-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: Tradition to Table."

-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.

-Authentically Italian -- Prosecco DOC.

The Italian sparkling art of living.

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

Some recipes make my memories so tangible that I am transported through time.

This was a traditional Sunday dish for my family when I was growing up.

While the sugar was cooking, we would make the fuzi all together.

As a child, I would go to the local osteria with my grandpa, and he'd treat us to an orange soda.

Let me go back to my childhood.

Just like that.

I have fond memories of my grandmother frying up the dough for these zeppole.

Does this one look like a chicken, or what?

Feed the memories.

Cook to reminisce.

♪♪ ♪♪ In an Italian kitchen, there's always something to do.

Foraging and cleaning mushrooms.

Food is memories.

You know?

It takes you places.

Foraging for mushrooms.

I remember walking miles and miles in the woods.

Also, as small kids, we made zeppole.

So, what are zeppole?

Zeppole is a wonderful dough that grandma would sort of pick up with the spoon, and then she would dip it in the oil and let it fry.

And she would do spoonfuls.

And it was fun.

I remember also Sundays with Grandpa, Nonno Giovanni, and in the next town there was a little osteria.

And we would go along and have fun because we knew that he would buy us a pasareta.

So important -- record those food memories, keep them with you.

They are part of who you are.

They will help you cook, and they will help you remember the beautiful life that you had.

♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations in distance ] ♪♪ I'm ready to go.

Did you get that?

-[ Indistinct conversations ] -Alright.

Set.

Fuzi con sugo di pollo.

Lots of memories.

I want to make it your family-memory go-to.

These are the porcini mushroom -- dried porcini mushrooms.

If you're gonna run an Italian kitchen like Lidia, you got to have these in the cupboard.

But you need to reconstitute them, so here I have some hot chicken stock.

And these are chicken thighs.

I'm taking off some of the fat.

Let's see.

Let me put just some oil in the pan.

We're gonna season with salt.

[ Sizzling ] ♪♪ Okay.

Wash my hands.

♪♪ While that is browning, I have some chopped liver here.

And the liver usually has just a little connecting here.

And all you want to do is just pull out that little connective tissue.

And of course, you want to chop it.

♪♪ Just like that.

So, I have here the porcini mushrooms.

And we want to chop the porcini just like that.

♪♪ Let's turn the chicken around.

And you don't want the chicken to cook now.

You just wanted to caramelize the outside.

Okay.

This looks like it's... [ Chicken sizzling ] ...done.

Mmm.

Olive oil.

And we'll begin with the onions.

[ Onions sizzling ] This is gonna perk away.

It's gonna braise slowly.

You want it to have continuous, even heat.

That's it.

Let's put in bay leaves.

I love my bay leaves.

You know that.

Always count how many you put in so you know how many you're gonna pull out.

Four is enough.

Rosemary -- I'm gonna put in a whole sprig like that.

I'm gonna put in the chicken liver.

And the chicken liver brings a lot of that earthiness to the sauce.

I'm gonna put now the tomato paste.

That's enough.

Mmm.

Now I'm going to add some nice wine.

Regular drinking wine, something that's left over.

And if you're the kind of person that has nothing left over, then open a bottle of wine, but a decent wine.

So, you can see, the sauce is beginning to build.

Let me put in the porcini mushrooms.

So, here is the water that is left from soaking those porcini -- dry porcini.

And we want to use it.

I think you can see here that there's a little sediment.

And I'm gonna leave just that there.

We don't want that.

Now, here I have clove powder.

Clove is a potent spice.

It really delivers a lot of flavor and aroma, and it's a great antioxidant.

Some stock.

Let it come to a boil.

And we'll reintroduce the chicken.

You know, this is the basis of the sauce.

♪♪ Nestle it in.

Let me put some more of the stock.

Check it out.

Let it perk away.

Cover it, 20 minutes to a half an hour, and then we'll add the mushrooms -- the fresh mushrooms.

When I have time, I love checking in and to see what you all are writing in.

And so here I have Amy.

"My mother is Italian but never made her own pasta but I wanted to try.

You gave me the confidence I needed.

Brava!

