- Hi, I'm Jacque Pepin.

- And I'm Claudine Pepin.

Today, I'm in the mood for something Italian.

- Well, that's good, because today I'm going to show you all kind of wonderful dishes inspired by Italy.

We start with an intensely flavored tomato soup and I'll show you how to make a beautiful basil oil to drizzle on top.

Roasted red snapper is simple and flavorful, served whole and covered the table.

- [Claudine] And my favorite, a pasta gratin made from spinach and leftover fish - [Jacques] Plus a stew of spring vegetables, just like my mother used to do.

- It sounds magnifico.

- So join us as we savor the flavors of Italy.

- Next on "Jacque Pepin's Kitchen."

- "Encore with Claudine."

(train horn blaring) (light upbeat music) - Today, we are doing the flavors of Italy.

And to start the flavors of Italy, we have a tomato soup, cream of tomato soup with basil oil.

- Okay, I'll start working with the onion.

And you have garlic for you here.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna put a little bit of olive oil in there.

- I'm gonna get this out of my way.

- A dash of butter.

Here we are.

And the onion.

Yes.

That's good.

At least you know how to crush garlic.

- [Claudine] How many cloves do I want?

- Four, five cloves of garlic, you know.

That's it.

Put that directly in there.

Start cooking.

And of course you try to do that when you really have beautiful red tomato in your garden.

That's when it's nice.

- [Claudine] Now I'm just crushing this with the skin on, because that's what you said to do.

- Okay, let's put all of this in there.

No need to peel it.

- Anymore?

- Doesn't really matter.

I think that's fine.

- Okay.

- The reason is that we're gonna put it through a food mill.

If you were to put it in the food processor, of course you wouldn't want to do that.

Likewise for this here, have a couple of, you know what that is?

- This is thyme.

- Yes.

- [Claudine] And I don't know what that is.

- It's oregano.

- Oregano, oh, fresh oregano.

- Yes, fresh oregano.

Okay, so here we are in there.

And the tomato.

- Tomatoes.

- Let me stir this a little bit.

Very good.

You know when you do a lot of tomato like this, let's cut another one.

You wanna cut this one across here.

And, again, here, seed and all, doesn't really make any difference.

- Can I have a little knife?

Oh, seed and all, well, then, hey, forget about it.

- Just cut the whole thing.

We want to put a bit of tomato paste in there.

(food sizzling) (cutlery clanging) That's it.

You want to put salt, pepper, and a bit of sugar.

You find when you do, or sometime in Italy, you put a little bit of sugar, instead of putting a little bit of sugar, you put some carrot in it.

One or two carrots, that gives you a bit of sweetness.

And that's basically all there is to a very good, natural tomato soup.

Good, all the tomatoes- - There you go.

- Are in there, we're ready.

- [Claudine] I'm gonna get this- - Add back to it.

I'm gonna saute a little bit.

(tomatoes sizzling) And water.

About a cup, cup and a half of water also.

- [Claudine] Oh, it already smells good.

- We bring that to a boil.

And that's it.

And this doesn't have to cook very long.

- Oh.

- You bring it to a boil.

15 minutes, that's it.

- Okay.

- So it can be done very fast.

Now we're going to do, you say we're going to do a basil oil and that you can do way ahead, keep it and use it for hundreds of things.

So I see you have some basil here.

You have a little more over there.

So this, if you have a lot in the garden like me, you can keep it for the winter and people say it turns black.

It doesn't turn black if you know what to do with it.

And doing what to do with it is to blanching it.

Blanching it, meaning you drop it in boiling water.

And 10, 15, seconds until it gets wilted.

Now that's it.

It's almost ready now, you see?

Get all- - Oh, wow!

- Wilted.

- That's it.

- Well, you do the same thing, by the way, with the tarragon and so forth.

- Oh.

- So here now I'm gonna drain it, that's enough.

What you should do at that point... You know if I were doing a soup tonight, I'll take the water from blanching that basil and do the, I could have done that even.

See, instead of putting the regular water that I put there, If I had been bright, I would've put some of that water in there.

