♪ ♪ >> LIDIA: I'm here in my home with my mother.

You know her as "Grandma."

We are cooking, chatting, discussing, and reminiscing of times, maybe, when things weren't that easy, but still those times were full of love and family.

I grew up helping my grandmother fill our cantina with the bounty of summer to sustain us through the winter months.

I always valued those lessons I learned growing up and passing on the invaluable knowledge I gained from grandma Rosa only seems fit these days.

The cantina idea has evolved into my pantry, but the concept is still the same-- cooking with ingredients that are economical, easy to find, and delicious.

♪ ♪ >> Funding for this program was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

♪ ♪ For us Italians, bread is the center of the table.

I recalled as a little girl, and my grandmother would make bread twice a week.

And she would bring out the kneading board.

I would help her with the flour.

She would have a starter.

I had a little kind of stool or a box.

And I would go on top and I would help her, give her a break.

And I remember she used to take this dough and slap it and knead it and, you know, really make... work the dough.

But traditionally it was, what I recall, was always the country bread.

And the country bread loaf was a hefty loaf, a nice loaf.

Maybe two, two-and-a-half pounds each.

Dough exemplifies really the simplicity and full nourishment from three ingredients that we get-- flour, yeast, and water.

We share with each other the food that we created-- simple, straightforward-- and especially baked goods.

♪ ♪ >> LIDIA: Scaccia, or a pizza roll, you know, some pizza dough, with great fillings inside, and here we're gonna have leeks and ricotta in one, broccoli di rapa and sausage in the other.

And of course you have to make the dough.

Here we have a packet of yeast and about a cup-and-a-quarter of warm water and a pinch of sugar.

And you let this proof for about ten, 15 minutes before you begin the dough.

Then you take the flour and you put it in the mixer right here.

Put a little bit of salt.

You pour the yeast mixture right in.

And the oil.

And that's as hard as it gets.

(mixer whirring) And a good sign towards a dough coming together is when it collects around the paddle itself.

That's a good sign.

And when you hear it like that, slapping the sides of the bowl, then you're in real good shape.

And usually for me to just kind of get it off the hook, I just take it lightly up and I let the hook kind of... okay.

(blender stops) So I'm touching the dough.

It's just a little sticky, which is good.

And we'll fix it just with a little bit of flour.

♪ ♪ But you know when you do pizza or this kind of dough, I always like it a little looser because it will rise more.

It will get lighter.

So let me just... give it one last whirl.

So, this is ready to proof.

Let me just put a little bit of olive oil in here and I'm doing that sort of to... lubricate it so that the dough doesn't encounter the friction of the glass and it doesn't rise.

I wanted to give it a smooth rising, if you will.

And we put that right in, you cover it with a plastic wrap and you keep it in the kitchen in a warm, nice situation for about half an hour to 40 minutes and it will rise, it will become double.

♪ ♪ I recalled as a little girl the town had about one main road, Busoler.

And maybe about 30 houses.

And there was a communal oven on one end of the town.

And there was a communal oven on the other end.

Grandma would make, take a kind of kitchen towel, a thick one and kind of roll it, roll it, roll it, make it like a snake, then put it on her head and then put the board on her head with the bread and off she went to the communal bread oven.

I would go and see when is the bread coming out?

Whose bread is coming out?

What are the women talking about?

Whose bread looks good?

In baking the bread, of course, there was always a sense of competition between these women.

You know, whose bread had risen better?

Gotten better color?

You know because sometimes they made just simple bread.

Sometimes they added milk to it.

Sometimes they added some oil to it.

So depends on what you had, you know, the availability of these ingredients.

Your bread was different.

But what was wonderful and still is, the smell of baking bread, bread baking.

It permeated, permeated the town.

♪ ♪ You knew that it was a bread baking day in that town, in Busoler.

Scaccia, the pizza roll.

So we'll have two fillings.

One of the fillings is... onions and leeks, and you put the onions first and... the leeks.

And, you know, it seems like an awful lot but this will kind of shrink into half of that.

Salt.

And you just kind of mix, it's gonna release its own water and it's gonna slowly smother and smother.

And when it is nice and smothered, you need to pull it out and you need to let it chill.

Just like here.

And for the sake of time, I have it here.

This is how it looks.

To bind it all up... whisk the egg.

Okay.

Ricotta.

Grated cheese.

Chopped parsley.

Okay.

And you just mix it well.

So that's one filling.

And the other filling, broccoli di rapa, you all love it.

You take the sausages out of the casing, so a little bit of garlic, oil, get the sausages going, throw in the broccoli di rapa, pepperoncino, let it smother, slowly, and you got the other filling.

You're with me?

Watch this now, this is how you stretch the dough.

Always put a little bit of flour on the board.

And you punch it down, kind of all around.

And you just let it... flop out, just like that.

So we have two here, let's cut it in half.

That's just about it.

Leave this here and we'll work one at a time.