Brava, Amy.

Oh, that looks good.

This looks like somebody that knows how to make a pasta.

Keep on cooking.

Practice makes perfect, like in everything you do.

♪♪ Let's see what the chicken is doing here.

Mmm.

It's perking away.

Wonderful aroma.

So let's put some mushrooms in there.

What do I have here?

I have oysters, king trumpet.

I have shiitake.

I have champignons.

You know, usually the shiitakes have a tough stem, so I usually take that off.

I have a little paper towel.

Clean it up like that.

If you buy them in the stores now, they're cultivated.

♪♪ The regular champignons.

♪♪ The king trumpet.

Great.

The base usually is a little tough, of these mushrooms, so I'm trying to get them all the same size, but I do like the mushroom shape.

♪♪ Good.

And the oyster mushrooms.

Just cut the stem.

And these, you do just soak in the water, shake it.

I've done that.

And I think, you know -- I'm looking at it -- are they -- if they're too big, you just kind of pull it apart and you make little strands of it.

And we'll put this right in.

You say, "Well, Lidia, this is a lot of mushrooms."

But, you know, mushrooms really reduce.

And they're delicious, especially with pasta.

♪♪ Give it a good mix.

Bring it back to simmering.

Let's cover it.

And another 25 minutes, and it will be ready.

Let's see if there's another e-mail.

Diane -- "I came across this picture of my grandmother, no doubt stirring a pot of sauce and meatballs.

And a picture of the wooden spoon she used and that I now use when I make my tomato sauce and meatballs!"

Oh, how sweet.

That spoon brings your grandma's energy to you.

Brava!

Oh, I love the picture of your grandma.

I hope you picked a lot of other things from her, not just the spoon.

So keep on cooking.

The sauce is ready, so I am shredding the pieces in which I'll put back into the sauce.

This is a sauce you could save.

Once you have shredded it, you don't have to use it all at once.

It keeps very well in the refrigerator for a few days and in the freezer for a few weeks.

Absolutely.

That looks good.

Now, this goes all into the sauce.

♪♪ Let me just make sure this gets all into the sauce.

I am going to add the pasta now.

The fuzi -- they are fresh pasta, so they cook very quickly.

These are large.

But grandma really insisted on them being small and tight.

But you do want that hole in the pasta where the sauce goes in and dresses the pasta.

You know, I always put my pasta in the sauce and sauté it.

This is a lot of sauce.

And I'm gonna just swap, put the pan here.

Okay.

That looks good.

Enough.

Let me add some pasta water.

You know, I tell you, that pasta water is so useful.

[ Sizzling ] And this is perking away, and we are ready.

Let me get some plates where I'm going to serve it.

♪♪ Hmm.

Okay.

I have my cheese.

I have my parsley.

I have some added cheese at the table.

So, here it is.

You can see how it's pliable.

This is ready to go.

And now let's dress the pasta.

♪♪ Take a little bit more of the sauce.

♪♪ And we are ready to serve now.

♪♪ Okay.

So, a little bit of cheese.

♪♪ Oh!

The smells, the looks.

Brings back a lot of memories.

What grandma would do, she would put all this in a big bowl, tureen, nice warm bowl, and bring it to the table, and everybody helped themselves.

Let me serve you, though.

You're the guests at my house, so let me serve you.

♪♪ That's... And I'm going to put just a little bit of the sauce for the last kind of decoration.

Let me put a little bit on this one.

♪♪ And Lidia's.

Mmm-mmm.

♪♪ Oh, of course, let me put a little bit of sauce.

So, let's bring it to the table.

♪♪ One...two.

And I'm going to put a little bit of cheese here, just like that.

So, let me taste it for you.

Mmm.

♪♪ It's amazing, the aroma, the flavor.

Just takes you someplace special.

To me, this is dear to my heart.

These are memories, especially with people that love you, with good food, and food connects it all.

So I'm going to be connected, and I'm going to disconnect with you.

Delizioso!

Pasareta.

Pasareta is orange juice -- fresh orange juice -- and club soda.

On Sundays, those traditions, that my grandfather would walk to the next town and go to the osteria where the men were gathering.

