-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 handcrafted provolone.

Made in Italy.

-Nothing compares to the anticipation of summer.

The first tomatoes, the first eggplant.

It takes me right back to Nonna Rosa's garden.

This is my version of stracciatella, which I served to my grandkids when they were little.

I fondly remember tying kitchen towels around their necks, letting them feed themselves, and dribbling all over.

I reminisce about Grandma whenever I shell fava beans, and the flavors of this dish recall all those memories of summer every time.

You are in for a treat.

A simple risotto turned into a magnificent summer delight.

But it could be made any time of the year.

Using water to cook the risotto lets the flavors of the shrimp and tomato sing in all their glory.

That's what cooking is about.

Layering your flavors to make them harmonize.

This time of year always inspires my cooking.

Dream of summer.

♪♪ ♪♪ Summer, you know, you want something light to cook.

Yes, you can get clams, you can get zucchini.

But also the way of cooking.

You know, make it into a light meal with ingredients that are seasonal but prepared light.

And herbs are a great way of cooking light.

But summer, you know, it's about the garden.

It's about the beach.

So bring all that to your table.

And of course, use the herbs, like in this case, mint.

You know, you make usually a salad of tomatoes and basil.

Try tomatoes and mint with a little bit of mint in there.

It's really good.

What summer is all about in the kitchen is freshness, summer vegetables, and quick preparation.

As a child, summer was about going to the beach and also about the vegetables, the ripe tomatoes from the garden, Swiss chard we had, fennel, and of course zucchini was dominant.

And then of course, the fruit came in.

The figs.

We loved figs.

Figs are very fragile, so you kind of twist them off the tree.

And then we used to dry figs in the sun on a cement wall or something.

Line it up with fig leaves and then one by one, like soldiers, put the figs and let them dry in the sun.

I still savor those memories of my young summers.

Okay.

To the windowsill.

[ Indistinct conversations ] ♪♪ -If you like it, I like it.

-[ Speaks indistinctly ] -Minestra di Zucchine con Uova e Formaggio.

I'm looking forward to summer.

And you know I love my soups, but I also make them in the summer.

And zucchini soup, light zucchini soup, almost like a stracciatella, is what I love.

So let's start with a little bit of olive oil.

You need a nice pot for the soup, of course.

Let's cut the onions.

A nice large onion.

There's not much in here.

There's the zucchini, the onions, and then cheese.

And like a stracciatella, egg.

So let's see.

I like to leave the onions a little larger so this way they will not disappear in the soup.

♪♪ ♪♪ Put some bay leaves.

These are fresh bay leaves.

Dry ones are okay, but the fresh are more pronounced, so you need a little bit more of the dry ones.

Let me put a little bit of salt.

A little bit of peperoncino.

Okay.

Let this wilt and let's go to the zucchini.

Mmm.

Let's cut them in half like that.

Depends on how big they are.

You know, these are nice and small, so a half moon like this will do.

Okay.

♪♪ This is a very light soup, and I'm just using zucchini, you know, because I like zucchini and because zucchini are available.

You know, late spring into summer into fall, you have zucchini.

They're not an expensive item.

And just about everybody loves them.

Okay, let me throw the zucchini in.

♪♪ ♪♪ I'm gonna put a little salt for the zucchini now, and I want the zucchini to sort of get a little flavor to get a little browning in there.

So it'll take about 10 minutes.

And we have some time.

You and I have some time.

And I'm going to check who is writing to Lidia.

I love to hear from you guys.

James.

"Dear Lidia, the filling of my stuffed pasta spills out into the cooking water.

It doesn't really affect the flavor, and I'm not big on 'presentation' because I only cook for myself, but I am curious.

Am I doing something wrong?

I enjoy your show so much.

You remind me of my Mom and Grandma."

James, thank you very much.

That's a good question.

It's a legitimate question.

It happens.

