What's Lidia Bastianich, famed restaurateur, public television personality, and cookbook author, doing for the holidays? Find out!
Continue reading »
This week's Cook the Book feature is Lidia's Italy by Lidia Bastianich, famed restaurateur, Public Television personality and—as of last week—Papal chef. In her latest culinary compendium, Lidia takes home cooks on a whirlwind gastronomic tour of ten different places in Italy, from northern Piemont and central Rome, to southern Puglia and the island of Sicily. These are the regions that Lidia loves best, and the ones that have most informed her own cooking. As she writes in her introduction: "Now I ask you to come with me to some of my favorite places in Italy. I want to introduce you to my friends and to some of the very fine food artisans who are keeping the Italian culinary tradition...
Continue reading »
Forty years ago, a Catholic relief organization provided
Lidia Bastianich and her family safe passage and visas to emigrate to America, if they went to the Vatican to get the blessing of the pope at the time, Paul VI. So one can only imagine how thrilled Bastianich was to cook three meals for the current pope,
Benedict XVI, during his visit to New York City. The pope turned out to be a serious eater—not surprising, given the fact that his mom was a hotel chef. This is what Lidia and her colleagues served His Holiness.
Continue reading »
An interview in the New York Daily News today with Lidia Bastianich, who's preparing dinner tonight and tomorrow for Pope Benedict XVI as he visits New York City. Security is tight, she says, at the residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore, where the dinners will take place. So tight, in fact, that Bastianich can't even reveal the menu, except to say that it will focus on seasonal ingredients. Though the Daily News did mention that one of the dinners (likely tonight's, since the pope doesn't eat red meat on Fridays) will feature red and white wines from Italy and local Atlantic striped bass. And a bonus for the Secret Service: They'll be tasting all the food before and after it's cooked....
Continue reading »
Mary Vuong of the Houston Chronicle says it's time we gave the thorny, meaty artichoke a chance: "An artichoke is a work of art. Home cooks often treat it as art, too. They look but are afraid to touch. But artichokes—fancy enough to star at a dinner party, easy to pop in the microwave when you're eating alone—are worth some effort. With peak season running through May, now is the perfect time to tackle the thistle." If you're up for the challenge, Vuong includes three recipes: one by Gaetano Ascione, chef de cuisine at Houston's Quattro, and two by Lidia Bastianich, both from her latest cookbook Lidia's Italy which was just published this month....
Continue reading »
In the NY Times, Melissa Clark realizes no one she knows actually knows what shrimp scampi is and so she figures it out for herself: Scampi are in fact tiny, lobster-like crustaceans with pale pink shells (also called langoustines). One traditional way of preparing them in Italy, [Lidia] Bastianich writes, is to sauté them with olive oil, garlic, onion and white wine. Italian cooks in the United States swapped shrimp for scampi, but kept both names. Thus the dish was born, along with inevitable variations like adding tomatoes, breadcrumbs, or, as Ms. Bastianich does, tarragon.As I saw it, this meant I was free to interpret shrimp scampi pretty much any way I wanted. And I wanted my scampi to...
Continue reading »
