed with all the rolling pins.

-♪ Da-da, da-da, da-da ♪ -They measure.

We start with this one.

-It's like "Star Wars."

And we finish with that.

-You need a lot of strength to roll that.

It makes a wide dough, so you have a lot of tortellini to make.

-See?

-The Americans love to come to Italy.

If they want to visit with you, they should go to Le Sfogline.

I really want to thank you.

It's been great seeing you again, even at such distance.

But I'm coming soon to visit with you.

Okay?

Ciao.

-Ciao.

-Ciao, Lidia.

-[ Speaking Italian ] Ciao, ciao.

They are the best.

Nobody makes pasta like these two ladies.

So listen and watch and learn.

Fusilli with salami and roasted peppers.

Another one of those quick and delicious pastas.

And I know you love those recipes.

You write me all the time -- "Oh, pasta.

Pasta, Lidia.

More pasta."

So here it is.

Here I have a pot of boiling water, salted water.

And I'm gonna put the fusilli.

I like the fusilli, the texture.

It grabs the sauce.

But if you don't have fusilli, I always tell you, you know, use the pasta that you have.

So let's give it a mix.

That's that.

And we're gonna put some string beans right in here to cook with it.

Cut the string beans.

That's it.

You clean them and cut them.

All the string beans, let's put them in... give it a mix, and let this cook.

And now we're going to make the sauce, and we're gonna start with salami.

And when you buy the salami, cut them in thick slices, because I'm gonna make a little lardoons, if you will.

Kind of let's put it this way.

Okay.

If you don't have the Genoa salami, you have another salami that's your favorite, that's okay.

You can put even ham.

[ Bird chirping ] Now, do you hear that bird?

He's determined to be in my show, and I love it.

He's the side music here.

Ah!

[ Bird chirping ] So you really are in my kind of little backyard -- cortile, as we call it in Italian.

All right.

So let's put that in there.

We're gonna combine this sort of sauce, if you will, right in here.

Next, we have canned artichokes in a brine solution.

Could you use the one that's in oil?

Yeah, I think so.

You just keep a mind on how much flavor you're putting in or how much fat you're putting in.

Here, I roasted some peppers, and I chose orange, red because I want this pasta to be colorful.

The peppers are in.

Let's add some provola.

That's going to really add a creaminess to it.

So I'm just cutting.

Oh là là.

These things are really good because they're coated with the wax and they keep for you.

So look for these little cheeses that are all ready and wrapped up for you.

So here I am, cutting the wax off.

Just like that.

Okay.

And let's cut that in small pieces.

Small chunks.

Provola cheese is the same as mozzarella, but it is coated with wax so that it ages, but it doesn't harden.

♪ Okay, so I'm gonna dress it just a little bit with oil.

Toss it.

And this is an uncooked sauce, but I want these ingredients to warm up a little bit.

So while the pasta and the string beans are cooking, I'm gonna put this on top, like that, and that's gonna warm, so let me clean up.

And then we'll come back and eat.

[ Bird chirping ] They keep coming, all of those e-mails.

So here we have an e-mail from Raelyn -- "What is the easiest way to clean bowls, pans, or even silverware that have melted cheese on them?"

Well, melted cheese sometimes can really stick, but you put it in your sink, put some warm water, put some dish detergent, and slowly with a rubber spatula, try to pry it out.

Do not scrape it off with knives or anything sharp.

You might ruin the base of your cooking vessel.

All right, Raelyn, I hope this helps.

Thank you for your question.

So I think the pasta's gonna be done in a minute.

Let's get some parsley chopped.

All right, we're all ready.

Now, let's see what's happening in here.

Here we go.

Let me fish out the pasta and the string beans.

Ah.

Nice and hot.

So these are the kind of pasta dishes when you are coming home late -- "What am I gonna make for dinner?"

You go in your cupboard, and you could put olives in here.

You could put different things in here.

But this is almost like an antipasto pasta.

You like pasta salads.

That's where the pasta is cold.

But here the pasta is warm.

The cheese is kind of beginning to melt, you see, because of the temperature.

[ Bird chirping ] My bird continues to serenade me.

I'm okay with that.

We'll throw a little bit of parsley to give it color and flavor.

And cheese.

[ Chirping continues ] So let's go.

Then eat.

And I'm gonna serve you.

A little plate for Lidia.

That's number one.

And I'm gonna get the plates for you.

Absolutely.

Here we go.

It's your plates.

It's Lidia's plate.

And this looks just delizioso.

I'm gonna use my plate so I don't dribble all over.

Oh, we all love those strands of cheese.

♪ Okay.

And now Lidia's.

All right.

Pasta.

A little salami, a little peppers.

I got everything.

♪ Here you go.

I chose a little bit of Merlot.

I think, you know, the salami and all of the peppers and all that could really stand full-bodied wine.

So let me taste for you.

A little pasta.

A little string beans, a little salami, a little peppers.

Mmm.

It's really good.

It's like an antipasto and pasta course together.

I want to invite you.

I have enough for everybody.

So tutti a tavola a mangiare.

Venite!

♪ Pasta is one of those elements in your cupboard that you should have because it could be prepared in many different ways, different shapes, with different sauces.

The variety of uses for pasta are endless.

You have made braised short ribs the night before.

You have a little sauce and maybe one piece of meat.

That's enough for two or three people for sure with some pasta next to it.

Also, the difference of shapes.

There's always new ones coming out.

Take that in consideration.

How does a pasta play with the sauce?

How does it carry the sauce?

The texture.

How does it have a mouthfeel?

Of course, for Italians, the texture of the pasta, if it's not al dente, we don't want it, almost.

And for those of you that are still not convinced about al dente, there's a nutritional value.

You process it at a slower time.

It provides energy over a longer time rather than a burst all at once.

So don't forget al dente.

It's good for you.

And you eat like a real Italian.

-[ Speaks Italian ] [ Singing in Italian ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Salute.

Cin-cin.

[ Speaks 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.

♪ ♪