-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.

-When the weather cools down and it's the season of celebrating, I know where I want to be in my favorite place, right here in my kitchen, cooking up memories for the family.

My Roman son-in-law, Corrado, absolutely loves artichokes.

You bring this to the table, you're gonna have a lot of people coming to your table.

It takes some effort to prepare, but the sweetness of the artichoke is totally worth it.

Amaretti cookies are delicious and naturally gluten free, thanks to the almond-paste dough.

I would eat it right off the baking sheet.

I prefer mine with chocolate and hazelnuts.

An iconic dish with sausage ragu to give you a festive presentation for an everyday meal that everybody will love.

I am sharing a few of my family's favorites.

♪♪ Holidays are celebrated with families getting together, but certain foods signify certain holidays.

The bounty of what one had was put on the table.

And I remember the springtime, those roasted lamb, small baby potatoes, lots of rosemary.

Oh, I love that.

And then I remember also in the wintertime, you know, the holidays, lots of fish and baccalà, of course, mantecato, which is whipped baccalà, had to be on the table.

Otherwise it wasn't the holiday.

You know, a celebration or a holiday also requires sort of rolling up your sleeves and getting in there, making that dough, rolling those manicotti, or making this tortellini, uh, all of th-- all of that, you know, making the cookies.

Holidays also, you know, that extra effort making it delicious, the best ingredients and the effort that goes with it.

♪♪ Looking good.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Carciofi con prosciutto cotto.

We're in the kitchen and we're with artichokes.

We're gonna braise the artichokes.

So let's start a little bit of oil and prosciutto cotto.

This is prosciutto cotto.

This is ham.

It really is good.

It's a little bit of the fat goes good in there, too.

I think this is -- That's enough of that.

We'll put some onion in there.

Half an onion is enough.

♪♪ Mm.

It's smelling good already.

Sliced garlic.

Okay.

We have the basic flavoring going.

So this is, you know, it's braised artichokes.

If you don't want the ham, you can do without the ham.

The same thing.

And they'll be just as delicious.

But the ham gives it that kind of extra flavor.

If you feel like making it a main course, why not?

Let me put some thyme sprigs right in here, some bay leaves right in here.

And now let's work the artichokes.

So what's important with the artichokes is that you have a bowl of water when you begin to clean them, because they oxidize readily.

You squeeze in the juice of a whole lemon.

Depends on how many you have or even two.

So it needs to be an acidulous kind of water situation so that the artichoke don't oxidize.

So how do you clean artichokes?

Well, you know, clean the bottom.

The important thing is to get this tougher leaves.

Just pluck them out.

When you begin to get to the white part... then that looks pretty good.

Okay.

And we want to clean this part off, just like that.

Because I want to use the stem, too.

The stem is very good to eat.

And all these little stubs here that can be tough.

I am going to add to this a little bit of wine.

Let this begin to make the sauce.

So artichokes are tough.

Serrated knife is best.

And you look here.

This green part is the tough part.

This I can still eat.

And you just cut... like you cut bread.

That's good.

We want to cut it in half.

And this is the choke in there.

That's what you want to pull out.

So you take pointed a little paring knife and then you can see right here.

The choke begins right here.

So I'm gonna go with the point of my paring knife right underneath there and pull it right out just like that.

And then pluck out the rest.

And you can do this well in advance.

As long as it's in the acidulous water, it is okay.

When you're ready to cook, then you just strain them.

And lemon is a flavor that you want with artichokes, the acidity is good and the lemon peel as well.

So wash the lemon and then just peel the yellow part.

The white part is a little bitter.

So you don't want that.

And this is a nice lemon.

Let's use them all.

Let's use all of them because I'm gonna use the juice of the lemon as well.

So let's put these in.

Okay.

The flavors are building.

Let me put some stock -- abundant stock because the artichokes take good half-hour.

Let's put the juice in there, too.

Some freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Put some salt.