- That sounds good, too.

- Let me go to the sink now.

- Okay.

- Okay.

We're gonna cool it off underneath there.

Cold water.

That's it.

- Hot stuff.

- There are at least three cups of basil and look what's left here by the time you're finished.

- Wow.

- So I press it a little bit.

We put that in there.

Now, tetin, you wanna put some salt in there?

- Salt and pepper?

- No, no, no, no pepper.

Just a bit of salt, that will keep your color.

And then some oil.

Go ahead the oil.

- Just waiting for your fingers to get out of there.

- Yes, that's enough oil to start with.

We'll put the rest of the oil after, you know?

That's it.

(processor whirring) That's it.

That's it.

As you can see now, you put the rest of the oil now.

- It's very creamy.

- For that we put a good two cups, two and a half cups of oil and you can, you know, emulsify it a little more.

That's enough.

You are absolutely right.

It's very creamy now, and you see the color?

- Yeah.

- Now look, I put it into a bottle.

Look at that bottle.

- Oh, wow.

- Because for the time being there is a lot of air in it.

The air is going to come to the top after one day and it's going to get deep green as it is.

And eventually the heavy part is going to separate from the oil, you know.

You can use that paste of basil in the bottom for like a week, you know?

Then after eventually it may start getting sour.

So what you wanna do at that point is to filter it.

That is you put it through a towel, you press it and the clear oil, pure green, you can keep that for months in your refrigerator, you know.

So this is really great to have.

- Cool, yeah.

- Okay, let's check the soup there.

Our soup is okay, is it boiling?

- [Claudine] Yep.

Boiling nicely.

- Now I'm going to reduce the heat a little bit.

- This looks like a pasta sauce.

- Close to, actually you could do a pasta sauce with that.

Okay here.

And now we go on to the rest.

- The fish.

- Our mill.

- Alright.

- What are we doing next?

- You're going over here because I'm gonna make the sauce.

- Oh, you are?

- Yes.

- Okay.

So in your sauce, this is a sauce for a red snapper.

And we're going to roast it whole in the oven.

The bones give a lot of taste to it.

So you want to put what, scallion in there?

- Scallions.

I have to cut everything before I put oil in there, 'cause it takes me longer to cut.

When you cut, it's really fast.

- Oh, well, I cut the head, the head of the snapper here.

I mean, you could cook it whole, but usually, you know what?

You put just under the gill like that.

I slide my knife underneath here to cut the head on this side.

On this side, the same way.

- [Claudine] I'm using the greens just like you taught me.

- Yep.

- Greens will be good.

- And this, Claudine, you want to clean the inside.

Very good.

You want to cut the tail here.

And, can I borrow this?

- Yep.

- Alright.

And of course this here.

- [Claudine] Ooh.

- There it is, the one in the back.

You can start your sauce.

You should have your sauce- - I'm starting, I'm sorry.

- Already.

That's it.

- I have some olive oil and onions and scallions.

Put it in here.

- That's it.

And I want to be sure that inside I clean up.

And now we make an incision on top.

Just three slices like that.

That'd be fine.

Put your white wine in there.

Salt, pepper.

And I want cook that tomato with it.

So we have a very simple... No, you want like three quarter of a cup of wine here.

Cook it.

You have oil in there?

- Yep.

- Okay, you need a- - I didn't have salt, pepper.

- Okay, and a piece of butter.

- Salt.

- And I'm cutting the tomato for you.

- Thank you.

- You could add- - And some fresh oregano.

I can put it in whole or do I need to cut it?

- No, this would be fine, the leaves.

- I think it'll be pretty.

- Yeah.

(food bubbling) Okay.

- Some butter.

- Here is my tomato.

It's a very simple recipe.

So let's see now.

Yes.

Okay.

You want to cook it, bring it to a strong boil.

You wanna put half of this here with your fish, you know?

- [Claudine] Oh, it smells so good with the wine.

- We put the fish right on top of it.

Right.

- [Claudine] Then I put the other half on top?

- Yes, on top of it.

That's it.

Keep going.

