-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.

-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.

-It's the Italian way.

Prosecco DOC rosé.

A toast of Italy.

-Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese from Italy -- handcrafted from 100% sheep's milk.

-I treasure my childhood memories.

It's all about food, cooking with Grandma, feeding the animals.

It's those moments that shaped who I am today.

This is maybe more of the contemporary Lidia right here with a little bit of green on top of Grandpa's frittata.

Italians love their greens.

My brother and I love to eat these vegetable fritters.

As kids, we packed them as a sandwich for lunch and off to the beach we went.

These are good memories.

This is one of those dishes that I grew up with.

Firm polenta with bay-leaf flavor, some sautéed vegetables, and then mushrooms of the season.

I make it often these days.

You're in Lidia Flavorland when you're eating this.

Sharing my life, my memories, my flavors brings me such joy.

♪♪ Food takes me to my childhood places.

When I cook food, I enjoy mentally going to a place, a place that's dear to my heart.

Frittatas -- I would run, get the eggs from the chickens.

They could be nasty.

They would peck my hand.

I would push the chicken aside and ultimately get that egg.

Then the summer we would spend with Grandma, help Grandma.

But, of course, we are close to the Adriatic.

We will spend sometimes whole days on the beach and Grandma was kind enough to make a sandwich.

She would make almost a hamburger of vegetables and we would take sandwiches.

And of course, you know, making homemade pasta.

But that was a luxury.

Polenta was much more what we did.

The Tuscans are called mangiafagioli.

We are the Polentone.

Polenta was made nice and fresh, cast-iron black cauldron hanging over the fire.

Whatever was left over, she would put it in a little pan and it would solidify.

And for lunch, or even for the next morning for breakfast, slices were cut.

Polenta in hot milk was breakfast, with a little bit of sugar.

That fried polenta with a little prosciutto or something.

Every single course that we had, polenta could fit that course.

I feel that I am actually blessed the way I grew up.

I try to share that with you.

One would say, "Oh, it's a tough life.

Much easier to get in the refrigerator or go shopping and you get it."

But I think my sensibility to food and who I am as far as understanding food and appreciating how we need to respect our environment so that there will be food for all of us, it helps me really to cook with dedication, love and passion.

Okay, off to the kitchen.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ You ready?

Frittata di prosciutto e cipolla.

Frittata, I think, is the first thing I ever cooked.

I ate an awful lot of them.

We had chickens and that was our source of protein and I still love it.

And one of my grandfather's favorite frittata is what I'm making for you with a little prosciutto and spring onions.

But first, let's make some nice toast.

Garlic toast.

Let's grill the bread first.

This is done.

Take the garlic.

You have garlic and we have oil here.

Crush the garlic just like that.

And now you have the essence of the garlic coming out.

And you rub it on the bread.

You'd be surprised how much of the garlic flavor you will get this way.

And then you brush it while it's still nice and hot with the oil.

This way you get all the flavor of the oil and the garlic natural form, and then the toast.

And it's perfect this way.

♪♪ Okay.

And a little one for Lidia, too.

♪♪ I think I'm going to leave this one right here.

What do you serve with a frittata?

Especially if it's merenda, which is about 10:00 or lunch.

A nice arugula salad.

There was always arugula in the garden.

A little bit of salt.

Fresh pepper.

Yeah, a little bit of oil.

And wine vinegar.

Grandpa always had wine vinegar in the cantina.

He made his own vinegar.

And still to this day, my preference is wine vinegar.

Okay, so the salad is done.

Prosciutto.

Prosciutto is still like the hind leg of the pig, which is cured and dried.

And this is the end, the butt.

These fatty ends would be best for the frittata.

Grandpa loved that.

And you know what?

When you buy prosciutto in Italian deli, the center cut is always more expensive.

Ask them if they have the butt, the last piece.

Sometimes it's even smaller.

It's great to make soups, too.

Let's see how much... And Grandpa kept all the fat in there.

And I like this kind of ribbon pieces.

Some good olive oil.

Okay.

Let's put the prosciutto right in.

Now, this is scallions.

You can find them year-round, and they're great.

Spring onions -- I used to go in the garden, pluck them right out of the earth and bring it in and clean it and make the frittata.