When you're making your stuffed pasta, you ultimately seal off the sides of that pasta or that individual shape of pasta.

And to do that, have a little bowl of water with a little pastry brush.

And as you're filling your stuffed pasta, wherever you're going to cut the shape, brush it with the water.

Then you put the other cover and you press it down a little bit and you cut it.

Chances are that it will be fine.

The other option could be that you make the pasta so thin that it breaks on you.

So when you're covering your ravioli or whatever, you know, handling or whatever, you get a little kind of hole, you put it in the boiling water, and all the filling comes out.

So seal those raviolis, those tortellini.

This looks good.

Smells good.

And I'm going to put in water.

Oh, about two quarts of water.

Just plain water.

So you say, you know, could you put stock?

Yeah, you could put all of that.

But the beauty of this soup is that it is so clean, so simple, so plain.

We'll put cheese, we'll put an egg in there, we'll put other goodies, but this is just good like that.

Cover it, of course.

And once it is boiling away, you lower it and let it simmer for about a half an hour.

What will happen?

The flavors will develop and the zucchini will soften up.

Some of them will break, some of them will be whole.

But then when we add the rest of the cheese and the egg, it's going to be a delicious soup.

Here's one more e-mail.

Let's see.

"Last night we made your delicious bucatini with walnut pesto, and it's very good!!

Can I freeze the leftover pesto?

We never miss your show!!

All the best, Gayla and Clint."

Let me see this photo.

First, I want to see what you did before I praise you.

Looks great.

Can you freeze pesto?

Absolutely.

Even basil pesto you can freeze.

The idea in the freezer, what happens is that even though it's in the freezer, it oxidizes.

So when you're freezing pesto, put it in the smallest container you can, fill that container, top it with a little bit of olive oil just to seal it off so that air doesn't get in there, it doesn't get oxidized.

Seal it and store it.

When you use it, don't heat it just because pasta should never be cooked.

So pull it out, let it defrost room temperature, and proceed.

You might need to freshen it up once it's out of the freezer with a little bit of oil and a little bit more cheese, but you can do it.

Okay, so here is another one.

And this one is from Debbie.

"Are all sparkling wines created equal?

When do I know what to serve with what?"

No, not all sparkling wines are created equal.

There is the champagne, which goes through the second fermentation in a sealed bottle.

The fine bubbles form in the bottle, and it has this yeasty and buttery and complex aroma and flavor.

Then there is the Prosecco.

The Italian Prosecco Doc goes through a second fermentation in stainless steel barrels under pressure, and here again, small bubbles form.

In the Prosecco case, it retains the freshness of the juice and the flavor of the grapes, and it is delicious with many foods.

So you ask me, which one should I have with what?

Well, it's a question of what you like.

They're both great to cheer on an occasion, and they're both great with food to open up a dinner or to finish a dinner.

I'm Italian, so for me, Prosecco Doc is the bubbly of choice and I enjoyed as an aperitivo, as a cocktail, even I cook with it and as a whole meal service.

So if you're in doubt on the wine and feel reluctant about, "Oh, I need this wine for this course," Prosecco Doc will take you through the whole meal.

Thank you guys.

Keep on cooking, have fun, and keep on writing to Lidia.

All right, this looks good.

The density that I like.

So now we're going to just whisk some eggs, put a little basil, cheese, and then whisk it right in the soup.

Salt.

♪♪ Whisk it good.

I'm going to get fresh basil right here in the kitchen.

So I need quite a bit of basil.

But this is how you can grow your basil.

You see, if you cut it, the next leaves will start growing and you'll have another supply of it.

All right.

Ah, che profumo!

What a perfume.

♪♪ Okay.

Let's put it right in here.

Put some cheese in here.

Grated cheese.

So you can add a little Pecorino for, you know, a little extra flavor.

And just stir it like that.

And slowly I'm going to pour this in the soup.

And I'm going to kind of shred it.

You see the shreds?