So when the artichokes go in, it is ready to cook away.

Peperoncino.

Artichokes and peperoncino will go really good together.

♪♪ And now we can put the artichokes right in.

You can put them anyway you want, because you'll mix them.

And you can make this even a day in advance.

I like it warm as an appetizer, but also on a buffet table and maybe just a little bit more condiment, if you will.

We need to cover this, and once it really begins to boil, you want to lower it and leave it for about a half an hour.

Let me put it on simmering and I'll be back in 20 minutes just to check out on it.

Here I am, guys, relaxing and reading your messages, your questions and all that and I just love it.

So keep on sending them.

This is an e-mail from Kathy.

"I love trying new foods and try my best to get my children to try new foods too.

But I was never exposed to artichokes."

Ohh.

"I have seen that they can be hard to clean.

What is your favorite way to eat them?"

Picking your artichoke is very important.

Picking a firm, medium-sized artichoke.

Don't pick a big one.

I do make it a point on cleaning artichoke on my shows because I love fresh artichokes.

Braising them with a little bit of lemon, garlic, parsley, white wine.

But there are great frozen artichokes that are clean.

You can make great sauces out of them.

You can make risotto, chicken with artichokes.

I would encourage you really to get to know the artichoke evermore, because it is delicious and because that's what cooking is all about.

Practicing, continuing and learning evermore.

So keep on cooking.

Thank you, Kathy.

This looks like it's done.

It is done.

We can close it.

Well, let me test the artichokes.

The sauce certainly looks done.

And, you know, take a knife and you see how easy it goes in.

Then you know it's done.

Very easy.

Mm.

Good.

We need a little bit of live green in there.

So let's do some chopped parsley.

Parsley, of course, the last minute.

It gives it a good flavor.

But if you leave the parsley there, it changes color.

So... Look at the prosciutto cotto.

Perfect.

Great meal.

Now, this is great warm like this.

But room temperature is also good.

And you can make it and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

So you can make it in advance and just add the parsley the last minute.

You're ready to serve.

A nice bowl would be good.

♪♪ Okay.

A little ham and a little bit of sauce.

Ah, wow, wow, wow.

Let me make one for Lidia.

Okay.

One is enough for me.

I'll taste that.

Look at this.

You bring this to the table, you're gonna have a lot of people coming to your table.

Just like that.

So it looks beautiful.

The bread is here.

Now let me taste.

♪♪ Juicy.

It's easy to cut in.

♪♪ Mm.

The ham, the artichokes and the lemon.

Delicious.

Now I suggest a Prosecco DOC Rosé to certainly go with the artichokes but with the whole meal.

Delizioso.

Amaretti al cioccolato.

So I'm flipping through these pages and at the end of the book that means dessert.

Ah ha.

That's what I wanted to share with you.

The chocolate amaretti.

The Italian amaretti made with almond paste.

But I give it a little twist.

I put two other favorite Italian ingredients in it -- some chocolate and toasted hazelnuts.

That sounds good, huh?

The amaretti -- I like them chewy.

It's a question of how long you bake the cookie.

The longer you bake it, the drier it becomes, and it comes to the point of actually being crumbly.

It is simple.

It needs almond paste, some sugar.

In a blender, it's very simple.

You combine those ingredients with two large egg whites, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, pinch of salt and some chopped hazelnuts.

You let that twirl and that comes into a dough, and the dough is sometimes even a little bit sticky.

So when you're shaping it, roll it in the chopped hazelnuts.

And then you put them on parchment paper.

You put it in the oven 350 degrees.

19 to 22 minutes.

Depends on how you like your amaretti.

How would I present it?

Oh, well, I would eat it right off the baking sheet.

Wait for it to cool, and eat it, but otherwise a nice mound on a plate.

And if you have a nice espresso to go with it, that will complete the whole experience.

Timballo al Ragu di Salsiccie.

Timballo.

No, it's not an instrument.

