Promoting authentic Italian food in the US is one of the many accomplishments of restaurateur, best-selling author and TV host Lidia Bastianich. While the world went into quarantine, she kept in touch with her numerous fans and encouraging them to cook new recipes through her YouTube channel.
A recent guest of La Cucina Italiana IG Live event #BUTTALAPASTA, hosted by Editor in Chief Maddalena Fossati, she talked about her special connection with her followers and viewers. “When you offer someone food, it means you want wealth for them, and this is how I communicate. I see many people are longing for that. Some might think they can’t cook, but they can! And maybe I make it easy for them.”
Lidia has been cooking up a storm during quarantine, for her son and daughter Joe and Tanya and their families, and elderly people living in her neighborhood, with the help of her 99-year-old mother who preps the vegetables while sitting in her kitchen table. All her family’s fridges are fully stocked with her soups, from minestrone to chicken brodo, to a variety to sauces. “Cooking is always a joy, it helps pass the time,” she noted.
She has also been busy gardening in her Queens backyard, where she grows anything from radicchio, to tomatoes to basil. For all beginners that have taken an interest in gardening during the quarantine, Lidia, who grew up in a farm, recommends starting with easier items. “You only need a 3 x 4 yards for four tomatoes plants, and some basil and parsley on the corners that will grow all year round,” she explains. “Salads are great too. Garlic and potatoes are harder.”
Lidia Bastianich
She recently had a great harvest of Swiss chards, a favorite of her granddaughter Giulia. She prepared them in a delicious vegetarian dish with potatoes that her own grandmother made for her, and shared the recipe: “Peel the potatoes and put them to boil in abundant water. When they are half done, add previously washed and chopped Swiss chard, with their stems. Finish cooking them together, and drain them. In the same pot, sauté some garlic in olive oil, and when it starts giving an aroma, and the potatoes and Swish chard and mashed them together”.
Sage is another great herb to grow that is perfect for chicken, pork and the popular pasta in bianco, as a simple and delicious sauce that she recommends when using fresh pasta. “Let butter let in melt in a pan, add 2/3 sage leaves and some pasta cooking water,” she suggested. “When the pasta is ready, add it directly and stir it in the sauce, and add freshly ground pepper and grated Grana Padano.”
Lidia Bastianich with her son Joe on MasterChef TV Show Season 4
Maddalena asked about her favorite dish at Felidia, ravioli cacio e pere, made with a filling of pecorino and pears. “I went to learned how to make fresh pasta in Bologna fifteen years ago, in a store called Le Sfogline behind Piazza delle Erbe,” she recounted. “The owner and her daughters made all sort of handmade pasta, the real sfoglia emiliana, the best egg pasta in Italy. The mother made such thin pasta dough that you could read the newspaper through it. One of the daughters prepared an interesting filling with grated pears for her tortelli cacio e pepe, and I loved it. It became a staple in my restaurant and I could never take it off the menu. As I told her I will always give Le Sfogline credit, as I did in my cookbook. The store is still there, ran by the two daughters, as the mother sadly passed away, I highly recommend visiting it when in town.”
Another way to prepare the classic pecorino pear combination? “Risotto cacio e pepe,” she suggested.
While Lidia authored several cookbooks, including an upcoming one on “One Pot Meals” special in 2021, she doesn’t take ownership of the recipes. “All my recipes belong to the Italian culinary patrimony. After 15 years going back, to Italy, I always find new recipes, products, and new ways of doing things”.
Before tuning-off, Lidia revealed what she was preparing for lunch, a minestrone soup with beans, corn and her own garden’s wild fennel, and a classic pasta amatriciana. And now… Tutti a tavola a mangiare!