So if you can get these, these are delicious.

Otherwise scallions are just as good.

So don't skip on the frittata if you don't have the spring onions.

And cut the onions just like that.

The green part as well.

You know, what I recall most is really eating seasonal food.

Went to the garden, whatever the gifts of the season were, that's what we ate.

Okay.

And this... you can freeze and you save it for your next pot of stock.

Absolutely.

You're thinking salt, but prosciutto has a lot of salt, so I am okay with that.

And we'll get to the egg part.

Hmm.

Nice fresh eggs.

And, uh... [ Cellphone chimes ] ...I'm getting some messages here.

Let me see.

My grandkids.

They always text me something, and I'm always available for them.

Here's a text from Miles.

"Eggs are the easiest protein to cook up.

I am looking for some ideas for how to cook them up differently than frying and scrambling.

Nonni -- thanks!"

You know, Miles, he has graduated, he's working, and he has his own little apartment, so he is doing some cooking.

That doesn't mean that he doesn't come to Grandma's house and gets his supply of frozen sauces and soups and all of that.

But my dear Miles, this one is your great grandfather's favorite.

Giovanni.

Great grandfather Giovanni.

Nonna Mima's father.

He used to love this.

So why don't you watch and make it at home and let me know how it went?

Send me pictures.

Great.

Love it when they come, they ask me and they cook.

That's the beautiful part.

I remember, my grandmother used to crack the eggs like this and they said, "Lidia, I can't crack it in my hands."

"Why not?"

Cradle it and give it a good whack.

And if you get some shells in there, fish them out.

Alright, a little salt.

Let's give it a good whisk.

Whisk it well.

Mix it well together so you don't have the streaks of the egg white.

This is fine.

Temperature is high.

♪♪ Pull it off from the sides.

I kind of make ribbons out of it.

It brings back memory.

The aroma, you know?

Now, you see, I like it.

He liked it.

We all like it soft like that.

And if you leave it there, it gets cooked more and more.

So let's get quickly to the bread and I have the garlic toast.

Just is beautiful underneath.

For Grandpa's plate.

And then let's do Lidia's plate.

I'm gonna eat it like a bruschetta.

You can put spinach, whatever you'd like in your frittata.

A little espresso.

This was kind of a 10:00 merenda.

So my grandparents got up very early.

5:00, went into the fields because they worked the fields when the sun was low, so it wasn't too hot.

By 10:00, they had their sweat already worked up and they were ready for nourishment, because in Italy the tradition is coffee and maybe a piece of bread and jam.

It's not a big breakfast at that early hour, but come 10:00, it was merenda hour and some caffè.

So... little espresso.

Or you can make a cappuccino or caffè latte.

Caffè e latte.

Latte is milk.

And we have the salad here.

Let me put a little bit for Lidia.

That's that.

And then on the table because Italians love their greens.

Okay.

All set.

What I'm going to do is you could sit down and eat it with a fork.

I'm going to eat like a bruschetta.

Look at this.

Great bruschetta.

So if you have a group at home for brunch, something like this could go well.

You can put tomatoes, you can put anything you like on top.

And now let me taste it.

Delizioso.

And I go right back to that courtyard that many years ago with great memories.

Polpette di verdura.

Oh.

I like looking through my recipes.

And this is the one -- the vegetable polpette.

Polpette is like a meatball, a slider, almost, maybe a little bigger.

It's all vegetables and it's easy to make.

Two small zucchini, one Russet potato.

When you grate the zucchini, make sure that you wring the extra water out.

The same with the potatoes.

Two large beaten eggs, and you fold that into the potatoes and zucchini mixture.

You add the cheeses -- grated Pecorino romano and provola -- toss in the panko bread crumbs, chopped parsley, scallions, lemon zest.

Of course, salt and pepper.

Once you have all the elements mixed in there, let the bread absorb the moisture so that it doesn't fall apart in the frying pan.

And then you make your patties and then pan fry it in vegetable oil, and you just fry them on one side and the other.

And it's always nice to have a little marinara sauce on the side to dunk it in and to eat it.

