LIDIA: Buongiorno.

I'm Lidia Bastianich, and teaching you about Italian food has always been my passion.

It has always been about cooking together and ultimately building your confidence in the kitchen.

So what does that mean?

You got to cook it yourselves.

For me, food is about delicious flavors... Che bellezza!

...comforting memories, and most of all, family.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

ANNOUNCER: Funding provided by... ANNOUNCER: 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.

ANNOUNCER: Authentic and original -- Amarena Fabbri.

A taste of Italy for brunch with family and friends.

Amarena Fabbri -- the original wild cherries in syrup.

ANNOUNCER: Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition, yet contemporary.

ANNOUNCER: Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese from Italy.

Handcrafted from 100% sheep's milk.

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ANNOUNCER: And by... LIDIA: There's always formaggio on an Italian table.

It is easy to add it to any dish, so let me show you the way.

A medley of colorful vegetables, salami, cheese, and eggs makes this salad a complete meal.

Replace the pasta with leftover bread in this new take on lasagna.

Let's talk about cheese.

"Cheese Please."

Cheesemaking is a tradition of Italy that is Italy.

It reflects what Italians are, how they believe, the love with their nature, the love with their animal, and ultimately with a good product at the end to have in the kitchen.

Diversity of different cheeses.

And what makes the Italian cheeses so special?

It is the microclimates.

It is the different pastures.

It is the artisans themselves.

In Italy, there is a tradition of the transumanza, and that is where the shepherd leaves the home barn and takes his whole flock all the way up to the mountains, to the altopiano, the highlands, where the grass and the flowers are intense with flavor and color.

It's so important -- the artisantry of understanding your animal, the animal that produces the base, whether it's a sheep, whether it's a cow -- taking care of them, because this is a symbiotic relationship.

You know, I treat you well, I give you this, and you give me the milk, and together we live a happy life.

So it's a complete circle of everybody being happy with a great product at the end.

Chopped Salad with Frisée and Fennel.

In my garden, it's beautiful.

There's a little breeze, and I'm making lunch.

It's nice to cook outside now and then, especially when you don't have to cook, when it's just a salad, and this is a great salad.

It's a chopped salad, and, you know, I can't tell you how popular these chopped salads are in our restaurants.

So fennel.

This is a whole head of fennel.

That's what you'll get.

Usually, you kind of just rip out the outside.

Let's see.

Let's cut it right here.

Okay, let's cut it like this.

Let's cut it like this.

And so now we're into the fennel.

A-okay.

Maybe cut the core right out like that.

You treat the fennel head almost like an onion.

Let's treat it like the onion.

So fennel is good in this salad because it brings that kind of element of freshness, but it also is nice and crunchy.

Let's add it to the fennel that I already cut before.

Red onions, chopped fine.

Chopped parsley.

♪ Okay, so there's that.

Some roasted peppers.

I'll throw the whole thing in.

Everybody loves pepper.

I like a nice, young frisée, especially if it's -- let me get this outside.

Now, these outside leaves can be braised -- garlic and oil in the pan, and you're all set.

So let's do it very fine because you want this fine as well.

Another good lettuce or salad that you can bring into the mix is the escarole.

The inside -- the heart of the escarole is good enough and soft enough, and then the rest you cut very thin into this salad.

Let's throw that in.

And this is a finocchiona.

A finocchiona is a Tuscan salami.

Has a little fennel in it.

It's very good.

But you can use any salami -- hard salami, Genoa salami.

And again, let me cut it in half like that.

Let's make -- I like smaller pieces for this.

Like just little... ♪ ♪ Here I have three kinds of cheese.

This is the provola provolone that usually you see hanging like a big salami, and it's the most piquant.

Is the one that's ripe the most.

This is an in-between provola, which is semi soft and semi piquant, and I like this.

And this is one of those fresh little ones that are hanging individually.

So let me cut a little bit of each maybe.

You can see this is softer.

And this is the in-between.

♪ And this is the aged, the spicy one.

Okay.

Let's toss that in.

Some eggs.

Hard-boiled eggs always go well in a salad.

They help the dressing, and they also bring, of course, flavor and nourishment.

♪ Now it's time to make the dressing to dress the salad.

So mustard.

1, 2.

I'm looking.

Olive oil.

Okay, I think that's enough.

