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

ANNOUNCER: For over 140 years, Auricchio traditional hand-crafted provolone, made in Italy.

ANNOUNCER: Authentic Italian cured meats.

Paolo Rovagnati -- The true Italian tradition.

ANNOUNCER: And by... LIDIA: I'm keeping it all fresh today with summertime ingredients that need little or no cooking.

An eye-catching salad of shrimp & sweet melon is dressed up in a bright, minty pesto.

Juicy, ripe tomatoes create a simple, fresh, classic sauce when tossed with hot rigatoni and mozzarella.

Get ready for the family to ask for seconds.

From garden to plate, let's keep it fresh.

♪ I feel it's all about the food.

Even as a chef, if I don't have the product in my hand, there's not much I can do.

I cannot make any products.

So, the freshness, being connected to the source of food, being close to the source of food, staying with the seasonality, the maturity of different fruits, different vegetables, is the most important thing.

If I go to a market and I see beautiful things, I get stimulated.

I don't need a recipe.

You buy this, you buy this, you buy that.

When I get it all in front of me, I know what I'll make.

I'll make something because the food is going to speak to me.

And so it is maybe because I grew up in a setting where, you know, I helped grow food, raise the animals.

When it was time to pick potatoes.

I would be there, picking up the little ones, not to leave them alone.

And picking up the piece, I knew which ones were full and ready.

I ate the small ones because they were sweeter, right off the plant.

And there is something when you eat, cut, or cook into this freshness.

The aromas, the crunch, the sound, the feel.

So it's not about how I can transform or make something else of that food.

It's just how I can exalt it and give thanks to these gifts of nature and feed the best to the family and to the friends.

♪ Today it's a fresh day and I'm in the garden, after all, so, I'm going to make a shrimp salad.

I have some salted water boiling.

Let me get some bay leaves to give it some flavor.

Two.

I have fresh bay leaves in my garden, as you can see.

These are shrimps.

Let's put it right in.

Okay.

Going to just give it a mix.

And I have some beautiful honeydew melon and some cantaloupe.

And the melon is simple.

You just take off the seeds.

Just like that.

Scrape them right out.

Okay.

So, how do you go about cutting a melon?

Let me show you.

Simple.

You can make little melon balls, but, you know, with melon balls, you do have some waste and you know how I am about wasting.

I want to use everything, so I'm going to make it into cubes.

♪ And you go around, just like that.

Going to cut it just like that.

And in it goes.

♪ I'm looking at the size and I'm making them a little bigger because the shrimps are nice-sized shrimps.

♪ And again.

Cut it.

♪ Just in slices, like that.

♪ Mm-hmm.

♪ Okay.

♪ So you can see this, in itself, the freshness of it.

So I'm looking at the shrimps.

♪ This is cooked for me.

I'm going to just fish it all out and I'll put it right in the ice water.

Let it cool.

♪ Just like that.

Okay.

So, now, I'm going to clean up and we get to make the pesto.

Benvenuti to my cozy library and a place where you and I share information.

You ask, I answer.

This is a familiar face.

Carter, I think you sent in a video about chickens as well.

Let's see what Carter wants.

-Ciao, Lidia!

I am currently in a friend's garden and it's incredible and I'm curious -- for someone who lives in the city and has much less space, if I want to start a garden of my own, what three things would you recommend that I start with?

Thank you.

-I think, if you're in the city and you're in an apartment, windowsill is your only outlet to sun, or if you have a terrace.

And herbs are the first thing to go to.

So, your favorite herbs.

Get a little plant, its own little vase, and take care of it.

I have here, actually, a pot of planted cucumbers.

The plant has really expanded.

It is hanging and has yielded fruit already for me.

So, consider that.

Tomatoes?

Do the same, you know.

A good plant of healthy tomato will yield some tomato for you, if you take care of it.

Peppers -- peperoncinos and all of that -- they will do well.

So, you know, take two or three things, I think -- peperoncino, a tomato, a cucumber.

And some herbs -- sage, basil.

And you got yourself a beautiful array.

You can make a salad -- cucumber and tomatoes.

So good luck to you, Carter.

