Lidia Bastianich

Spaghetti with Asparagus Frittata - Lidia

Just wanted to share this delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich with you - Buon Gusto!

Ziti with Broccoli and Sausage - Lidia

Just wanted to share this delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich with you - Buon Gusto!

Chicken Bites with Sausages in a Vinegar Sauce - Lidia

Just wanted to share this delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich with you - Buon Gusto!

MIXED SEAFOOD STEW - Lidia

Just wanted to share this delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich with you - Buon Gusto!

Montasio Cheese Crisps with Potato and Onion Filling - Lidia

Just wanted to share this delicious recipe from Lidia Bastianich with you - Buon Gusto!

Savoy Cabbage and Bell Pepper Slaw

If you’re making this salad for a gathering, it can be made several hours ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated until you’re ready to serve. Leftovers make a great topper for a turkey or roast beef sandwich the next day.

Zucchini in Scapece

The method of “in scapece” is to fry vegetables (or proteins, especially fish and seafood) in oil, then add vinegar, herbs, and sometimes garlic. The warm, pan-fried food is then left to cool and marinate in a flavorful dressing. It’s not quite a pickle as it’s not as acidic, so it’s a versatile side dish or antipasti that goes with just about anything. Here, I lighten the dish and skip the frying- making this lighter, brighter, and easier than the original.

Potato–Onion Filling

Stuffed Tomatoes

Italians will stuff anything, but when it comes to a nice summer tomato this is the recipe. It is good just out of the oven and delicious at room temperature. Wonderful as an appetizer, vegetable and also a main course, this dish is, popular at Italian family gatherings and festivities and it looks great on the buffet table.

Butternut Squash and Cannellini Beans

Beans are great by themselves as well as being an excellent complement to vegetables or proteins. I like these kinds of side dishes because in one pot you have the legumes and the vegetables. Here the beans and squash are sweet; the tartness and complexity of the balsamic reduction balances them out. I usually toast up two slices of bread and use them to accompany this dish and to sop up any juices.

Smashed Garlic Rosemary Potatoes

Everybody likes crispy potatoes, and though these require a little manual labor, they yield great results. You could also use small red potatoes, but Yukon Golds are extra creamy and delicious. Apply light but even pressure when smashing the potatoes; you want to flatten them, but you don’t want them to disintegrate. This recipe reminds me of the patate in tecia my grandmother used to make in her big cast-iron pot, a simpler rendition of home fries, softer in consistency and made with nothing but potatoes, onions, and olive oil.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Spicy Tomato Sauce

If you are watching your carbs but are longing for spaghetti, this is the recipe you need, simple and delicious. Take care to not overbake the squash. It is done when a paring knife can be inserted with just a little resistance. When you are dressing the squash, treat it like spaghetti: toss it well, so every strand gets dressed, and do not forget the basil and the grated Grana Padano. In our family, we mainly ate squash roasted as a side dish or in a salad, or used it in the dough of fresh pasta, or as a stuffing for filled pastas. Spaghetti squash was something new for me, but it is a great alternative for anyone who is gluten-free.

Onion and Potato Gratin

This is a great dish to make when I am cooking for the whole family or a large group, since it goes in the oven and doesn’t require a lot of prep time or attention while it’s cooking. Onions, potatoes, cream, and cheese come together here, in the ultimate side dish. This gratin is easy to put together; then just slip it into the oven, next to whatever you are roasting, and toss a salad, and your balanced meal is done. Think about this dish when you are having people over for brunch or breakfast. Make it in a large baking pan, cut it into squares, and serve each portion on a dish with a fried or poached egg or two on top.

Savory Stuffed Peppers

Peppers are best, as are all vegetables, when in season, but peppers are readily available most of the year, and they’ll always work just fine. These peppers can be made in advance, as either an appetizer or a side dish. The recipe calls for anchovies and olives, which bring a Mediterranean flavor to the table, but, as with many of my recipes, you can make changes to the dish and omit either, and the result will still be delicious.

TRITO FOR Minestra

This is one version of trito, but with olive oil and onions or garlic as a base, you can make your own trito according to the herbs and aromatics that are available or that you prefer. You may want to make two or three times the amount of trito in the following recipe— covered with a thin layer of olive oil it lasts in the refrigerator for weeks and makes a lovely finishing touch for most soups and pasta dishes. Makes enough to season 8 servings of soup.

Salmon, Rice, and Leek Soup

No need to use an expensive center cut of salmon for this dish. The thinner tail pieces are often cheaper and work just as well here. Fresh peas are wonderful if you can find them; just add them at the same time as the rice, because they require a little more cooking time than frozen peas.