They played bocce or whatever.

We kids would always follow him there because we knew we would get a pasareta, this orange-seltzer drink, made nice and fresh.

Mmm.

What a smell.

Pasareta is as simple as fresh orange juice, just like that.

And of course, if it is blood orange, it's better.

And some sparkling water.

This was the kids' drink.

So, now, of course, it's all about soda.

And I guess this could be a precursor to orange soda.

But we had the real thing.

And then of course, I grew up.

The next step is, not that I invented it, because it's like a bellini.

But it is here.

In a bellini, you would put peach juice, but here I put this fresh blood orange juice.

Some Prosecco DOC, just like that.

Beautiful.

Let me just cut a little decoration here.

Ooh, look at this orange.

♪♪ Now, let me taste.

Let me go back to my childhood, just like that.

♪♪ You know, flavors, aromas take you to a special place that is somehow dear in your heart, in your memory.

And this takes me back to that osteria with grandpa, waiting outside to get the pasareta.

And then, of course, I grew up and things change.

Bellini was in vogue when I was in my prime.

And of course made many "salute" with that combination.

So... Ah.

Yeah, this elevates the situation a little bit, but I love that one just as much.

And from being a child to an adult, the flavor of blood oranges was omnipresent in my enjoyment of drinks.

♪♪ You got to keep your guests happy.

And of course, dessert will do it every time.

I have some milk warming here to make the pastry cream.

Let's get some fresh vanilla beans.

Zeppole di San Giuseppe is delicious.

It's one of my favorite dishes.

So, clear out the bean itself like that.

Let's throw that in there.

Okay.

We're going to let that steep a little bit, get the flavor.

And four egg yolks.

♪♪ Okay.

We got all the egg yolks.

♪♪ Let's add the sugar to this.

♪♪ Okay.

Let's add the cornstarch.

♪♪ And of course you have to make the pastry cream before, because you want to chill it.

Overnight is fine.

But, you know, as long as it's in the refrigerator for three, four hours, it should be fine.

And I'm gonna temper the eggs now.

Tempering is just slowly adding some of the hot milk.

Because if you say, "Okay, put it all together," the eggs would curdle.

You would get frittata -- scrambled eggs.

And slowly you bring the temperature of the eggs up.

Now we will add this to the milk.

Okay.

Moderate heat, not too hot.

You don't want it to curdle on you.

Let me get the vanilla beans.

The shell, actually, of the beans.

Okay.

And you slowly cook it and almost bring it to the boiling point, but not quite boiling.

So the pastry cream is nice and dense.

Let's whisk in some butter -- just two pats of butter -- to give it that kind of smoothness and that shine.

And once it's all well-whisked and shiny, let it come to room temperature.

And once it's at room temperature, pass it through a sieve, then put it in a bowl, cover it tightly with a plastic wrap so it doesn't form a skin, and put it in the refrigerator to chill.

Overnight is best, but three, four hours, it will happen.

Okay, we let this chill, and our zeppoles are next.

Let's see what Deb says.

"We are a small group of friends who have been getting together every Sunday to cook a meal from one of your many cookbooks.

We do feel like part of your family.

We even sing the songs from your shows and miss your mom so much."

So do I.

But she's with us.

"Thank you for sharing your love, food, and family.

You are the best!"

Mamma mia, this glorious e-mail you're sending me, Deb, it really kind of enlightens my heart.

And, yes, we all miss Grandma.

So, let me click here.

I want to see you, ladies.

I want to see what you're up to.

Oh, you have some guys in there, too.

Mmm.

The ossobuco looks good.

Thank you very much.

And that ossobuco looks great.

Brava!

Brava!

The oil is heating.

The pastry cream is cooling.

Let's get to the zeppole.

Simple dough.

Water boiling, some butter.

The oil is protesting.

I guess we got a drop of water into it.

[ Oil popping ] But we won't let that stop us.

But you got to be careful not to get water in hot oil, for sure.

Some sugar.

Pinch of salt.

Let the butter melt.

And then we'll add the flour right in here.

It's important that you get to cook the flour until it pulls off the sides just like that.