Thank you for writing in again and enjoy your garden.

I hope you get a good one.

Keep me posted.

Let me know how it's doing, okay?

Well, we're ready to make the pesto.

Basil, nice leaves of fresh basil.

Some mint.

And, you know, usually half and half.

Some lemon, lemon juice in there.

Let's see.

There's a pit here.

There's a pit here.

Okay.

Sometimes it's best to use a strainer right underneath or squeeze in a little bowl and then use the juice.

Let's put this back on.

Let's put some salt in here.

Let's give it a whirl.

I think that's enough.

Some celery.

And, you know, I like to use the leaves of the celery and everything.

So I'm looking at the chunks.

You know, the celery could be a little on the chunky side.

Mm-hmm.

And I want to put some lettuce in there.

Let me open it up.

These leaves are more appropriate and they'll look nicer.

The outside leaves are a little greener and you can certainly use it for another salad.

Do I have enough here?

Let me just toss it a little bit.

♪ I think I have enough.

Let's add the shrimps in there.

♪ I think this needs a little bit of salting, as a whole.

Now.

Let's take the dressing.

And you know what I tell you all the time about the dressing?

Save some because you don't want to overdress your salad.

You can always add, but taking it out is problematic, once you have put it all in.

Does this look good, fresh, nice?

So, let's plate it on this beautiful plate.

And I have some basil right here that I'm going to decorate with.

♪ I'm looking at this salad.

Okay, maybe I can make a frame.

And let's see.

And, now, let's just kind of let it flow right into the plate, just like that.

♪ Mmm!

♪ Okay!

This looks good!

♪ Oh!

I forgot Lidia.

Got to taste.

I think just like that.

♪ And then, I saved some basil.

A little basil will be just the decoration on top of it all.

♪ So here we are.

Inviting.

It's beautiful.

It's fresh.

So let's bring it to the table.

And easy.

It's actually an easy setting.

So, here I go for the tasting.

Melon.

Mmm!

♪ Mmm.

Wow!

I didn't know it was this good.

[ Laughs ] I can just sit here and enjoy.

So, I'm going to finish this.

I might go for a little more.

Make sure you make it.

♪ Some of my favorite time in the kitchen has been teaching my grandchildren to grow into confident cooks and, these days, even though they're living on their own, that doesn't mean they stop asking for my advice.

♪ [ Ring ] Hi, Lorenzo!

LORENZO: Ciao, Nonna.

LIDIA: How are you doing?

What are you up to?

LORENZO: Working and, you know, doing all that fun stuff.

You invited a few people back to my place just to, you know, hang out.

It was a bit last-minute, but I made peaches and white wine.

LIDIA: Was it a hit?

LORENZO: It was a very big hit.

LIDIA: You put peaches and what else?

LORENZO: I put some mint, sort of like macerated that inside as well, and some pitted cherries.

LIDIA: And white wine, right?

LORENZO: Yes.

The recipe called for a spumante, but I didn't have that line around, so I just used white wine.

LIDIA: If you wanted to spruce it up a little bit, you could put a little bit of peach schnapps in there, if you have it.

And the rest sounds great -- peaches, cherries, mint.

And, if you let it macerate, that's a great drink.

LORENZO: Could I use frozen peaches, if I don't have any ripe ones lying around or if they're out of season?

LIDIA: Absolutely.

Just be careful of the syrup or however they're frozen.

Usually, they're frozen without the syrup.

So, yeah, give it a try.

LORENZO: Could you use, for example, cherries in syrup, if, you know, you don't want to go through the trouble of like, you know, pitting them?

LIDIA: Absolutely.

Let's say that cherries are not in season.

You could use a little bit of the Amarena cherries and its syrup.

You know, the syrup is sweet, it has a color, and it will really bring color and sweetness to your drink.

LORENZO: You know, I never thought of that, but that sounds amazing.

And I remember when we were on the Amalfi Coast and we had the same thing.

I think it was literally just peaches, you know, sitting in white wine.

I could be wrong.

LIDIA: Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Those peaches there are so aromatic that they just let out all of the flavors, in season, in the white wine.

