-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.

-I grew up on the Adriatic, and it is second nature for me to cook all kinds of fish, maybe even first nature.

And I want that for you, too.

Growing up in Istria, sardines were abundant.

I've tasted and prepared them many ways, but this is by far my favorite.

Just follow me.

You can do this.

We can do it together.

I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.

Anchovies are sautéed to complement the mellow licorice flavor of fennel.

They're different flavors, but they all take you to Italy.

Chopped finely, I like to serve it on bruschetta to remind me of the sandwiches I ate as a child.

This has got to be one of my favorite dishes.

The simple pasta, and the pasta absorbs all the sauce and the flavor of the seafood, a little tomato, a little garlic, and it's just buonissimo.

Let's sail into the bounty of the sea.

Take a chance.

♪♪ You know, I want you to get out of your comfort zone.

Getting into the act of actually also doing your herbs, which I love.

So, what do herbs do?

They add, of course, a lot of flavor, especially when cooking with fish, you know.

So it's the fresh herbs that will make the difference.

And you know how much I love bay leaves.

And so I'm going to give it some love, because it is in a small pot, and I wanted to grow bigger so I have more leaves to work with.

Let me get this here.

I love sardines, I love anchovies, and these herbs help me to bring out their flavor.

I really want you to get comfortable in cooking fish.

I know you can, and it's delicious.

And it's the little things that will take you there.

So get in the kitchen, roll up your sleeves, and get into that fish and follow Lidia's recipes, because I give you plenty of fish recipes.

[ Indistinct conversations in distance ] ♪♪ Did you get that?

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ Sarde al forno.

You all write in, "More seafood.

I want to know how to cook more seafood."

Well, just follow me.

We can do it together.

Sardines.

Great fish.

Inexpensive.

It's seasonal.

Make sure that you get it nice and fresh.

You see the color of this sardine?

This is the way it is.

And your nose is a great, great teller of fish.

And fishy -- Like, a fresh fishy, like, of the sea, is good.

If it stinks a little bit, then it's not good.

You want to get the sardine -- This is usually the size of the sardines.

You want to get it to this situation.

Look how beautiful.

It's very easy.

So, here is the sardine.

Sometimes the sardine has a little scale.

So do scrape it a little bit.

You see, like here?

Okay?

And you want to cut off the head.

We don't want to use the head.

And then you go in with your thumb.

You just press along the side.

Look, how easy is this?

This is the backbone.

And you just pull it off.

Now, how complicated was that?

And then you snap it off right here.

Just a little snap.

And this is one.

Let me show you again on the other one.

This -- There's the scales.

And you want the scales off as much as possible.

Let's cut off the head just like that.

Usually they come -- the inside comes clean.

They have -- They have the innards.

But usually this is how you will get them.

And with your finger, slowly, nice and easy, you just press in there, and it opens up.

And then you catch.

And here comes the backbone.

Just snap it off a little bit with the -- with the point of a knife.

And here we have the fillet.

Now, you don't want to overwash it, but you do want to wash it.

You don't want to sort of have it soaking in water.

Just want it wash it like that and put it like that.

And again, just like that.

Its inside is clean.

You just want to pat it dry.

That was easy, right?

Absolutely.

So, let's make the breading.

Regular bread crumbs, parsley.

♪♪ Okay.

And here I have thyme.

And what I did is -- here you have the thyme stems -- I just peeled off the little leaves, and I'm going to chop them up just a little bit.

♪♪ Put that in here.

Let me just mix it up a little bit here, and I'll put some grated cheese.

♪♪ I think that's enough.

Maybe a little bit of salt.

The sardines -- you know, they're from the sea, but they're not all that salty.

And the flavor will come from the bread crumbs.

Oil.

Olive oil.

Good olive oil.

And you put just enough olive oil to get kind of the bread crumbs wet.

You see, I'm sort of breaking down any clumps, but I can see that I have enough oil in here, and then we'll put some oil on top.

Now let's bake them.

Baking pan -- a good baking pan that they lay flat.

Even a cookie pan.

Just have to be careful that you -- This is cast iron, so it gives heat from underneath and from the top, and they cook evenly.