Summer Minestrone

This soup is meant to showcase the vegetables of summer, so feel free to vary, based on what is good at your farmers’ market – green beans, yellow squash, or even a handful of cherry tomatoes would be a wonderful addition here. If you’re starting with favas in the pod, you’ll need about 4 pounds or so to get the yield below. But don’t worry- make it a family affair and you’ll have them shucked and peeled in no time.

Wedding Soup

The little meatballs make this a hearty soup that is a meal in itself. To make it even heartier, you could add a handful of rice or a small pasta shape, like orzo or ditalini. A tip: preseasoned sausage meat also makes a quick and easy base for meatballs. This soup is also known as zuppa di matrimonio.

Winter Minestrone

As with my Summer Minestrone, think of this recipe as a template for any hearty winter vegetable soup. You can vary the dried beans and include other vegetables- such as leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips or rutabaga, parsnips, or myriad winter greens, like escarole, spinach, and chard.

Tomato Soup with Fregola and Clams

There is not one person in my family who does not adore clams, and we eat them in a variety of ways. Stuffed clams are great for an appetizer; a big pot of clams sautéed with some onions and seasonings can make a whole meal as you pick through, enjoying the juices and slurping down the clams. As a young girl, I would go to the sea and collect clams, mostly cockles and smaller clams than what are seen in America today. This soup has also become one of our family’s favorite ways to enjoy clams. Tomato soup is a popular soup in America, but here is an Italian rendition that can be a main course. Though I have added clams, it can be made with mussels, shrimps, scallops, or even mixed seafood; just mind the cooking time that each requires. Fregola comes in different sizes. I use large ones here, but if yours are smaller, start checking for doneness after 10 minutes. You can leave a few clams in their shells for an attractive presentation, as I do here, or remove them all.

Farina Gnocchi

My mother, Grandma Erminia, was the expert maker of gnocchetti di gris. I would be busy in the kitchen, prepping all the vegetables for the soup and at the stove pulling it together, while she would sit at the kitchen table with a bowl between her knees, mixing the egg, cheese, and farina flour and deftly shaping the mixture into gnocchetti, her hands moving at the speed of light. The process for her was pure muscle memory; she had made them her whole life. It was a pleasure to watch. I now make the gnocchetti di gris myself. They are easy, and all you need is a good stock or soup to cook them in. I sometimes cook them like pasta, in boiling salted water. When they boil up and are tender, I fish them out with a spider strainer, set them in a bowl, cover them with plastic wrap, and add them to the hot stock to reheat and serve.

Vegetable Soup with Poached Eggs

You can also serve this soup ladled into ovenproof bowls with a slice of toasted bread in the bottom. Break an egg into each, and bake at 375 degrees until the eggs are set to your liking, 10 to 15 minutes. This works well if you have guests over; they all get their own bowls hot from the oven. Even without the eggs, this stands alone as a hearty vegetable soup.

Cream of Fava Soup with Rice

Mostly, one thinks of favas as the puffy green pod with the fava bean in it. Well, just as all beans get dried and saved for off-season cooking, so do favas. Shelled and dried, they behave like dried peas when cooked, disintegrating and making a delicious and dense soup. When I was a little girl, it was part of my job to help Nonna Rosa pull the beans out of the pods and lay them on mats for drying so she could make rich winter soups. In my own kitchen, this was a job my mother, Erminia, took very seriously, and she would patiently sit at our kitchen table for hours, pulling beans out of pods, sometimes singing an old Italian song as she proceeded. Since the favas you use here are peeled and split before drying, you do not have to soak them as long as other dried beans—3 hours is fine. You can soak them overnight if you prefer; just be aware that the cooking time on the soup will be a little less. You can make this soup ahead, but add rice only to the portion you want to serve right away.

Barley Risotto with Cabbage and Sausage

Tanya absolutely loves the combination of cabbage and sausage, and this dish is one of her favorites. Today we are all cooking with more and different grains. Barley is an ancient grain, one of the first grains cultivated, more than eight thousand years ago, and is used around the world. Every region of Italy uses it—as flour to make pasta, for breads and porridges, in soups, as a contorno, in stews—and I use it here in a risotto. Barley does not release starch as short-grain rice does, and so, when making a barley risotto, I cook the barley separately, drain it, and add it to the flavoring of the risotto I want to make—in this case, cabbage and sausage. Then I apply the last step of a regular risotto, mantecare, mixing the flavored barley with butter and grated Grana Padano to make it creamy. I par-cook the barley like pasta in this recipe, since it takes much longer to cook than rice.