What you want to do is you want to make a rectangle out of it, so... You see how the dough listens to me.

It doesn't go back.

That's because it has risen properly and it's behaving properly.

Rolling pin.

Just like that.

Just... stretch it a little bit.

Just a little bit more flour.

Stretch it just a little bit more.

Okay.

And you take the filling.

♪ ♪ Okay.

And then you want to kind of roll it in a little bit like that so it doesn't escape out.

You roll it in, just like that and... baking sheet with some parchment paper.

So you cut little pinches here and there.

It sort of lets the steam out.

So that's scaccia number one.

♪ ♪ All right.

And... here we put the broccoli di rapa filling.

Now let's get the first roll over.

And then you just roll it over.

And here we are.

Okay.

Brush it a little bit with the oil.

Just to give it some shine.

You preheat an oven at 375 degrees.

You bake it 40 minutes to 50 minutes.

Depends on how thick the dough is.

You let it rest.

And it's beautiful and easy.

♪ ♪ What I remember as a child what was happening around the communal bread oven, there was a lot of chatting going on between the women.

And us kids would run around and play.

And it was a social moment, not only a baking moment.

In retrospect when I think about it, it was a moment of pulling together.

Almost a spiritual moment, if you will-- this essence of life.

The basis-- bread being baked.

And it was baked with the wheat that they grew in the fields around it.

So everything was so communal, so local.

And what was wonderful, it was that these people all helped each other in growing the wheat, in milling the wheat, going to harvest the wheat, and ultimately in baking the bread.

You know, in today's times, the hard times that we are all experiencing, brings me back to those moments and what I hear and what I see on the internet is ever more people baking bread at home.

There's something comforting in dough and baking dough because something as simple as flour, yeast, and water can turn with a little bit of fire into such a delicious nourishment.

And I can feel that sense of... hug that baking bread, baking together, that sense of living together, caring for each other, that simple way of life is very meaningful.

Okay, so the scaccia is baked.

It's still nice and warm.

So let's just slide it right out.

Let's see, let's cut it now.

So I think I'm going to cut it like this.

That's one.

And that's the other.

So let's put this one here.

And this one here.

Let me cut a little... and a serrated knife.

Mm, mm, mm, mm, nice and easy.

♪ ♪ Okay.

And...

So, that's a beautiful display.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You know, when I... talk to you about simple recipes I always say go to your cupboard, you'll find something to make a delicious meal, simple.

But my mind goes back to the cantina, my grandmother's cupboard, shall we say.

But the cantina was much more than a cupboard.

A cantina was a little house all by itself, half under, submerged, so it's, was nice and cool to preserve food through the winter.

And it had two windows so there was always cross ventilation.

Potatoes... Grandma would make enough potatoes for the whole year and she would pile them in one corner.

Then of course we had beans, dry beans, legumes, absolutely necessary, whether it's ceci beans, whether it's lentils, whether it's regular kidney beans.

Garlic-- the garlic, you let it mature and you let the stalk dry out in land, then she would pluck it out, let it dry, shake it off of the dirt and then she would braid it and on the wall it was hanging for the winter.

And grandma, sometimes she would put grapes in there.

And so the cluster of the grape would hang down and that's when you needed the air and it would dry into raisins.

Apples.

You had to line them up, not touching each other and they would, in the air, they would last, they would last way into January.

That was the pantry I knew, I grew up with.

And so when I refer you to your pantry, I'm sure you can find a lot of those ingredients.

Certainly canned tomatoes.

You can find dry beans, dry lentils, dry ceci, dry figs, almonds, nuts.

You can find all of those in your pantries.

And those are the bases, the simple bases of some of the best Italian dishes.

Pasta con mollica e acciughe.

So, spaghetti with garlic and oil sauce, and then just some toasted breadcrumbs on top.

By the time that I make the sauce, the pasta will be cooked.

So I'm going to slowly let it fall in there.

Now it's bending already.

And we'll let it perc away while we do the sauce.

Now in this case we're going to dress the pasta at the end with some breadcrumbs.

And take... day old bread.

Just like that, the hard part is just perfect for that.

And let's...

Okay let's... (food processor whirring) Okay.

So... and I kind of like it a little bit coarse so on top it really toasts nice.

Just a little bit of oil.

Let's...

Okay, that's going to be enough.

And you can put a little bit of oregano here but just like this, just plain toasted bread with oil it's a great dressing for pasta.

♪ ♪ Breadcrumbs.

You know, they seem like a superfluous, almost not needed part of your kitchen, but it can be a big part of what you're cooking.

First of all, you're recycling.

You have old bread... don't throw it away.

Let it dry, don't let it dry in the bag where it can develop a mold.

Just spread it out, put it in your, your oven, just the pilot will dry it out.

And then you put it in your food processor and voila, you have some breadcrumbs.

When you have a sauce that you need to densen, especially a fish sauce, you add a little bit of the breadcrumbs towards the end and let it give a boil.

