-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.

-There are occasions when a recipe needs more -- needs more time, needs more hands.

Needs more fun in the kitchen together.

Panzerotti -- It's easy.

and a crowd pleaser.

Lorenzo and Julia's grandma in Rome, she makes this, and they just love them.

So I said I better learn here.

And now I make it with my grandchildren whenever they ask.

In this recipe, the ricotta becomes the dressing for freshly cooked pasta.

And it is a very elegant soup.

It is light and delicious.

When they were little, I'd always have my kids and grandkids help me with making gnocchi, and this pesto sauce comes together quickly.

There's nothing better than being in the kitchen with your loved ones.

Cook together.

♪♪ A kitchen is a very special place to be together, to pull the family together, to feel that all of the family contributed to that meal.

So cooking together is important, and it's one way of getting small children really comfortable with food, handling food.

You have chores.

"Go out, get the rosemary for me," my grandmother would say, "Get the bay leaves for me."

And I felt good.

You know, I felt part of that meal.

So cooking together has many benefits.

♪♪ I'm ready to go.

Did you get that?

[ Indistinct conversations ] Panzerotti.

Panzerotti -- "panza" almost means stomach in Roman kind of slang.

And these are little pillows, half moons filled with delicious and ham and cheese and then fried.

And these are Julia and Lorenzo's favorite.

But we need to begin with a dough.

Flour.

Salt.

Instant yeast.

Oil.

And water.

Now, these are all measured according to the recipe, but I always have a little extra because sometimes the dough needs a little more flour, it needs a little bit more water.

And the dough is at the right texture as it's doing right now, slowly collecting everything off the bowl.

We'll let it knead a little longer.

And it is done.

It's a little sticky, so I'm going to take a little bit of the flour, work it just a little bit.

You can always add a little flour at the end.

We will let it rise up.

Just a little bit of oil in there so that the dough rises comfortably.

Oil a little bit this.

And set it right in there.

Seal it with some plastic wrap.

Nice and tight.

Let it rise.

And the stuffing is simple.

This is prosciutto cotto.

It's cooked ham.

And could you put prosciutto in here?

Yes, you could put prosciutto.

You could put whatever you like.

Provola cheese shredded on a box grater like that.

And provola cheese cooks wonderfully.

Has a lot of flavor.

Okay.

Grated cheese.

And it's not a wet filling.

It's, you know, you almost kind of squeeze it together with your hands.

And a little basil.

♪♪ So this is the way it is.

And you can see how you can first toss it well, and then we can pull together a little stuffing like that to put in the dough once we roll out the dough.

So I have my dough.

I have my stuffing.

I let this rise for about an hour and a half.

I want it nice and fluffy, and then we'll fill them and fry them.

Here I am again, reading your e-mails.

"My husband surprised me on my birthday with a pizza making party."

That's fun.

"We all had such a great time and the pizza was delicious.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

Barbara."

Brava!

I love that you beckoned everybody to the table.

I love this picture.

Nice party.

Everybody feels part, and that's what I predicate all the time.

Cook together.

Get in the kitchen together.

Thanks, Barbara.

The dough has risen.

It is time to start rolling.

A little bit of flour.

You don't want the dough to stick.

♪♪ Cut it in half.

We'll work half at the time.

[ Thump ] You hear that thump?

That means that the dough has risen well.

[ Thump ] Now...

Altogether, this dough makes about six out of each half.

And this is the size.

One.

♪♪ One good one here.

And these are very simple.

As I said, you just put the filling with your hands and let's do kind of -- let's be efficient.

Let's put it that way.

That's that.

And you just now you can close it with the fork with this, but just press it a little down so that it fries evenly.

This kind of fried dough stuffed with -- it's traditional.

I mean, it's almost like a pizza dough.

It rises almost like a bread dough.

And then you go on and fill it and fry it with anything else.

And sometimes these turned into sweet elements too.

My grandmother would take leftover bread dough, make them into these little panzerotti, and put a little jam in there and fry them, topped them with sugar, and even though the dough wasn't sweet, by the time the jam and the sugar, it became sweet for us.

And we will fry these.

It should be about 350.

Make sure you seal them good before you put them in.

Keep an eye on it.

You don't want them to burn.

So flip them over.

Sometimes they're stubborn.

They put the belly up, panzerotti, and don't want to turn.

Okay, I think the dough is cooked on these.

Pick these up.

♪♪ Okay.

And I'll fry the rest of the panzerotti, and we're done.

Here is another e-mail.

Javette.

"I have a hilarious kitchen tale for you.

I made your 'Sausage and Peppers' recipe, but here's the twist -- I accidentally used extra hot sausage!

Despite the unexpected heat, it still tasted fantastic!

My family couldn't stop eating, albeit with a few tears in their eyes."

Love that.

"Thanks for the recipe, even if I added a spicy twist.

Best, Javette."

Unintentionally, you created a hilarious dinner.

Oh, this looks good.

It looks great.

Keep on cooking.