Wine vinegar.

Okay, let me whisk this.

It's really emulsifying.

The mustard is really pulling it all together.

Mmm, mmm!

And now it's time to dress the salad.

Mmm.

I'm looking forward to it.

That's good.

Okay, so let's dress the... Mmm!

I think I can use the whole thing.

Absolutely.

Good measure.

Maybe I think the cheese has a little salt, the salami has a little salt, but I think the salad needs a little bit of salt.

So here we go.

And I think the salad is done.

Let's plate it.

♪ ♪ Okay.

A little for Lidia here.

Let me get a taste first.

But I want to taste it to make sure that it is... Mmm.

Nice.

Nice acidity, nice crunch.

And there's the finocchiona, the salami, the fennel, the provola.

Mmm.

Good, good flavors.

Now let's bring it to the table.

So here you go.

You're ready.

The salad didn't take long.

Things that you had in your cupboard, in your refrigerator -- toss it up.

Could be antipasto.

Could be a main course.

Could be lunch.

You decide what you want to make out of it, but it's delicious.

Some of my favorite time in the kitchen has been teaching my grandchildren to grow into confident cooks.

And these days, even though they are living on their own, that doesn't mean they stop asking for my advice.

"Sharing Recipes."

Braised Beef Rolls.

Miles is calling.

He wants to know something.

MILES: Hi, Nonni.

How are we?

LIDIA: Oh, how you doing, Miles?

Did you just get up?

MILES: Yeah, I just woke up.

LIDIA: Oh, Okay.

So what's on your mind?

What are you doing?

MILES: You know, I'm doing a little bit of studying.

LIDIA: Are you eating right?

Are you and your friends -- and who's cooking?

MILES: Oh, we all take turns cooking.

I mean, we're always looking for new recipes because we have a hungry group of guys.

LIDIA: I know you guys like your meat beef rolls.

You think your buddies would like that?

MILES: They would love that.

And we're always looking for a good protein.

LIDIA: Okay, let me just roll out the ingredients.

It's quite a few.

So you need the beef -- very thin slices.

You need day-old bread.

You need some milk to soak it in.

Grated cheese, provola, parsley, some garlic, some onion, some plum tomatoes, salt and pepper, and you make your sauce.

So let me just give you a little run-through and see if you can handle this.

MILES: Yeah, I think I might need a little bit of a run-through.

LIDIA: So you get yourself some beef.

You pound it, and when you pound the meat, put it between some plastic wrap.

I don't know if you have a mallet, but otherwise you can take the back of a frying pan and just pound it a little bit, you know?

And then you make the stuffing.

you take some bread, you soak it in milk, and then once it has soaked about half an hour, you squeeze all the milk out with your hands and you put in some chopped boiled eggs, some parsley, cheese, some salt, some pepper.

You take this stuffing, put it on one side and you roll it, pushing the ends in.

You put a toothpick in.

But now it's important that you brown the beef rolls before you start the sauce.

And the sauce is very simple -- a little bit of garlic, a little bit of onion, plum tomatoes.

You squash that.

A little peperoncino.

And then you combine the two and let it percolate.

You know what's good about this recipe?

You have the sauce.

And what do you do with the sauce?

MILES: You can put it on some pasta.

LIDIA: You got it.

MILES: Do I use provola or just a grated cheese?

LIDIA: Both of those are delicious.

Provola gives it a little bit more zest.

Grana is our ever-used cheese.

You know, we put in pasta, we put it in soups, but, you know, if you have some mozzarella or something in the fridge, you can put that in.

MILES: Maybe I can come down for a long weekend and you can show me how to do it.

LIDIA: Absolutely.

I'd love to see you, number one, and of course, cook with you, and then you can even bring the leftovers up to the boys to test.

So that's a deal.

MILES: Sounds like a plan.

LIDIA: Okay.

Love you.

MILES: Love you, too.

LIDIA: Bye-bye.

MILES: Bye, Nonni.

LIDIA: Isn't that great?

You see?

Connection.

It's wonderful.

You know what they're up to.

You sort of become part of their life.

Bring your flavors into their kitchen now and into their friends.

So I just love it when they call me.

Tomato and Zucchini Bread Lasagna.

Today, I'm gonna show you an easy and delicious lasagna, and you're gonna tell yourself, "Why didn't I think of it?"

