Lidia Bastianich
Lidia Bastianich is a cookbook author, restaurateur, and one of the best-loved chefs on television. Her cookbooks include her latest, Lidia’s Italy, a companion book to her Emmy-nominated television series, as well as Lidia’s Family Table, Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen, Lidia’s Italian Table, and La Cucina di Lidia. She is the chef/owner of New York restaurants Felidia, Becco, Esca, and Del Posto, and Lidia's in Kansas City and Pittsburgh. For full bio, click here.
This versatile cabbage is enjoyed by Italians and Koreans alike.
I love Napa/Savoy cabbage in any form. In Italy we use it a lot as a cooked vegetable for soups, risotto and pasta dressing but I love this recipe with the Asian flavors and the wilted salad technique of the vegetable.
It doesn’t get any fresher than this tiny treasure in Piedmont that focuses on fine ingredients and only the best seasonal produce.
Wonderful traditional, authentic products are part of the dinner offerings at Antichi Sapori in Montegrosso, a quaint restaurant run by chef Pietro Zito and his wife...legumes, foraged wild greens, and the local cheeses crown the table and plates.
Discover one of Italy’s undiscovered regions all in the comfort of your kitchen.
La Terra Fortunata by Fred Plotkin. By way of the text on the page, you are transported to a place where the culture comes alive so carefully through its history of wine and food—how its very borders have shaped the Friuli Venezia Giulia flavor palate—one that is very much reminiscent of my youth.
Food Destination
I love carbs, and the best bread in Italy is in oft-overlooked Puglia.
It has to be Puglia—there is always something new and fascinating to discover there. Puglia is the heel of Italy; for me, it is the land of the best bread in Italy, wonderful grains, fish and legumes. The cuisine is rustic like the land, and its people and the flavors are intense, diversified and explosive. A stand out moment for me in visiting Puglia during my research for Lidia's Italy was tasting the still-warm Burata made by the father and son team at Caseificio Asseliti in Andria, served on a slice of crusty bread from Altamura and a drizzle of the local olive oil...pure heaven.