Who knows what surprises you'll come up with next?

And keep me posted.

They're done.

They're still nice and warm because you want the cheese in there to be melted.

I like to serve a little bit of spicy marinara with it.

A little more.

Pile up the panzerotti.

This is butlered family style in the middle of the table.

Mmm.

And of course, one for Lidia.

Mmm.

What would I serve with this?

A nice red wine to sip away sort of with a nice little salad.

You can almost have lunch, turn it into lunch.

But I do need a little bit of basil and let me see what's in here.

Oh, look at this.

This is what you want, right?

Right?

Mmm.

Mmm.

Sometimes you chew things and keep on chewing on them for many different reasons.

The texture maybe you want to get smaller but sometimes you just want to maximize the flavor that's there, and that's what's here.

It's really, really good.

Good texture and good flavor.

I'm going to continue to eat.

And now how about a little dip just like that.

Mmm.

Even better.

Minestra di Ricotta.

Ah, ricotta soup.

You know, I love ricotta.

My mother loved the ricotta.

Grandma had two goats, milk it every morning and have it for breakfast.

And whatever was leftover turned into ricotta.

But the whey, whatever was left in that pan, that she made into soup.

So nothing got wasted.

So how would you do that?

You need to make your fresh pasta dough.

Cut it in pappardelle.

Fresh ricotta.

You can make your own or you could buy ricotta.

Don't necessarily have to make it.

And a little bit of olive oil with basil, ground pepper, and some freshly grated Pecorino-Romano.

So cooked your pappardelle in salted water.

And once they're cooked, put them in a bowl, let them be soupy, and also reserve some of the pasta water.

Put your ricotta, a little of the pasta water, oil, salt, pepper, some peperoncino, and mix, mix, mix so you can see you have your pasta.

The pasta is your star.

And you just pull it out, wet, sort of soupy, dress it up with basil and some Pecorino-Romano.

And it is a very elegant soup.

You serve it in a soup bowl, and it's delicious.

Get everybody involved.

Gnocchi con salsa di Erice.

Boiled potatoes, and you rice them.

And that's what gnocchis are all about.

Potato gnocchis.

Mm-hmm.

Spread them out because I want them to cool.

The one important thing about making gnocchi is that the potatoes are cooled when you begin to knead them into a dough.

Put a little bit of salt in there and let them just chill out.

So we have some time.

Let's see who has been reaching out to me.

"Could you please tell us what is the difference between Pecorino-Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano?

Is one better than the other for pasta and/or sauces?

Thank you!

Joan."

The Pecorino-Romano is a cheese made from 100% sheep's milk.

It's intense in flavor because the sheep graze on wild grass, and it's delicious and good.

And it really brings a lot of flavor, especially pasta.

So if you want that extra punch in your pasta dressing or in your soup, Pecorino-Romano is the cheese.

Now, Parmigiano-Reggiano is more on the northern side of Italy and is made 100% of cow's milk.

It has a complex and yet mild flavor.

It's crumbly.

It has a texture.

Where do you use it?

Well, in the north polentas, risottos, soups.

Anything that you kind of want to add that extra flavor, but it's not the complexity of Pecorino, of a sheep's milk.

So let's get into the gnocchi.

Yes, this has chilled.

Let's put an egg sort of to bind.

And, you know, sometimes you see just throw the whole egg in there and it's okay.

You need to mix it.

But a gnocchi dough, you don't work that much.

You don't mix it that much.

So I like to whisk my egg before I put it in.

Okay.

And flour.

And it's as simple as that.

You know, you can put cheese in there.

You can put nutmeg in there, all kinds of things.

But this is the simple recipe for the traditional gnocchi.

So I am kind of tossing this around so that the flour surrounds the potatoes.

And, you know, I always have a little bench flour.

And of course everybody wants light gnocchi.

Well, it's all about how much flour you add.

If you add too much flour, if you keep on kneading, if you keep on -- If the potatoes are hot and retain a lot of water and will need more flour, all that leads to lead gnocchi.

So if you follow my recipe, you'll get the exact amount of flour needed.

But, you know, there's always that discrepancy.

The potatoes maybe are a little extra watery.

And so bench flour is always good to have.

So once the dough is all together, just like that, you don't want to put more flour.

As you're working it, it will absorb more flour.

But the one thing I want to show you is, you see, this is the dough.

It's almost like Crisco or even ice cream.

When you scoop it, it has these ridges.

It doesn't look like a smooth bread dough.

So this is where you want to be.

Put a little bit of flour here.

And we're going to begin to work.

And one piece at the time.

And you roll it into a cardoon.

Right.

So, you know, you want them all the same size.

Like that.

All right.

And here you see how you can use extra hands.

You know, one could be rolling this, the dough just like that.

One could be on the other side doing the same thing.

So if you have 10 people, yeah, absolutely, you have hands on deck.

All hands on deck.

You want to eat gnocchi, get in the kitchen.

And flour it a little bit.