But think of the bellini.

Peach purée in with a Prosecco, and that's a bellini, you know, so, the mention of a bellini goes back to a tradition.

LORENZO: Yeah, I mean, you really can't go wrong with a bellini.

LIDIA: My grandfather used to do peaches, almost as a meal like that.

LORENZO: Nonna, this would be your grandfather, right, so this would be my great-great-grandfather?

Nonna Mima's father.

He used to take beautiful peaches, ripe peaches, in red wine and he let them macerate there for a half an hour and that was his dinner.

LORENZO: Wow, that is so cool!

You know, it feels really good to be, you know, doing something that my great-great-grandfather used to do.

What would you serve with this?

I'm curious.

LIDIA: You know what I would serve with this?

A nice roasted chicken with some nice roasted potatoes and a nice salad.

LORENZO: Sounds delicious.

LIDIA: Lorenzo, enjoy the city, entertain your friends, make good dishes for them, and I'll be waiting for you to come and shop over at Grandma's.

LORENZO: Certo, Nonna.

I love you very much and I'll see you soon.

LIDIA: Grandma is there whenever they need you.

Whether they need a product, whether they need a recipe, whether they need a hug -- it's always Grandma.

Grandma's ready.

♪ No chef can top the flavor of nature and the good freshness in season.

So today I'm going to make pasta salad tossed with beautiful tomatoes, some mozzarella, some pesto -- 1, 2, 3.

So I have the water cooking.

I cut, already, some of the tomatoes.

And what you want to do is that you want to cut small pieces of tomato.

Not too small, because you want to really feel them, but you do want sort of for them to mingle with the pasta, shall we say?

This is an heirloom tomato.

Do you need to have an heirloom tomato?

Whatever's beautiful, whatever's in season.

You can do plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes.

What's important, when you cut tomatoes, is that you have a sharp knife.

If you don't have a sharp knife, a serrated knife will take you a long way without you squashing your tomatoes, if you will.

The tomatoes, nice and juicy.

Some salt.

♪ A little peperoncino.

Just like that.

A little bit of oil.

Just like that.

Okay.

I'm going to toss this.

♪ And I'm going to let this sort of marinate a little bit.

Here, I have some salted water boiling.

And these are mezze rigatoni.

So here we go.

Let's just... Let's bring it to a boil.

The tomatoes are marinating and we'll get to the pasta next.

So, here, an email from Jen about my garden.

Thank you for the compliment.

I work hard in my garden and I love it.

I am in the Northeast here and you have a growing season.

Spring, you plant.

You harvest into the summer and then, fall, it's all finished.

So, I have eggplants.

I have tomatoes.

I have cucumbers.

I have Swiss chard.

I have beets.

I have radicchio.

I have celery.

I have cabbage.

I have a few of each and I love having the diversity in my garden.

In the house, as far as herb, my bay leaf tree.

I roll it in every winter, but I do put it in a sunny spot in the house.

The other herbs -- whether it's rosemary, whether it's thyme, whether it's sage -- it's very difficult to bring them from the outside in.

You can begin growing them inside and they get used to, acclimated to, the inside.

You might have success with basil, with sage, and all of that.

So, I love my garden.

It's one of my favorite things to do.

And then, I love to reap all the results and the products and the gifts that I get from my garden.

Jen, you know, do you have a garden?

Start planting one.

Keep me posted.

Let me know.

Send me pictures.

Thank you, Jen.

Let me cut the mozzarella now.

Of course, nice, freshly handmade mozzarella.

All about freshness.

And you can see that this is a mozzarella that, you know, has a nice texture.

It's not that really hard mozzarella.

So, I would, you know, not cut it too small.

Just like that.

And let's throw it in there.

Let's cut.

Okay.

Let me check on the pasta.

Hmm!

It's perfect.

And I'm going to fish it right out and put it right in here.

The fact that it's warm, it's okay because it warms up the tomatoes, melts up a little bit of the mozzarella.

I never rinse my pasta.

You can drain it.

That's okay.

But, do not rinse it because you want that little stickiness to the pasta.

That's where the sauce will adhere.