So what do you need?

You need some marinara sauce.

A nice zucchini -- all the same size, you want.

You wash it, of course.

And you make slices.

A mandoline is the right thing to do.

I know, a mandoline gets everybody nervous, but use your guard.

Go slowly and carefully.

Can you slice it by hand with the knife?

You can.

The chances of you getting all the pieces so even are not all that great, but you could do it.

So here we are.

So you're telling me, "Okay, Lidia -- zucchini.

I like zucchini.

Could I use anything else?"

You know what Lidia always tells you?

Of course you can use something else.

I would say even savoy cabbage leaves, but I would blanch them first because they're tough.

Now, let's talk about the cheese.

So this is pieces of grating cheese, the Italian grating cheese.

First of all, you want to cut it in pieces.

You want to cut off... the rind, and you want to leave this.

You want to save this rind.

This is delicious stuff for soup.

The rest you cut into pieces just like that.

And let's put it all in the food processor Now, don't overstuff it.

This is about 1/3 full of chunks of cheese, and just let it run.

[ Birds chirping ] [ Whirring ] It takes a while -- a little patience, but it happens.

Look -- all the grated cheese you have here.

[ Whirring stops ] Mmm!

And it smells so, so delicious, so milky.

You buy the chunks of cheese as needed, and you grate them as -- don't waste one single crumb of it.

Okay.

We got the cheese.

We got our zucchini.

We got our marinara sauce.

Now let me get the rest of the ingredients, and let's get making one of my favorite lasagnas.

Hi, guys.

I'm in my library.

You know it by now.

Looking at the e-mails that you send me.

Ah, Diane.

She sent me a video.

Let's see what we find.

DIANE: Hi, Lidia.

my name is Diane.

I'm a huge fan of your show.

And I have a question.

I live alone.

And do you have an idea for a one-pot meal that I can cook on a Sunday and then have it last through the week so I don't have to cook every day?

LIDIA: I get a lot of question of, you know, one-person meal.

Sometimes I find myself in that position.

The most important thing is, Diane, cook -- cook for yourself, and serious recipes can be cooked and then sort of portioned for one meal, for two meals, and so on.

Recipes that keep well are soups, definitely.

Make a big pot of soup, put some proteins in there.

If you want to add pasta or rice, just add it to the portion you are eating.

The rest, put them in the freezer, and when you're ready, you pull one out.

Braised meats -- you can do chicken cacciatore, peppers and mushrooms.

Let's say that you roast a chicken.

Take the piece of meat, wrap it well -- tight in plastic wrap.

And you can freeze it.

You pull it out.

You shred it.

You put your mayo, whatever, or even just oil and vinegar with some vegetables.

And you can recoup those dry pieces of roast meat or grilled meat that, you know, you don't want to throw away.

But, you know, if you roast a whole chicken, it's better than you should just grill a little chicken breast.

I say so, and do it for yourself.

You deserve it, Diane.

You got to love yourself.

I'm all prepped.

We're making lasagna.

And have you noticed there's no pasta here?

Some bread that's been a day or two old.

You have some zucchini, some prosciutto cotto in between, and the marinara.

So the first thing that we do is let me butter the lasagna dish.

And now let's coat the buttered pan with grated cheese.

When it bakes, it's gonna make a nice, crunchy, tasty crust on the bread.

The first thing that goes down is the bread.

And you can work at it and fill it.

This is using everything, not wasting anything.

This kind of cooking is really, I think, gallant, cooking -- cooking that respects nature, that respects people that have, that have not, and using everything.

My grandmother used to do all the time.

The bread -- actually, if I dropped a piece of bread on the floor, she made me pick it up and kiss it.

Yep.

I'm gonna put some of the cheese.

Plenty of the cheese.

Okay.

And now I'm gonna layer the zucchini just like that -- evenly all over the base, cover everything.

And we'll make two layers of zucchini just like that.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, we'll put some marinara sauce.

The prosciutto cotto.

If you want it all vegetarian, you can omit the prosciutto cotto.

But you know, this is a little flavor, a little protein.

Just like that.

Mmm!

And so more cheese.

A little bit of cheese.

Some more of the zucchini.

♪ Okay.

Okay.

A little bit more marinara sauce.

This you can make in advance and bake it when your guests come, in a sense, or a little bit before.