You see?

There's a method in cooking.

Little things mean a lot.

You see?

The shreds -- That's what you want.

♪♪ And the soup is done.

That's it.

I'm going to bring it over to the table.

I'll serve it family style.

I think that's a good way to do this.

Just like that, you bring it to the table.

And, you know, I'm always concerned about getting everything dirty.

So I use my little cup.

♪♪ A light soup, and yet it's nourishing.

You have your proteins, you have your vegetables.

And this is good hot like that.

But also room temperature could be very good.

Let me taste this.

Okay.

Here is my little tasting.

I think I'm going to put a little bit more cheese here on Lidia's.

And I guess if Lidia wants it, then we'll put it for you too, just like that.

Mm-hmm.

You can put the bowl of cheese at the table.

You can put a chunk of cheese at the table with a grater -- even better.

Let's taste this.

♪♪ Mmm.

There's an elegance to this but yet there's flavor.

And, you know, a good clear soup like this with vegetables could always be on your menu when you don't know what else to do and it's going into summer.

Fave con la Menta.

Are you in a mood for vegetables?

I love vegetables.

And I have one of my favorite recipes.

I'm going to look for it.

Fava beans with mint.

Now, fava beans, they're a late summer legume.

They come in a pod, and then you have this wonderful, beautiful bean.

But then you need to blanch them and take the skin off of them again.

But once you've done that, you are in for a treat.

What's important is in a nice pan, you get the pancetta rendering and nice and crispy, and then you throw in the spring onions or scallions.

And then we throw in the fava beans and a little bit of stock and let it sort of simmer.

You want the pancetta crispy, but the rest you want kind of mellow.

Some salt, some pepperoncino flakes.

And at the end, a little bit of mint, just some mint leaves.

And that just kind of takes it into another dimension.

And then provola is a good cheese.

You can shave the cheese on top.

This makes a complete meal.

A nice pasta dish with this would be delicious.

Risotto di gamberi e pomodoro.

Risotto with tomatoes, a little shrimp.

And this is a delicious version.

So for risotto, you know you need one cup of rice, three cups of liquid, and it yields two cups of cooked risotto.

What you add to the rice to get the starches out to make it creamy is a hot stock, but in this case, we have a lot of flavors in the fresh fish, tomatoes.

All I'm going to do is have some water.

It's boiling, and I'm going to put some herbs.

Whatever herbs you have, just put it in the water and that will flavor your water for the risotto.

And that's bubbling away.

For risotto, you need short grain rice because they make the risotto creamy.

So let's begin.

And it's all about the technique.

So let's flavor the base, which is the rice.

♪♪ Now, you know, you could use shallots.

Use any onion base in making risotto.

And that flavors the rice itself because the rice kernel is 95% starch.

You know, the rice has its bran, which is brown rice is the rice with the bran.

That gets milled off, and you get white rice, and it's basically starch.

So it needs flavoring.

And it also needs coaxing of getting those starches out.

Because the major complaint that I get from you guys is "My risotto is not creamy enough."

Well, it is based in this technique.

Once you have understood the technique, you can make any risotto with any flavor.

It's a question of changing a little timing now and then.

I am going to cut some tomatoes.

Beautiful summer tomatoes.

And I'll show you when I will use them.

I don't throw them right in, but rather I make sure that the rice will yield its starch properly.

♪♪ So the onions are wilted.

I'm going to add a little bit of salt to them, and I'm going to put the rice right in here.

This step is toasting the rice.

And it doesn't get brown like your toast does.

We are cooking the starches around it to form a little capsule, because down the line what we want is we want this rice, this capsule to release the starches out, but still to stay nice and firm.

Once you have this kind of clickety sound, we'll add some prosecco.

You can add wine, but I love prosecco.

It's very elegant.

Prosecco Doc.

Cooking with it, drinking it with the risotto is wonderful.