♪♪ And we let it chill a bit before we add the eggs.

♪♪ Let's get the eggs ready.

Four eggs.

♪♪ And what's important is to add the eggs slowly, one by one, to this warm dough.

♪♪ Okay.

I'm gonna grate some lemon zest to put in the dough.

It just gives that extra special Italian flavor.

Put that in.

♪♪ And you can slide one egg at a time.

And let the egg incorporate thoroughly in the dough before adding the next egg.

♪♪ Okay.

♪♪ Now we are ready to fry it.

So, a spoonful like this will do.

And just plop it in.

Frying temperature, 360 degrees.

♪♪ ♪♪ Let's check these babies out.

So, we'll keep on frying them like that.

And you want them nice and golden.

You don't want them brown.

Give them time to cook from the inside out.

And they puff into these beautiful zeppoles.

So they become fluffy inside and the dough is cooked.

Because if you have temperature too high, it seals, it doesn't give it a chance to expand and to become the nice zeppole that it should be.

And don't be concerned if it's not exactly the round zeppole that you want.

You know, when we were kids and Grandma was making the zeppole, we had fun because we would look at the zeppole and figure out which animal it looked like, because it had all these kind of pointers.

For us, it was fun.

It's one of my favorite desserts.

So, I will keep on frying them.

I'll let them cool.

Then, we'll stuff them.

We'll have some.

Let's see what people are writing in.

I'm curious.

Michelle -- "What Italian dessert do you suggest I try to make to impress my Italian in-laws?"

You know what's an easy Italian dessert recipe?

Cheesecake.

Good, fresh ricotta.

Drain it.

Some grated orange peel, some sugar, eggs, a little flour just to bind it all.

And you bake it in a springform.

Let it cool.

Don't put it in the refrigerator.

It is best when it is at room temperature.

And your in-laws will be impressed.

Go for it, Michelle.

Dessert is coming, and I've been filling this Zeppole di San Giuseppe.

And you remember how I told you that when we were kids, we had the zeppole, and we would pick the one that looked like an animal.

Now, I have one here.

Now, does this one look like a chicken, or what?

As kids, you had to have a little imagination, but it was lots of fun, besides being delicious.

So, here they are.

They've cooled.

The way to fill them is just gently slice them in half, just like that.

And you see, you have plenty of space to put the cream.

And it's best to fill them when you're ready to eat.

Filling them before, the dough gets wet.

So here we are.

Here I have the pastry cream.

It's easy to fill, with the point and everything.

You put it in a glass, you fold the top over the glass rim.

You put your cream, and then you tighten it and you tie it with the plastic wrap right here.

Okay?

And voilà.

Voilà.

Mmm-mmm.

Okay.

You can close it like this, you know?

But I thought a little bit of chocolate with chopped hazelnut.

You can enhance your Zeppole di San Giuseppe.

San Giuseppe would be very happy to have this zeppole.

Okay.

So, let's close it.

But you can do, you know, if you like something else, you like peanut butter, whatever you'd like you can put in here.

And you make, like, a sandwich, just like that.

Beautiful.

This one is for Lidia.

Right here.

Now, traditionally, the Amarena cherries are put on top of it.

So, a little dab of the cream, so the cherry would kind of nestle in there.

And sometimes, you know, you're piping things and it doesn't want to get off.

Notice, you go down and you cut it off that way.

That way.

Here.

Let's do the Amarena cherries, just like that.

Now, you can put powdered sugar if you want.

I think there's enough sweetness here, there's enough of everything.

The Amarena cherry is the tradition here with the zeppole.

Here we are.

Where's Lidia's?

Now, all of these goodies.

This right here.

It looks beautiful.

It's very nice and easy process.

Not hard.

And really Italian.

Let's see what's happening here.

There you go.

Now, I am going to eat this, and you're gonna watch me.

What can I tell you?

You have to make your own.

Let's take a bite.

Mmm.

♪♪ It is so delicious.

The whole thing, even though it's fried, the whole thing is so light.

Mmm.

So, tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Fill your table with deliciousness like this.

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

[ Speaking Italian ] -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.

-And by... ♪♪ ♪♪