And we're going to roast that in the oven about 400 degrees.

And that will take 25 minutes, about, you know.

You wanna put it in the oven, you want me to put it in?

- I can put it in.

- Okay, go ahead.

We have another one there.

I'll clean up the table during that time.

- [Claudine] Thank you.

- Okay, you have another one ready?

- [Claudine] I am getting there.

It's hot, so.

- Okay.

- You have a spot for me, 'cause it's hot.

- Yep.

Ooh.

- There we go.

- That's nice.

What else do we have here?

- Oh, we have a jardiniere like mammi makes it in France.

- Right.

- And the jardiniere is oil, butter, and onions - Garlic - And garlic, yes.

And sauteed with some flour to kind of thicken it.

And then some water.

Then potatoes and carrots, cook for about 10, 12 minutes.

And then at the end, depending on if you have fresh peas or frozen peas, then you put those in at the end because they don't really need to cook for that long.

- So I have the whole filet here.

And that other filet here, Claudine.

You see the way it separates from the bone?

- [Claudine] Mm-hm.

- So I could serve that directly on a plate, serving a portion like this.

- Ooh.

- Look at that here.

The bone, that'd be beautiful.

Just a natural juice.

And when you finish, you can remove that bone and as you can see, that bone will come very easily by itself.

- Okay.

- And that's it.

You serve that at the table.

So, we have the roasted red snapper and the jardiniere de legume in the style of your grandmother.

(mellow music) - We're gonna finish the soup now?

- Now I think we should finish the soup.

The soup is probably, yeah.

You know, I think that when my mother used to do the jardiniere de legume, she put thyme in it.

- I put Herbes de Provence.

- Oh, you put Herbes de Provence in there?

- Yeah.

- Oh, good.

- I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you.

- Alright.

Let's see now, you wanna give me the food mill?

- Yeah.

- As I said before, remember we have a whole clove of garlic here.

So you don't really want to put that in the food processor.

You wanna put that in the food mill.

This is beautiful.

Nice and red, look at that.

I'm putting more.

- I like the kind with electricity.

- Ah, okay, let me finish it, then.

- You wanna put more in there?

- Yeah.

- [Claudine] It looks very nice- - I'll do it.

- And rich.

(food mill whirring) - That's it, huh?

And you can see inside that food mill here, all you have is the skin of the tomato.

- And the garlic.

- You know, the garlic and so forth.

Do you want to emulsify that a little more to get it creamier?

- Okay.

- I'll put that in there.

Leave it right there.

I'm gonna give you a little piece of butter in there.

- Mm.

Always a good addition.

Ready?

- Yeah, go ahead.

(blender whirring) I think that's beautiful.

- That good?

- Yep.

Let me taste it.

Mm, yeah, need a little bit of salt.

Okay.

And now- - Mm.

Oh, that's good.

- Good, huh?

Very nice and simple.

- I really wanna put it on pasta.

- Yes, you could.

- I wanna put everything on pasta.

That's kind of a problem.

- Here we are.

You wanna give me the... I mean, you can serve that without the oil, but it's nice with the oil, yeah.

It give you that- - Oh, wow.

- You know, on top of it a different color.

I mean, that deep green and that strong, strong taste of the oil.

You could taste it now here with the oil.

- Mm.

- Makes a difference, right?

- It really does, that's wonderful!

- And this is the cream of tomato soup with basil oil.

- I remember when I was a kid and we would be in France, we had this many olives all the time.

But it seems like it's pretty new that we have this many olives in the States.

- Yeah, it's amazing now the amount of olives and the quality that you have.

- Yeah.

- First, none of those are in cans, you know?

- Yeah.

- Olives are in brine like this, the canned ones are really not as good.

Then, in my opinion, also the pitted olives are not as good as the one with the pit in - The pitted, oh, okay, with the pits out?

- Yeah, with that bone, that little thing in the middle, you know?

But look at the different one.

For example, those are Picholine, a type of olive from France.

I mean, all around the Mediterranean basin, you're going to have different type of olive and actually a great deal of those, even though sometime they have a French name, Italian name, come from California.