You must have heard it.

A pasta.

The Italian when there's a festive kind of occasion, especially in the Middle Ages, they used to do it a lot.

We're gonna make a cake out of pasta, so let's make the timballo.

First we start with sauce.

You need some sauce.

And we're gonna make a sausage Bolognese sauce.

In order to begin with that, we're gonna do the pestata.

You know what the pestata is.

Pestata is all these good vegetables kind of made into a little paste.

That's onions... ...celery... garlic... ...and some carrots.

The pestata is done.

Let's put some olive oil.

And to make, you know, any sauce, any long-cooking sauce, you need a nice venue, something that has a thick bottom so that it simmers away slowly, but it doesn't burn.

So let's get the pestata in.

So this is the base.

So we have here the sausage, which is out of the casing.

And we're gonna break it up.

And it's gonna be like a meat sauce.

Usually sausages come in a casing and you just cut the casing off and you go in and you have your sausage just like that.

Sometimes when you do this, the meat clumps together.

What I do, I add a little bit of wine in here and that breaks up the meat before I put it in.

Okay, so to this, I'll add some bay leaves.

You know, I love bay leaves.

We use a lot of them.

And we can put this right in.

You break it up a little bit.

Sausages are already flavored, and they're a great way of sort of making a Bolognese sauce or meat sauce.

What's important when you begin to make a Bolognese is that you sort of give each step some flavor.

Now we need some seasoning -- salt.

We'll add some white wine to this -- dry white wine.

Add some peperoncino and you can put it or you can admit it whatever you like.

And when you add wine, you usually add the wine, always in a dry state, so that the wine deglazes and then it begins to evaporate.

You don't want the alcohol of the wine.

You don't need.

You want the acidity, the complexity of the flavor.

So now we're letting that happen and then we'll add the next liquid.

So what is the next one?

Of course, tomatoes.

We are making a Bolognese.

We are making a meat sauce.

San Marzano.

You know I like my San Marzano tomatoes.

I mashed it with the hands.

But, you know, we are going to collect everything that's left in there with water because you need water to get this meat cooking until it's done.

The liquid is evaporating.

Let's add the tomatoes.

Wash this out.

And whenever you're adding new things to already perking sauce, get it back to perking as soon as you can.

And it already looks good, but this will simmer away nice and easy.

Covered for about, as I said, 40 minutes, 45 minutes.

You got to go back and check it now and then because it might be sticking to the bottom.

But in case you run out of liquid, you just add some water.

Water is perfectly fine.

Another e-mail and this one is from John.

"I have a Bay tree too!

It serves double duty during the winter by being our 2nd holiday tree along with our 3rd tree, our rosemary bush.

They both spend the winter with us inside.

But, I do have a question: What types of bread are your favorite to bake?"

Oh, from trees he goes to bread.

So, John, let me see your photo.

How beautiful.

And they're not easy to kind of bring from outside in during the winter.

So you know what you're doing with your trees.

Now, bread.

You know, I like a good semolina bread, country kind of bread with a lot of crust.

That's what I like.

Thank you for your e-mails.

Thank you for your pictures and keep on writing.

Thank you, guys.

So the sauce has reduced, has cooked, looks nice and flavorful.

We'll add some peas to that.

You can use frozen peas.

If you use fresh peas, it's a question of cooking time, but either one will do.

Okay, let's mix that.

And here I have the ditalini cooked.

But it's cooked but very much al dente, you know, sort of halfway cooked because they're gonna bake in the oven for about 40, 45 minutes.

So we have -- have to give it some time so it doesn't really become mushy.

Let's put it right in.

We'll flavor it all.

It's good just like this.

Let me tell you, with some cheese, it is delicious just like that.

I like to add a little bit of ham and I'll do the ham the same size like the ditalini more or less.

You want to keep it all the same size.

We'll let that cook a little together.

Just so the flavor melds.

To this, I'll add some provola.