It needs to rest, anyway, a little bit before you get into it and you cut it.

And then if you like to, you serve it at room temperature in the summertime.

Absolutely.

Next the the marinara sauce.

And I like to spread it evenly in every corner so it seeps into all the corners.

[ Lawn mower engine whirring ] A lot of activity in my neighborhood.

The gardeners are working.

The trucks are passing by.

I don't know.

Somebody told them I was cooking.

Okay.

And we top it with the rest of the mozzarella and grated cheese, which will make a nice crust on the top.

Bread and tomato in Italy is such a common combination.

Whether you do a bruschetta, Pappa al pomodoro is bread and tomato sauce.

So, you know... bread, cooked, dunked, soaked, baked in tomato sauce, marinara sauce -- very common.

Here we are, ready for the oven.

Let me tent it.

I always make sure that I make a little tent because otherwise the cheese sticks to it and you lose a lot of cheese.

And God knows we don't want to lose all that nice, crusty cheese.

And you put it in the oven -- in a hot oven for 45 minutes.

You uncover it.

And for another 15 minutes, the cheese gets nice and brown and you bring it bubbly to the table.

So here's Jennifer.

And Jennifer wants to talk about cheese.

She asks...

I think, Jen, if you're draining your ricotta well overnight, the next is your fresh mozzarella.

Fresh mozzarella does have a lot of milk, and some have more than others.

Why don't you try buying the dried mozzarella?

Provola, also -- a fresh provola is also delicious.

Make sure that you have reduced the sauce so that it's not watery, and don't put too much of it.

You don't need a sea of sauce in a lasagna.

So try these techniques.

This change in system for your lasagna -- I'm sure it will work.

So keep on asking those questions.

Keep on sending.

See you right here in my library.

There's nothing more satisfying than having a lasagna nice and hot out of the oven.

It has rested, and it's ready to be served.

So let's do it.

Let me cut a piece.

Now, you know, this corner here, the chef gets always the corner.

That's mine.

Let me cut a nice portion here.

♪ Okay, so this is the lasagna.

Mmm, mmm!

Nice and moist.

♪ Lidia's piece.

Look at this.

Look how delicious.

The zucchini is nice and mellow.

The bread is soaked with the tomato sauce.

The cheese is the crust on top.

Doesn't get any better.

But I don't know who to expect.

You know, might be the gardener this coming over.

Might be the plumber.

Might be the UPS man.

In the meantime, I'm going to taste, and I'm gonna invite you.

So let's taste this.

Mmm!

It is so good to see the freshness of the vegetables, the cheesiness of the crunchy cheese.

The prosciutto cotto I forgot is in there, but now I really taste it.

It's nice.

It is delicious.

So I want to invite you before all my neighbors come here and eat it all up.

So as we say... Tutti a tavola a mangiare e bere!

Salute!

Italians are not big meat eaters, but they do eat a lot of cheese.

Of course, cheese has the protein, and cheese could start the day and could end the day for an Italian.

Wouldn't be unusual to get up in the morning and maybe a piece of bread and cheese and a little latte and that was breakfast.

Marenda -- certainly in between, a little crumble of cheese, a slice of prosciutto.

Lunch -- cheese grated on that pasta -- abbondante.

And of course, dinner could sometimes be a nice bowl of salad and some cheese.

And that goes for the whole brood.

Grandma loved her cheese, so she certainly will be singing, taking us to the table.

LIDIA AND ERMINIA: [ Both singing in Italian ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: The food from this series makes Italian cooking easy for everyone and showcases simple-to-prepare recipes that require fewer steps, fewer ingredients, and less cleanup without sacrificing flavor.

The recipes can be found in Lidia's latest cookbook, "Lidia's a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl," available for $29.95.

To purchase this cookbook and any of her additional products, call 800-PLAY-PBS or visit shop.pbs.org/lidia.

ANNOUNCER: 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.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ANNOUNCER: Funding provided by... ANNOUNCER: 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.

ANNOUNCER: Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition yet contemporary.

ANNOUNCER: And by... ANNOUNCER: Authentic Italian cured meats.

Paolo Rovagnati, the true Italian tradition.

ANNOUNCER: Closed captioning provided by San Benedetto.

ANNOUNCER: "Lidia's Kitchen" studio provided by Clarke, New England's official Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.