Don't add too much breadcrumbs because then it'd become, like, muddy.

Just a little bit of breadcrumbs.

Of course, all the stuffings and the fillings.

You're making meatballs, you're making meatloaf.

So don't overlook those breadcrumbs.

Keep them nice and dry, save them, and you'll find creative ways beyond mine.

Just try it.

Okay, let's start with the sauce.

And the sauce... garlic and oil and pepperoncino.

Three ingredients make a spectacular sauce.

A little bit of olive oil, sliced garlic, some anchovies, maybe I'll cut them a little bit so they disintegrate.

A little pepperoncino here.

Okay.

You want the anchovies to break down, give all the flavor.

The garlic just become golden.

Let's check on the breadcrumbs.

I think they're nice and crunchy and toasty.

I'll shut them off.

And we'll take some of the pasta water, mmm... (sauce sizzles) Okay.

Lots of parsley.

And voila.

At this point, the pasta, us Italians like it al dente but I undercook it even more so that I can finish cooking it in the sauce itself.

I just fish it out like that, especially spaghetti.

And you know the old saying when you throw your pasta to the wall and it sticks, it's done?

Well, because it has that little bit of starchiness that surrounds the pasta.

That's where the sauce adheres to.

And we'll let it finish cooking right in here while the pasta is absorbing the sauce.

When it's in the plate, I see some of you with a knife cutting it.

No, no, no.

You got to roll your pasta on your fork and you kind of take the whole roll, and it's the mouth sensation that, that we really love in pasta al dente, as Italians, okay.

And the pasta is finished.

All right.

So here we are.

Okay.

Mmm.

And then we just top it with a little bit of breadcrumbs.

You know, pasta served like this with breadcrumbs is very typical of Southern Italy.

It's actually called a poor man's cheese.

So now...

I need a little tasting here.

I'll take a little bit from the side just like that.

♪ ♪ Okay.

And let's put some breadcrumbs for me as well.

So you see how I roll up, no spoon, just like that.

Mmm.

Delicious.

Simple, clean, and delicious.

And easy to make.

♪ ♪ Here we are in my kitchen.

I'm here with my grandson Lorenzo and we are looking forward to answering your questions.

So Lorenzo, what is the first question?

>> Dskwira asks, "How do you reuse day old bread and repurpose it without burning it while heating it in the oven?"

>> LIDIA: Ah well, that's simple.

You can put the oven at very low temperature but you can just take the old bread, put it on a sheet pan, and put it in the oven overnight, and the pilot will do the job.

It will dry for you, staying just in there like that for 24 hours.

>> Emkubis asks, "Have you ever made pizza dough without yeast?"

>> LIDIA: Well, making pizza dough without yeast is a different discussion.

It's flatbread and making a pizza out of flatbread.

And, yes, it could be made.

>> Dorocal asks, "Leftover bread in bread pudding?

"Did you have other sweeter or breakfast-type foods that you use leftover bread?"

>> LIDIA: Well, leftover bread in bread pudding is a delicious rendition or renewal of that old bread.

But we used to have a breakfast, caffe latte con panna, which means we would have a nice bowl of milk with a little bit of coffee, some sugar, and we would take old bread and break it in chunks and throw it in the milk, hot milk, and coffee and sugar.

And it was like cereal and milk for us, except we were reusing the old bread.

And my brother Franco, it's still one of his favorite breakfasts.

♪ ♪ Being all together here in the family, you still want to feel Sunday is like Sunday.

And Grandma, I remember Nonna Rosa used to get a chicken, one of her chickens on Saturdays and Sundays and she used to make the guazzetto e sugo con the chicken and with gnocchis.

>> Do you know what my mother tell me?

She tried to teach me how to do pasta.

And she said to me, "You have to know seven different pasta, otherwise nobody will marry you."

(laughs) I say, "How will nobody be marry me?"

>> LIDIA: I remember those Sunday meals-- big platters like that of (speaking Italian), or as they call them, garganelli, with the duck sauce.

That's very good food, yeah.

Homemade food, homemade sauce.

>> LIDIA: Delicious.

>> Homemade animal, we have everything come from the field.

>> LIDIA: And Grandma and Grandpa made wine every year.

I know that they worked in the field and, ultimately, they made some wine.

And every meal we had some wine, although us kids had water and wine, we had (speaking Italian).

So, Grandma, it's the end of the show here.

What do we say at the end of the show?

We have to invite them, we would love to invite you in our house, but you know, we have to... >> Anybody, all... Any kind of neighbor was welcome.

>> LIDIA: There you go, any kind of neighbor.

So, tutti a tavola a mangiare, as we say.

>> (speaking Italian) >> LIDIA: And (speaking Italian) What was about that song you were talking about?

(conversing in Italian) (singing in Italian) >> (speaking Italian) >> Funding for this program was provided by For recipes and videos, go to pbs.org/eatwithlidia.

♪ ♪