If you have a thinner pan, then they cook from one side, maybe not from the other.

A little bit of oil, again to line the bottom.

Brush all the corners.

Okay?

And then the bay leaves.

You know, we had bushes and bushes of bay leaves, bushes of rosemary.

It was used a lot as a cooking element.

And just lining the bottom of this pan, we lay the sardines right on top.

You know, I remember going fishing, being just on a -- on a -- by the -- by the sea, and the fishermen coming on my -- my uncle throwing the net, and they would pull up, and the sardines would drop all over the piers.

As kids, we had fun with that.

We would catch them and then go home and help to clean them.

It was great because my uncle would take the fish that he would catch, and he would clean the fish in the sea.

There's a sort of an organic element to all of that.

And the fish had that delicious smell of the sea.

So, here we are.

This is on the bottom.

So, now garlic.

And I'm just going to put a little dab of oil in the garlic, because I want the garlic to be kind of dressed, as well.

So, you can see the flavor that the sardines are going to get from the bay leaves, from the garlic.

Mmm.

And now we line it with some of the bread.

♪♪ And now the sardines are going to go in.

So... ♪♪ Easy enough?

I think so.

And delicious.

Could you do this with another fish?

You could do this.

You could do this with a fillet of fish.

It's just a question of cooking time.

How thick of a fish you're putting in here and how long will it take to cook?

So...

But you could do this with other fish.

Okay, I'm going to put some more bread crumbs.

♪♪ Drizzle just a little bit of oil.

Since the sardines don't take a long time to cook, you need high, quick cooking and temperature.

So, 400-degree hot oven.

Put it in about 20 minutes, they're done.

Let's do it.

♪♪ I love it when you guys write to me.

Let's see what you need to know.

Mimi.

How are you doing, Mimi?

"Will the pan-seared halibut with balsamic reduction work out as nicely using a halibut without skin?"

The halibut is a flaky fish, and if it's too thin and if you take the skin away, it might sort of flake on you while you're cooking it.

But if you're careful, it might not.

You can cook it with or without the skin.

Depends on the size, the thickness of your halibut fish and you being careful when you flip it over.

Thanks, Mimi.

♪♪ Ah, my beautiful sardines.

They are ready, out of the oven.

Perfect with a great salad or even as hors d’oeuvres.

And I know you're wondering, "How about the bay leaves?"

Well, let's see what's going to happen to the bay leaves.

Let me serve you.

There you go.

You see?

The bay leaf come up with it underneath, and you serve it just like that with the bay leaf.

Absolutely.

Now, where's my little plate?

Let's do Lidia's plate.

That's it.

Mmm.

I'm going to eat it.

And you say, "Oh, Lidia, you're going to eat the bay leaves."

No, no, you cut this.

And you just slide it off the bay leaf.

The bay leaf goes on the side.

And voilà.

♪♪ Mmm.

I need something to wash it down.

Some good Prosecco DOC will do the trick.

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Delicious.

You must do it.

Promise?

♪♪ Finocchio con acciughe e olive.

Let me find a good recipe to share.

It's like telling you a story, you know?

So, this looks like a nice recipe.

It has anchovies in there.

You can omit it, but try it with the anchovies.

Most of the time, good anchovy to buy is the one packed in olive oil.

because the anchovies in the salt, you have to wash them, you have to scrape them, and they are a bit more intense.

So, for this dish, you need very few ingredients.

Nice, large, firm fennel bulbs, cut in inch chunks, Then, one large onions cut in the same fashion, peperoncino flakes, six anchovies, and some Cerignola olives.

Cerignola is a place in Italy, and the Cerignola olives are really big olives.

They're used sometimes to make olive oil, but they're really used for brining and for antipastos and for pasta dishes, so in this, it is really good.

And the technique is rather simple.

In a skillet, the olive oil, fennel, and the onion, and -- and you add a little bit of water, because the fennel needs to cook a little bit.

Season it with the peperoncino and the salt.

When it's halfway tenderized, add the anchovies.

And you can add the whole anchovies, or you can chop it up a little bit and let it disintegrate in there.

And of course, the olives.

So, you can imagine the complexity of this simple dish.