When we were kids, we would go to the beach, and the beach didn't have all those kiosks of prepared food, fast food.

So we brought our own little lunch and these vegetable polpette were often it.

Nice chunk of bread, some fruit, and we were all set for the whole day at the beach.

When would you serve something like this?

It could be lunch.

It could be butlered hors d'oeuvres if you like.

Kids love it.

I would put it on a platter in the middle of the table.

Usually you would serve something else with this, whether it's a salad or even a piece of meat.

And let this be the vegetable.

Good recipe for your next picnic.

Polenta con Ragu di Funghi e Verdure.

Ever since I can remember, there was polenta on my table.

Up northeast, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Istria, we are known as Polentone.

We eat a lot of polenta, but it is delicious.

And I'm going to get you hooked on polenta.

It's a cornmeal, and there's two different kinds.

You can get a coarser, you can get an instant, and they cook at different times.

The coarse one, like I have here, which I like, takes about 45 minutes.

The instant -- maybe about 20 minutes.

So a pot of water and we salt the water.

Okay.

Oil.

Condiment for the polenta, bay leaves.

And slowly pour in the polenta.

You want the polenta to dissolve completely.

Okay.

So now...this is the base for polenta and we'll let it cook.

The water is getting to the boiling point.

There it is.

And I'm going to lower it a little bit.

It's like a volcano.

If that little polenta plops and comes on your skin, it can really give you a burn.

So you have to be careful.

Now, this one is with mushrooms, all kinds of mushrooms, and some leeks, some form of onion.

I used to go foraging.

There's spring mushrooms, and then there's fall mushrooms.

And I knew the difference.

Even here in the States, in the fall, I go out and forage for mushrooms just because I love it.

It brings me back to a time in my life.

So let's get the mushrooms sautéed.

These are leeks.

You can put onions, you can put shallots.

I washed them well.

The green part as well.

These top -- I freeze them all to be put in soup.

So the mushrooms -- these are oyster mushrooms, different colors.

Any mushrooms that you have are good for this, but even if you have just one kind of mushroom, it is perfectly fine.

And these -- the oyster mushrooms -- you just kind of split them open just like that.

You hear the polenta?

That volcano going?

Let me lower it a little bit.

Okay.

Regular champignons.

And if you can't find anything else, regular champignons are just fine.

Get them in.

Now, you know, mushrooms are made of basically water.

And they do tighten up.

You'll say, "Oh, there's a lot of mushrooms," but you'll see.

Let me season it with salt.

Okay.

And I'm going to put some rosemary.

You just want the leaves of the rosemary.

You don't want the stem.

Rosemary is quite potent.

You don't want too much of it.

This will dress the polenta.

I'm going to put two bay leaves in here, too.

Oh, and a little bit of chicken stock or vegetable stock.

But otherwise water is fine.

Okay.

Let's check on the polenta.

It's perking away.

It's thickening.

This will take another 20 minutes.

At that time, this will be done.

And I'll get the escarole going.

And we'll have a great meal.

Meal that I remember from my childhood.

Connecting with you guys is great.

It gives me a break.

It takes me into the realm of out there where you all are.

I love to reach out to you.

So, Kim -- "My dearly missed father-in-law had a similar journey to what you experienced coming to America.

I hear so much of him in your accent, your cooking and your experiences that you speak about, and I love watching your show.

I have tears right now just sending this letter."

Oh, don't cry.

"Have you ever made/eaten jota?"

I grew up on jota.

It's Tanya's favorite.

Uh, it's my brother's favorite.

It is a traditional soup.

And what it is, is pasta fagioli.

We all know pasta and beans.

Jota does not get any pasta.

Has the same base, but we put sauerkraut in it.

My grandmother fermented cabbage.

It went into the base of the pasta fagioli and it turned into jota.

I love it.

It's basically a winter sort of soup.

It's delicious.

And I'm so happy, Kim, that that's part of your background and that you feel so connected to it.

And keep on writing to Lidia.

The polenta is done.

Nice and dense just the way I like it.

The mushrooms are done.

Let's start with the escarole and whatever vegetable you have.

You have broccoli rabe, regular broccoli, you can substitute it all.

Let's put some oil in here.

