LIDIA: Buongiorno!

I'm Lidia Bastianich and teaching you about Italian food has always been my passion.

It has always been about cooking together and ultimately building your confidence in the kitchen.

So what does that mean?

You get to cook it yourself.

For me, food is about delicious flavors... Che belleza!

...comforting memories, and most of all family.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

♪ ANNOUNCER: Funding provided by... ANNOUNCER: 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.

a taste of Italy for brunch with family and friends.

Amarena Fabbri, the original wild cherries and syrup.

Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition yet contemporary.

Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese from Italy, handcrafted from 100 percent sheep's milk.

Olitalia, from chef to chef.

And by... LIDIA: Whether you serve it on a platter or serve it straight from the skillet, today we're using the stovetop to create an impressive one-pot meal.

I love serving these sauteed shrimps over grilled toasted bread; paired with asparagus, it becomes a complete meal, and it only uses one pan.

To make one of my favorite one-pot meals, I layer pork, eggplant, zucchini and provolone, then simmer it in marinara sauce and I call it a skillet gratinate.

Pull out your skillet and let's get cooking.

You can have all the fires going on your stove; pot on every fire.

And that's good, you know, it's great.

You're making a good meal, maybe a little bit of a complicated meal, but sometimes a skillet will do -- just one skillet and you can make a one-skillet meal, and make it delicious, and it's easier, especially if I am by myself or I have one or two guests.

A skillet will fit enough food for the three, four of us, whatever we are.

And I have one pot to clean.

Skillet shrimp with asparagus.

All in the skillet.

One skillet will give you a diversified meal -- vegetables, proteins, shrimps; delicious, easy and fast.

So let's put some oil.

Let's put some butter.

I'm going to saute the asparagus right in here, just like that.

You know, so I think you all know, but I'll go through the -- So, you kind of pressure it, and the asparagus will tell you by itself where it wants to break.

This is good stuff to make good soup, you know?

I mean, you know, what I usually do, I just whack it like this and you make a good soup out of it, all of this -- some carrots, some celery, you get yourself an asparagus soup.

Okay.

Sometimes there's a little toughness right here.

I love asparagus.

They're great for any dish.

You can make a frittata, you can make an appetizer, just roast them with some cheese.

And you can make everything with them, from vegetable to pasta sauces to risotto -- endless where you can use and enjoy asparagus.

So not too high, the temperature a little bit like this, let's put in a little bit of salt, little peperoncino, and the base is like this, you cover it, and their own water What kind of steam and cook them, and then they'll end up caramelizing themself at the end anyway.

So, let's check -- you see.

I'm going to add to this, for a little crunch and a little taste, slivers of almond.

Throw the almonds right in there and we'll let them toast a little bit.

So I'm looking and I think it has reached a point that I'm happy with.

I'm going to fish it out and just put it on top of the toasted bread.

Oh, okay, so here we are -- some more olive oil.

Shrimps -- clean and deveined.

I'm just going to saute them.

I'm going to put a little bit of salt, a little peperoncino to give it a little zest.

Great shrimps, just saute them a little bit like that, and they're delicious.

Actually, I'm going to take them out and I'm going to make a sauce right in here, so...

Some of them are finished.

Some of them need a little more time.

The shrimp has a translucency, and as it cooks, it becomes more and more opaque.

That transition will give a good indication that the shrimp is done.

Little bit of butter.

Lemon -- and... Just squeeze the juice in here.

I think I'm going to drink wine.

I might as well add a little bit of this wine to the sauce.

So, a little bit for Lidia, a little bit for the shrimp.

A little bit of salt, I will put right here.

Oh, my goodness.

I have my little dish here waiting, and I forgot to put a shrimp.

And how about the asparagus?

Gee whiz, Lidia, how can you forget yourself?

Okay, that's good.

All right.

♪ All right!

And the juice will flow all the way to the bottom.

Will soak the bread.

Okay.

Good to the last drop.

Here I have some beautiful little parsley.

You can chop it, but I just left the leaves like that.

And I think just... just like that, a little bit of leaves.