You have anchovies, you have olives, you have fennel.

Different flavors, but they all take you to Italy.

How would I serve it?

Certainly, it's a great dish for a buffet, because you can make it in advance, you can serve it at room temperature, you can serve it warm, it could be an appetizer.

Also, after it is cooked, chop it up, and it makes a great topping for a bruschetta.

So, if you have any left over, that's the ideal way to serve it.

♪♪ Pasutice all'Istriana con Pesce.

Pasutice with seafood -- it's one of my favorite pastas.

And it's pasutice or maltagliati , "oddly cut," are kind of rhomboid shapes of pasta.

And they're delicious with seafood sauce.

Let's start with the flour.

And I'm just going to aerate the flour a little bit before I put in the liquid part.

So, there's a little bit of water, 2 eggs.

And I don't want to hear this business, "I can't make pasta -- fresh pasta."

Look how easy it is.

This is it.

Some oil, a little bit of salt.

Let's whisk this... and just pour it in slowly.

[ Food processor whirring ] Okay.

And what you want is exactly that.

You want the dough to come around.

So maybe it's a little too soft, just sticking.

That's why I have the extra flour and the extra water.

If it's a little too soft, let me add a little bit of flour.

And there it is.

[ Whirring stops ] ♪♪ Mm.

A little more flour.

I can see that it needs a little bit more flour, but I can knead it in.

Okay.

Yes, a little bit more flour.

♪♪ Let me knead in the flour.

♪♪ Okay.

So, it's a nice pliable, but yet firm, dough.

I'm gonna wrap it up and put it in the refrigerator, let it rest for half an hour, an hour, and then we will shape it.

More e-mails, more e-mails.

Here's one from Fred.

"Do you prefer tuna fish in water as opposed to in oil?"

No, Fred, I love tuna fish in a good olive oil.

And I love my canned tuna fish with a nice little salad, some tuna fish in there.

Fred, tuna fish has to swim in good olive oil for me.

♪♪ So, the dough has rested, and I've been rolling and cutting.

And I'll show you how I roll from the beginning to end.

But let me show you how to cut.

It's important that you get a nice wide -- almost as wide as your blade, because you want to cut it in half and then cut it in half again... like that.

And you know, they're not 100% all the same.

But put some flour, because what we'll do, we will put one on top of the other ones, actually, to cut them.

So, here we are.

So, this is kind of raggedy end, Let me cut that off.

And then I go, like, in a diamond shape.

Okay, here they are.

Let's just separate them, because you don't want them to stick all together.

Flour is important.

We'll shake off the flour once we throw them in the water.

And this is good so you don't squeeze them and spread them out.

So, I will give it three different rolling, because I want it a certain width.

I don't want it too thin, I don't want it too thick.

So, and each machine, mind you, it is different.

[ Pasta machine whirring ] Okay.

[ Whirring stops ] I'm going to lower it down.

[ Whirring resumes ] Okay.

[ Whirring stops ] I'm gonna put some flour, because I'm getting to the lower now.

But you don't want it too thin.

[ Whirring resumes ] [ Whirring stops ] Okay.

I'm going to flour it a little bit, like I told you.

And here it's a little bit off, on this corner, but let's -- let's do it half-and-half.

One of them will be larger, one will be smaller.

It's okay.

Cut it in four strips like this.

Again, let's make sure they don't stick.

You put them on top of each other, just like that, and we cut them.

Handle it gently.

You can make these in advance.

They'll dry a little bit if you leave them for a few hours, and that's okay, too.

So, let me clean up.

Let's put the water to boil, and let's make the sauce.

♪♪ More e-mails.

They're coming.

Love it.

Keep on writing.

"You gave my husband and I advice for lobster fra diavolo.

We made it last night and it was a hit!

Also included a photo of my insalata di mare inspired by you.

Thanks so much for sharing recipes and techniques that make us all better cooks.

Warmly, Anne."

Oh, good, I love that!

Alright!

Sort of putting a little of your own touches.

Very, very nice.

Keep on cooking, Anna, and keep on writing.

So, thank you.

The water is boiling.

The pasta is ready.

I'm going to make the sauce.