The escarole, the whole leaves, I like it.

Don't cut it.

Just get all the garlic out of here.

♪♪ We'll get that going.

So you wash the escarole and leave a little bit of water.

And the garlic -- you don't want it brown.

You just want it golden.

And this is the time you put the escarole right in there.

♪♪ Some salt.

♪♪ And this is verdure trascinate -- dragged vegetables in a pan.

As simple as that.

And you can make any green vegetable, leafy or broccoli or whatever, this way.

You can put a little peperoncino.

I didn't put it because polenta and peperoncino are not in the same realm of the Italian culinary scheme, but vegetables like these are great, and you can make any of the vegetables for this dish.

Now, let me pick out the bay leaves from the mushrooms.

Uno, due.

And I put two in the polenta.

So it's always a good thing to remember how many you put in so you know how many you're going to pull out.

So let's check on the escarole.

Almost there.

You see how wonderful it looks?

Okay, now, while I have a few minutes, I don't want to waste your time.

I always want to give you a piece of information.

And it's from Tania.

Oh, like my daughter.

But it's not my daughter.

Spelled differently.

So the e-mail says, "My Nonna used to cook dishes that I continue to make for my family because of the memories attached to them.

My favourite -- bolognese and crostoli.

What are yours?

Do you think you choose what you cook because of the memories or because you actually want to eat it?!"

Oh, Tania, I have many recipes that bring me back.

Of course these that I'm cooking today, but also a nice pasta fagioli, gnocchi, fuzi, guazzetto.

I cook the recipes that I remember because they're just part of who I am.

It's my flavors.

Now let's go to check this out.

Okay.

This is good.

I want it to dry a little bit, so I'm going to uncover it and let the water evaporate.

Now let's check on the mushrooms.

The mushrooms are perfect and...the polenta is ready to go.

So now I'm going to serve it to you.

You could serve it in a platter, in a bowl or whatever, but I'm going to do what my grandmother did.

We had this big wooden board, and on the board it went.

That's the polenta.

Now, you can just put a little butter just like that, or you can mix it right in.

Okay.

This will melt right in there and it'll be delicious.

Cheese.

Grated cheese.

Again you can mix it in or just add it on like that.

This looks good already.

Sometimes polenta was eaten just like this.

Butter and cheese.

You know what's very good?

Gorgonzola cheese and polenta.

Let the gorgonzola melt on top.

Let's go to the vegetables.

And where?

Listen.

How about -- How about Lidia?

I don't want to forget Lidia here.

Should I sneak a little polenta?

Yes, I will sneak a little polenta.

And here we go.

Ahh!

Now... ♪♪ ♪♪ Now you can see that you can do this just with the vegetables.

Oh, that's the butter running away.

Okay.

Or you can do it just with mushrooms.

Or you can do it here, combine like I am doing for you.

Just like that.

Oh la la.

Delizioso.

And you have any extra mushroom or something, you can put them on the side or vegetables if you made a lot.

Now, a little bit more formaggio on top.

The crowning glory -- grated formaggio.

And this is how it used to come to the table.

Big spoon.

And everybody took what they wanted.

Ha.

Che bellezza!

Let me put a little bit cheese for me here.

This is taking me someplace where I love to be, where I enjoy a lot of my first years.

A lot of polenta, and, you know, I had a great aunt, my grandfather's sister, Maria.

She was an herbalist.

And she would take me with her and we would go in the wild.

Mushrooms, chamomile flower, nettles.

We used to collect all of these and we used to cook with them.

So this takes me back to a beautiful place.

Let me taste.

You see, the polenta as it cools, it kind of hardens a little bit.

Mmm.

It really -- I don't know what to tell you guys, but you gotta make this.

It's delicious.

It is delicious.

And you're in Lidia land.

Lidia Flavorland when you're eating this.

Mmm.

Buonissimo.

A little red wine.

Perfect match.

And as I always do, I invite you guys.

So tutti a tavola a mangiare.

-[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I'll come to the cuttlefish.

You can buy it like this.

And when it's clean, it's like this.

And this is the backbone.

And this was used for the birds, the canaries.

They used to sharpen their beak on it.

-I love that.

-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... ♪♪