This is the cracked Picholine.

You know, you see it's cracked on top - On purpose?

- Yes.

That's how your mother does the olive when she does the fresh one.

- Oh, okay.

- Remember, once a year.

She take the olives and crack them like this and put them in brine.

They have to be in brine or in lye for a few weeks until they go to the bottom, then she drains them out and then she flavor them like this.

You know, you have orange, garlic, onion, I mean hot pepper.

This is the tiny Nicoise.

- Those are my favorite.

- You like them?

- [Claudine] Yeah.

- No, my favorite, I like the oil-cured, this one, the oil-cured, the black one, you know?

And you can see it even more in this.

You see the way the skin shriveled on the outside?

- [Claudine] Looks like a big raisin.

- Yeah, it shrivels on the outside because it's not in a brine.

It's oil-cured and it dries them out, so very concentrated in taste.

- Okay.

- I love those.

And the large one, the Calamata, the type of the brine that you have them give it a different taste and have got all the seasoning on top.

It's great for aperitif when your friend coming and you keep them four weeks in the refrigerator.

So it's great to have.

And we use them a lot in recipes, chopping them, putting them on top of fish or whatever.

- It's taken me a long time to like olives.

- Yes, it's true.

When I was a kid, I wasn't crazy about it.

I love them now.

- Yeah.

Now I like these.

- So you're not a kid anymore.

- I guess not.

- And now my favorite type of food, the leftover special.

We're going to do a fish, spinach and pasta gratin, all the stuff you like to eat, right?

- Everything all together, too, which is good.

- Alright, so we start with spinach.

I have a bunch of spinach.

You wanna start- - I have olive oil.

- Olive oil.

Take the stem of your spinach, you know if you have big stems like this, but if they are young and tender, it's not really necessary.

We put that on high, the other one, too.

And I'm starting giving you the spinach.

(spinach sizzling) - [Claudine] And I'm gonna add some salt and pepper.

- [Jacques] Salt and pepper.

(spinach sizzling) That's plenty spinach.

- And I'm gonna cover this.

- You wanna cover that?

Salt, pepper.

- Salt, pepper.

- The spinach has just been washed, you know, so there is a little bit of the water and that will start the steaming process.

If not, you could put a little bit of water in there.

- Oh, okay.

- What are we doing there?

- Bechamel.

- Okay.

- I have about a tablespoon of butter.

- Okay, and you want put a bit of oil too?

- Yep.

- Tablespoon of oil.

I'm giving you some flour.

Two tablespoons of flour.

That's more than enough.

- That's what you always say.

- With a little bit of fish that I have left over here, we're going to do a big gratin, enough for a family of six.

So here we are.

You have two cups of milk there, you know?

- Right, you're gonna stir, I'm gonna pour.

- Yeah, wait a minute, let me first mix it.

(whisk scraping) Now it's ready.

- [Claudine] Okay.

- Go ahead, go ahead.

- Oh, alright.

- Yeah.

- Well, usually if I'm mixing and stirring at the same time, I go a little slower.

- Preferably if the roux is hot, the milk should be cold, one and the other.

And that will dilute, there is no catton.

You know what catton is?

- Little dumplings?

- Little dumpling, yes.

Okay, now you can put salt and pepper in it.

- [Claudine] Salt.

- [Jacques] Be sure it's seasoned well.

- [Claudine] It is seasoned perfectly.

- And now what we have here, I think I have about six ounces of farfalle.

You can have any type of pasta.

And this is just cooked, leftover pasta from the day before.

So here we do, you start picking up the meat.

- [Claudine] And putting it in here directly?

- Yeah, you can help me.

Be sure there is no bone.

If you have any bone here, I'll give you a little bowl.

Put your bone in it here.

- Okay.

- You know, you could do other things with it.

You could do a leftover fish, and a cold fish is very good, too.

But I do like the gratin, you know?

- Mm, me too, I like gratin.

- Okay, why don't you stir... There is a wet thing here for your fingers.

- Thank you.