And this sauce, maximum 10 minutes.

But what I like to do is I like to sear the shrimps and the scallops first to give them some flavor.

I'm going to put a little bit of garlic, too.

Nice and hot.

Not smoking.

You never want your oil to smoke.

Once your oil begins to smoke -- your olive oil -- you really have changed the qualities of the oil itself.

[ Oil sizzling ] And you're going to say, "Lidia, the pot is big enough.

Why didn't you put the scallops in yet?"

Because I want to give them some space.

If you put both in there, they begin to stew.

I want them to get nice and crispy.

Okay, I'm going to put some salt now in the water.

This is already done.

Okay, I'm gonna put the scallops in.

[ Oil sizzling ] Alright.

They just need to caramelize a little bit.

Alright, so, here are the... And as you can see, they're not cooked.

They're just caramelized on the outside.

So, a little bit more oil, a little bit of garlic, too.

And at this point, we'll add... A good passata is a good tomato sauce.

But it doesn't have the chunkiness that plum tomatoes have.

And I am also going to put here just a little bit of water, because the passata is quite dense.

I'm going to season this -- salt.

Now you're dealing with seafood, so not too much salt.

Peperoncino -- I like a little spiciness.

Just like that.

And at this point, I'll put the mussels right in.

And I'll put the rest of the seafood.

The mussels don't take long.

This doesn't take long all together.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

♪♪ So, let's cover this.

Let this steam out.

Let's see.

The water is boiling.

I'm trying to shake off the extra flour.

You see, it already dried up a little bit, which is good.

That means it won't stick.

♪♪ Let's give it a mix here.

You don't want the pasta to stick all at the bottom, and you want it to come back to the boiling point.

Oh, I have a minute.

Let's see if any of my grandkids are checking in with me.

They love this, just like I do.

Okay, here it is.

Oh, a text from Julia.

"I recently stocked up on shrimp and thought, 'What would Nonni do?'

Hmm.

"I made these different shrimp dishes last weekend.

It tasted almost as good as yours.

Love you.

Julia."

They look delicious, Julia!

Wow!

Brava, Julia.

I'm proud of you.

Okay, so, let's see the sauce.

You see the mussels are open.

Let's put this in -- parsley.

A little bit of raw olive oil at the end.

Mmm.

It's delicious.

But whenever I dress pasta, I don't like overdressed pasta.

So, what I do -- I'm going to take a nice pan right here.

I'm going to take some of the sauce and put it right in here.

It's a generous amount of fish for that pasta.

And I always tell you, sauté your pasta in the sauce.

Kind of finish it off in the sauce.

Now, you can drain the pasta.

But, you know, I love the spiders.

You can pull out all the pasta you want, and right into the sauce.

We're going to put it right in there.

So, you see, you have the space to really dress this pasta.

Now, I'm finishing the pasta right in here.

The pasta is taking in the sauce.

Mmm, mmm.

So, now I'm going to put some of the seafood.

♪♪ Mamma Mia!

Look how good this looks.

Right?

Okay?

So, you see, the sauce is really sticking to the -- to the pasta.

And I am ready to plate.

So, here are the plates.

♪♪ ♪♪ Oh, the aroma.

Wow, wow, wow.

Let me serve you right here.

♪♪ And here is the second one.

These are generous servings, Lidia-style.

And of course, Lidia because this is her favorite.

Mmm.

And one mussel.

So, if you have some sauce left like that, just take everything out of the shell, put it in the sauce, and save the sauce.

And tomorrow it's a spaghetti and seafood.

Does it look good?

Does it look delicious?

I'm going to go taste now and tell you.

Ooh.

Mmm.

This is a traditional pasta that we make still, in Istria, for seafood.

Flat pasta absorbs the seafood sauce.

But you know what?

I want to invite you, because I want to get back to this dish.

So, what do I always say?

I say, "Tutti a tavola a mangiare," do come and join me.

This is a stupendous dish you will want to make.

♪♪ -[ Singing in Italian ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -Obviously, there's a song for every occasion, in our family, at our table, and in Italy.

Cin-cin.

-Salute.

Cin-cin.

-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... ♪♪ ♪♪