Now, provola is a cheese in the mozzarella family.

It's a pull cheese.

The provola is mozzarella that has been covered with a wax.

That leaves it moisture, doesn't dehydrate, but it still ages a little bit and it has a great flavor.

So it melts just like mozzarella.

Maybe even better because it brings more flavor to whatever you're cooking with it.

Dicing like this.

And that goes right in here.

And I'm gonna close.

I don't need to cook it any further because again it's gonna cook.

So the provola right in there.

And I'm going to put some grated cheese, another element of flavor that will bind all this together.

Just like that.

Okay.

So you know, as I said before, this is ready to eat just like this.

But it gets better when it forms the crust and it's in the oven.

So we have the timballo, the shape.

And I'm gonna make a little bit of bread and a grated cheese mixture for the toppings.

So when I put all the pasta in there, I will top it a little bit with the bread and cheese, and it's gonna form a nice little crust.

Now, what I did to the timballo itself is, of course, what you do when you bake a cake, butter it.

You can do it with flour.

I did, in this case, with breadcrumbs.

You have a nice crunchy lining.

My ladle.

And just pour it right in.

So you can see you can put eggplant in here.

You can put zucchini.

If I put eggplant, I would cube the eggplant.

And I would either roast it or fry it so it has some flavor in it, not raw.

Peppers.

I would put maybe roasted peppers in here.

So let me just put everything kind of in place.

Just -- just a little bit so it settles.

And I'm gonna top it with the bread and grated cheese combination.

Would you go through this?

It's not a lot of work.

And if you have, you know, a family gathering, you can make two of these.

And that takes care of your pasta course.

Okay.

So here we are.

Put dabs of butter because the bread is dry on top.

As it melts, it goes in.

This is it.

And it's ready to go into the oven.

A hot oven -- 400 degrees, about 40-45 minutes.

Take a look once in a while.

Inside, most of it is cooked so you don't have to worry about it.

But you want a nice crispy topping.

You can put it in the oven just like that.

Or sometimes I put it on a half sheet pan or on a cookie sheet.

It's easier to put it in and out of the oven.

Okay, one more.

Let's see.

This one is from Ethan.

Hi, Ethan.

That's my grandson.

"Hi, Nonni.

What do you think?

Am I getting better than you at this cooking thing?"

[ Chuckles ] "Look at this carbonara I just cooked up."

Let me check it out first before I answer you, Ethan.

Good for you.

This is restaurant quality.

Bravo, Ethan.

I am so proud of you.

You see, here's away in college.

Most likely cooked for his friends, but he keeps Nonna informed with great pride.

The timballo has been resting, and let's unmold it as we say.

Let's go around here and just loosen it up a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That looks good.

So let's slide it.

And, you know, if you do bring it to the table just like that, a nice sprig like that would be beautiful.

But let me plate it for you and use a serrated knife.

I think that's better so if you encounter really crunchy part.

♪♪ Put a little bit of sauce on the bottom, because that's the way I would like to serve it.

And not too much, just a little bit.

♪♪ That's one portion.

That's the way I would serve it in, of course, Lidia Service.

♪♪ I don't want a big piece like that, but I do want a little piece.

Mmm.

Now... the food is ready.

How about a little Prosecco DOC?

Celebration.

One for Lidia and one for my guest.

That's more like it.

Okay.

And it looks beautiful.

So let me taste it.

Mmm.

♪♪ Cheesy and delicious.

A festive dish.

And, of course, let me see how the Prosecco DOC goes with this.

I chose it because I knew it would go well, but let me taste.

Very good.

But let me invite you, I always do invite you.

I want you to be a guest at my house.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

-[ Singing in Italian ] -We have to learn some of the lyrics, but we're doing okay.

-Alla salute.

-Cin cin.

Alla nostra salute.

-[ Speaks Italian ] -That's very nice.

To our health and the one that takes care of us.

-[ Speaks 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...