And you want the alcohol to dissipate, but you want the acidity and the flavor of the prosecco to permeate the rice kernel.

The rice we toasted, it was thirsty.

It took in right away.

So from here, on a little bit of flavored water we'll put in, and just a little bit at the time.

See already, there's a creaminess.

The liquid, if you put it all, will open up the rice.

So we want to control this chemical reaction, so we say.

And of course you want whatever you add the stock, or in this case this flavored water, to be at the same temperature as what you're cooking.

All right.

We have some time here to mind the rice.

Risotto's is a good time to check an e-mail.

This is from Karen.

"I have noticed sometimes you put in whole garlic and then remove it.

Other times, you chop the garlic and leave it in the recipe.

How can I know when to remove the garlic and when to leave it in the recipe?"

The more you chop up garlic, the more flavor it will give you.

Well, that's why when you have chopped garlic, you really get that flavor.

But as much as I love it, if I eat it, it stays with me, so I crush it, I let out the flavor, and then I remove it.

Slicing it allows me to see where it is, and I can remove it or pull it to the side when I'm eating so I have an option, but I get maximum flavor of that garlic.

So I hope that explains why I do this different chopping.

Let's go on to the next step.

I have shrimp, garlic, and tomato.

So I'm going to sauté this.

The tomato, summer tomatoes are so delicious.

I just don't want to lose all their flavor.

I want to maximize that and sort of add it in the last few minutes of cooking the risotto.

So I'm going to put a little bit of the thyme right in here.

And these are whole beautiful shrimp.

The tail you can take off or leave it on.

You know, it kind of looks nice in the risotto.

So I leave it on.

♪♪ When you want to sear shrimp, a big, wide pan is the proper thing.

Give them enough space to all touch the bottom, because if you put them in a small pan, they will begin to stew.

Another thing is "Lidia, how do you flip that?"

Okay, I'll try to show you.

You shake.

You make sure that everything is loose in there, and then you push forward and pull backwards.

Push forward and pull backwards and catch it.

Be there to catch it.

So let me put in the tomatoes now.

I'm going to put some salt on the shrimp and the tomatoes.

I'm going to add a little peperoncino there because I like a little spiciness.

Okay.

And let me pull out the thyme.

I think we got the flavor from it.

So I'm looking at the rice.

It's going to take another maybe five minutes to get there.

And let me start with the tomatoes.

The shrimp put in last.

So, you know timing is very important in cooking.

You have to pay attention that it doesn't overcook.

I'm going to add some shrimp.

Let's do that.

I think the time is good.

♪♪ I'm going to pour it right in here.

Collecting all the flavor.

That's what cooking is about.

Your flavors, make them harmonize.

And for the last step, mantecare, shut off the fire.

So the butter goes in, and mantecare is actually mixing the butter right in.

Okay, you can see creamier and creamier it's getting here.

Let's put some cheese.

And you continue to whip in the cheese as well.

You see, the creaminess is what you want.

And we got it here.

We're ready to bring it to the table.

You can plate it, but I think just putting it on the table and letting them enjoy and eat as much as they like, why not?

Little arugula from my garden.

How do you like that?

This is a perfect meal.

Let me feed you.

♪♪ I need one for Lidia.

Absolutely.

Mmm.

And where's my tomato?

So I need a little celebratory fizzle here.

So the Prosecco Doc that I cook with is what I drink.

And this is for you.

And this is a rosé prosecco.

So let's taste this.

♪♪ It's delicious.

It's not about the chef.

It's not about me.

It's about the ingredients.

Certainly have enough.

So let me invite you, as I usually do.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

Do come and enjoy.

But even more important, cook this at home.

Salute!

-[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Okay, that was a good one.

-It's hard being on camera.

-Uh-huh, uh-huh.

-Phil, just look at Lidia for, like, one second.

-Sure.

-Hi, Lidia.

-Great.

-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... ♪♪ ♪♪