And then you set up another station of actually shaping the gnocchi.

So make sure that you have flour because you don't want them to stick.

And this is a gnocchi board.

So you can do it with a fork.

Or you can do it with a gnocchi board, and I'll show you.

These are cute little gadgets.

They're inexpensive.

And flour just like that.

Okay.

And now we start.

So your thumb goes in and just rolls it down.

Your thumb goes in and you just roll it down, just like that.

And what you want, precisely that.

The little indentation from your thumb, that's where the sauce goes.

And the ridges for that texture feeling.

So they don't slide down without enjoying them.

You know, I always talk to you about texture and the Italians liking the texture.

Their al dente, whether it's pasta or whether it's rice.

So okay, so we have this.

And how do we do with the fork if you don't have one of that?

Okay, the same thing.

You roll it down like that and voilà.

Make sure you don't over push, because then you'll smash it against the tines of the fork.

But like that, your thumb goes in, press it, and as you're pressing it, push it down.

I'm going to use my little board and keep on shaping them because that's easy for me.

Don't overcrowd it.

I'm going to finish making this and we'll make a quick sauce, an interesting quick sauce.

We'll cook the gnocchi and then we'll be ready to eat.

Here comes another one.

I'm having fun with this.

And this one is from Michelle.

"Can you tell me what to do with wilted (but not turning black yet) basil?

I hate to throw it out.

Thank you very much!

Michelle."

You know, what you want in any fresh herb is the freshness.

But it still has some aroma and flavors left in it.

The best thing is just make a marinara sauce, throw the whole stem and let it cook, and then remove it and discard it.

But next time what you do is you take your basil, put it in a small container, fill it with water, seal it, put it in the freezer, and when you're ready to cook, you just defrost it and proceed.

Yes, they're wilted, but they're still green and fresh and smelling good.

Michelle, thank you very much for sending in and for watching the show.

Keep on writing.

I will keep on reading and answering.

Ciao.

We made the gnocchi, and we need to make a sauce for the dressing.

Pesto a la Erice -- Now, pesto in Italy is made in all kinds of different ways with all different ingredients.

But let's begin with the basil.

That's the basil.

All right.

Toasted almonds.

Garlic, of course.

And some salt.

And let's get chopping.

So I'm looking -- you know, you can have your pesto a little chunky, but this looks great.

So let's put the gnocchis to cook.

Abundant boiling salted water.

And let's slowly drop them in.

The more you handle them, the more you kind of squeeze them and they get stuck.

So I use my famous dough scraper to do just that.

Okay, at this point this will do.

Just give it one little mix and they'll come up to boil in no time.

So here I have a pan, and I'm just going to use it to dress my gnocchis because pesto should never be cooked, should just be tossed in the pasta.

And I need to slosh and get everything out.

And what's different about this gnocchi with pesto a la Erice is that they put in some chopped cooked eggs.

Does it add a lot of flavor?

I think it's just a source of protein.

They have a lot of pasta, a lot of herbs.

And then of course they want to add the proteins.

And you know, there was not much meat to be had.

So a boiled chopped egg is delicious.

Okay.

Let me just...

So gnocchi, once they come up, they're fluffy.

They're done.

You know, you don't have to cook them.

Let them boil 2, 3 minutes and they are done.

The best way is to really fish them out like that, because if you strain them, chances are they'll kind of squash.

But, you know, I love my spider, so always have one on hand.

And if you want to cook like Lidia, it's a spider and it's a dough scraper.

These two things is a la Lidia.

Okay, close that and let's toss them.

Look how beautiful they look.

Mamma mia!

Do I have a lot of pesto?

Yeah, but, you know, gnocchis are doughy.

It smells so delicious.

I'm going to put in some Pecorino-Romano.

You know, we're in Sicily, Erice is in Sicily, and they use a lot of Pecorino-Romano.

And so it is.

Now, how would you like to serve this?

So I think that this is family style.

So let's get a nice platter.

And of course, one for Lidia.

And let's get going.

Now I escort myself.

Maybe a little more.

And Lidia's plate.

I love my gnocchis a la Erice.

♪♪ Mm-hmm.

For Lidia.

Okay.

And voilà!

The gnocchis are here.

So choose a nice, dry Sicilian white wine.

Some cheese, some grated cheese.

Maybe just a little bit more of the Pecorino-Romano.

Just like that.

Just leave it on the table like that.

Let them help themselves.

And when I have good food, and especially such a bowl full of food, I want to invite you.

And I always do.

And what do I say?

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

Allora.

Mmm.

Deliciozo.

[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ So now you have to give a chance for Nonni to knead all this together.

Let me get it.

Take the flour.

I need some more flour.

So spread some more flour.

All these hands.

All these hands here.

[ Laughter ] Go ahead.

Go for it.

It's nice to be in the kitchen with Nonni?

-Very nice.

-But of course we're gonna eat after all of this.

-That's the best part.

-You ready for it?

-I'm ready.

-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... ♪♪ ♪♪