Lidia Bastianich an expert in Italian way — keeping it simple
Chef works her magic as well in person as on TV
Lidia Bastianich has to be the best there is when it comes to cooking Italian on television.
She has a gentle way of explaining what she is doing, how she is doing it, why she is doing it and what a dish is all about without losing you in a morass of extra words and unnecessary razzle-dazzle. But then that’s the Italian way — keep it simple. Even the most complex Italian recipes have a foundation based on simplicity and common sense.
I suspect that’s one reason why “Lidia’s Italy,” her syndicated public television series, received an Emmy nomination. This lady is good.
I think I know a little bit about Italian food, but I always learn something when I watch her show. Most recently, she taught me how to do risotto the easy way — not having to cook and stir for 18 to 20 minutes.
The Bastianich method requires hardly any stirring at all. It’s a matter of the proportion of rice to stock, a good pot with a cover and a gentle flame. Bastianich explains all this quite clearly in her latest cookbook, Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (Knopf, $35).
Watching Lidia work her magic on television is one thing. To watch her in person is another treat altogether. I got to do that last week a the Kohler Food & Wine Experience in Kohler, Wis., where she was one of the featured chefs.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with her to talk about Italian food and wine prior to her hosting a sold-out luncheon and wine talk at the American Club in Kohler.
What is Lidia up to? More cookbooks, more episodes of “Lidia’s Italy,” a private-label line of pasta and wines and a joint venture in Manhattan with Eataly, that grand and glorious food emporium —think Whole Foods times 10 — that opened in Torino, Italy, about three years ago (and where I had the pleasure of eating my way through shortly after it opened).
Bastianich’s newest book focuses on what she calls the “second 10 regions of Italy,” taking us from Trentino-Alto Adige in the north to Calabria in the south, with delicious culinary stops along the way in Lombardy, Le Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo, and Sardinia, among others.
This cookbook, with its treasure trove of recipes, is such a good read, it made me want to cook nonstop.
Here is one of the recipes from that book. I made it just a few days ago. All I can say is buonissimo!
Pat Bruno is the Sun-Times dining critic.