- And stir that bechamel, which is going to boil over at any minute.

Let's put that together.

(whisk scraping) Good.

You can shut off your heat.

That's fine, you can leave it right there.

And this, I'm going to make that... You see, it goes very fast, huh?

- Yeah.

- Okay, check your spinach.

Spinach should be about ready now.

- [Claudine] Oh, that's nice and wilted.

- Yep, that's what you want.

This is nicely seasoned now.

(spinach sizzling) Okay.

We're ready to assemble our gratin.

If you don't want to put the spinach, you don't have to put the spinach in the bottom.

- No, the spinach is perfect on the bottom.

- [Jacques] Look at that.

- Fits very well.

- You could put a little bit of nutmeg in it, be good.

- Oh, yeah.

- Now here is all the pasta and the fish leftovers, you know?

Alright.

Good.

- There.

- What you see, it's a very, very light bechamel as you can see here.

You don't want it thick because, remember, the pasta is going to thicken a little more.

- Oh, okay.

- Then Parmesan cheese on top of it.

As you see, it's a big gratin.

- [Claudine] That is gonna be so good.

- Eight people, you know?

Let's put it in the oven.

You wanna put that in a 400 degree oven?

It's gonna take 25, 30 minutes, you know?

You wanna take that one?

- Alright.

- Alright, I'll open the door for you.

- You'll open the door?

Okay.

- Okay.

Here we are.

And I have another one ready here.

So, oop.

Just about the same, look at that.

- Wow.

Oh, is that gonna- - Yes.

I have it ready right here, ready.

And you say, "Why do we put it on a cookie sheet?"

- Because you always- - I tell you, it would be very hard to pick it up like that and if it spilled- - Oh, and if it's spilled.

- And also if it spilled anywhere, it spilled on your cookie sheet.

If I spill it in the oven- - [Claudine] Mom's gonna be mad.

- Your mother will never talk to me again.

Okay.

So let's serve a portion of that.

- Okay, let me get a plate.

- And you see here, you want to be able to see the spinach in the bottom, you know?

Nice portion of spinach, the gratin.

I know you would like this, right?

Probably even better than the original fish.

- I think so.

This is so my kind of food.

- Yeah.

- Nice and warm and hearty.

- Okay.

I made a bit of a mess here.

- That's usually me.

- Clean the side of my plate.

Here we are.

Okay.

- [Claudine] And this is our gratin of fish and spinach and farfalle.

- Yes.

And now we have a full table of flavor, flavor of Italy.

You know, great food.

It's an international flavor, you know.

It's good all the time.

But, today, what do we have, tetin?

- Well, we have the jardiniere, just like mammi makes.

- That's true.

- Which is really wonderful and flavorful and very healthy.

- It's not too far from Italy, but it's not in Italy.

- Exactly.

- It's in Leon.

- And the gratin, the farfalle gratin, which is great.

- You know, you're looking at the leftovers before- - Yeah, this is good, too.

I love this.

This is very lovely and elegant and- - The roasted fish is very good, because cooked on the bone it has a lot of taste.

- Yeah.

- And it's nice to do it and very easy, just put it in the oven, that's it.

- And the juice is flavored with the bones, too.

- And look at the great soup here.

- [Claudine] The soup looks really... I still wanna put it over pasta.

- You can put it over pasta.

You can do whatever you want in my kitchen.

- Thank you.

- Okay.

So what are we drinking with this?

- I'm having a Sauvignon Blanc Reserve from Napa Valley, which is gonna be acidic and lemony and wonderful with my fish.

- Yeah.

This is about perfect for the fish, but, you know, by the time I get to the leftover gratin, heavy, you know, something very substantial like that, I'll get a Montepulciano here from Italy, which is going to be quite satisfying.

So I'm going to take a little bit of that for myself.

In fact, I'll probably drink both wines anyway.

- That's what I was just gonna say, you'll taste both.

- And I tell you, it was great cooking with you.

I learned something- - Thank you.

- Today from you.

- So did I.

- So let's do it again.

Happy cooking.

- Happy cooking.

(light upbeat music)