So let's make a quick pesto.

Garlic.

♪ Basil.

Parsley.

♪ I'm going to put a little bit of salt.

A little bit of peperoncino.

♪ And... let's get going with the oil.

Don't be afraid of the oil because you have no condiment in here and you need to dress all of this up.

Let me just mix.

Let me see how this is.

Mmm!

Let's put the pesto.

Mmm!

This pesto looks good.

Let's give this pasta a mix.

So.

Alright.

And, now, the grated cheese.

And that goes on just before you serve it, the last minute.

A little bit of grated cheese kind of binds the whole thing because you have a lot of juice on the bottom from the tomatoes.

Alright.

I'm just going to give it a minute to all settle together.

I'm going to clean up and we'll be ready to serve it.

So here is an email from Bev.

So, you know, whatever you like is what's right.

If you're tasting it, then, you know, at the moment, taste it more than once, as you're getting closer to the doneness that you want.

I like mine al dente.

I'll test it, one.

I'll pull one out and I'll give it a bite and I know exactly how much more, maybe another minute or two.

You might have to taste two, three times to get the doneness that you like.

So keep on tasting and, you know, try the al dente.

Us Italians really believe in that.

It's good.

It gives you kind of a bite to the pasta.

Thank you, Bev.

Alright!

This is so delicious.

The freshness of the tomatoes, of the pesto.

Everything is raw and, yet, it seems cooked into a sauce.

Let me plate it now.

We're ready to go to the table.

♪ And you see how juicy it is?

You know, the tomatoes have let their sauce and then, it combines with the cheese.

And, as you notice, I just use a little plate to follow me.

And you se?

There's a drop there, so.

And, you know, sometimes people tend to really kind of position food.

I like food just to flow where it might and the plate looks kind of more natural, I think.

So I have a little bit left for Lidia and maybe a little refill.

Let me put a little piece of mozzarella.

Now, let's put some juice here.

♪ Okay.

I am going to, now, officially taste.

And tomato and the sauce.

Mmm!

Deliciously fresh.

I like it.

It's just kind of just warm.

The pasta kind of warms everything up.

So, this looks beautiful, nice and fresh.

Here we are.

And, of course, it needs just a little bit of decoration.

I have here some beautiful basil to kind of refresh the flavor of the basil inside And what would I drink with this?

Well, I would drink a lot of things with this, but I think a nice Sangiovese.

I happen to have a glass right here and it has a lot of body, a lot of flavor.

And, here, the freshness of the ingredients are intense and a good glass of Sangiovese will do it right.

So, tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Salute!

So, my message to you is simple -- get to know your neighbors, your farmers.

You know, I was in Rome and doing research, of course, and Romans use, a lot, the heads of fennel.

So there was this big mound of fennel heads and there was this vendor, this older man, and his hands, the crack of his hands were full of dirt.

That morning, he was in the dirt before he came.

The hands were really hands of a farmworking person.

And I said, "He'll know exactly what to do with this fennel."

So I said, "Signore, come cucina questo finocchio?"

"Sir, how do you cook this?

Do you have a recipe?"

He looked at me and he almost smirked and he said, "Finocchio cotto non vale un fico secco."

What does that mean?

"Cooked fennel is not worth a dried fig."

For him, it was all about the raw fennel, the crunch you get when you eat raw fennel.

So, here you go.

As a chef, I wanted to cook.

He says, "No, appreciate it as it is in its natural state."

So, Grandma has been following us and she will escort us to our beautiful table.

ERMINIA: ♪ In mezzo ♪ [ Lidia joins ] ♪ Al mare ♪ ♪ E viva el mar ♪ ERMINIA: ♪ C'è un bastimento ♪ LIDIA: ♪ C'è un bancheta ♪ ERMINIA & LIDIA: ♪ E viva el mar ♪ ♪ E viva el mar ♪ ♪ Son mari-marinaio e viva l'amore ♪ ♪ E viva el mar ♪ ♪ Son mari-marinaio e viva l'amor ♪ 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 1-800-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.

And by... ANNOUNCER: Olitalia, "From chef to chef."

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