I think this dish is finished.

Simple, beautiful, delicious, fast.

Look at this -- festive dish like this.

You whip it up in 30 minutes and one pan to clean.

So now let me taste for you.

Let me taste.

Crunchy, delicious, fresh.

Lemony, and of course, with this dish, a nice glass of white wine.

It's a celebration for me.

♪ Some of my favorite time in the kitchen has been teaching my grandchildren to grow into confident cooks.

And these days, even though they're living on their own, that doesn't mean they stop asking for my advice.

Julia, hi, how are you doing?

JULIA: Hi, Nonni, I'm good, how are you?

LIDIA: All right.

So you're in the mood for polenta?

JULIA: Yes, but I'm not sure all of my friends know what polenta is, Nonni, but it's basically like grits, right?

LIDIA: So it's corn that has been ground.

And then it has been milled.

And then you cook it in water.

JULIA: I've heard that it takes a really long time, so I'm kind of nervous.

LIDIA: The yellow polenta that we make in Friuli, where we come from, takes about 45 minutes, you're right -- I would recommend you get the instant polenta, and that one, in 15, 20 minutes, it's done.

The corn meal, you mix a little bit of salt, you put a little bit of butter or a little bit of oil, four cups of water, two cups of polenta, and then you cook and you mix.

You can put cheese in there while it's cooking, you can put grated cheese, but you can put also shredded provolone.

JULIA: That sounds really good.

LIDIA: Also, when you cook it, whatever's leftover, you can put in a container and that solidifies, and you can fry it, you can grill it, you can do all over many things with it.

Polenta is so versatile -- dessert!

You have the slices of polenta.

You fry them a little bit in the butter.

You put some berries -- blueberries, little bit of honey, you got yourself desserts.

Am I kind of convincing you to cook it for all of them?

JULIA: Yes, you are.

You made it sound easier than I thought it was going to be.

I think I'm going to put the cheese in it, and maybe I'll put some vegetables on the side, too.

LIDIA: Never mind "on the side," put it right in.

They're going to cook in with the polenta.

You can put even spinach leaves.

It's called "paparot."

Paparot is loose polenta, like soupy, with spinach leaves in it, some cheese and you've got another meal.

And what's your favorite polenta?

How?

How would you like it the best?

JULIA: I like when we cut it and we put the cheese on it.

That's my favorite.

-LIDIA: Sure.

So what you need to do, you need to have a nice saute pan, and you need a lid because if you cut the polenta and you fry it and you put the cheese, if you put the lid on, then the cheese will melt and it's going to be delicious.

JULIA: Yeah, that's how I like it.

LIDIA: So, cocca, keep in touch.

Tell me if you need any more recipes or anything.

-JULIA: Okay, thank you.

-LIDIA: Love you.

Miss you.

-JULIA: Love you.

Bye.

-LIDIA: Ciao-ciao, cocca.

Once a mom, always a mom; once a grandma, always a grandma, you know?

And I love being that grandma.

Skillet gratinate -- everything happens in this one skillet -- great, it's delicious, and you don't have to wash any pots more than this one here.

So, a filet of pork is always a good choice.

It's easy, it's tender.

And I'm cutting on a slant.

I'm going to make four pieces.

Is it too big?

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to cut one for Lidia.

Okay.

So this is it.

And putting a piece of plastic wrap on the meat before you pound it keeps it from tearing.

You want to use the flat end of this mallet.

♪ Okay, one, two.

♪ ♪ Okay -- we did our pounding.

Here it is.

And we're going to saute this.

Let's put some butter.

Some oil.

A combination of butter and oil will leave the meat soft.

We need a little bit of flour.

And... Lightly dredge the meat in the flour.

Yes.

Here we are.

So salt them all just a little bit.

Dredge on all sides.

Shake off the excess flour -- you don't want too much flour.

Okay.

♪ Whenever you put anything in oil or fat and frying, always away from you.

We're finished with the flour.

Eggplant.

All right, let's look at this.

And -- oh, you know, I like a little bit of the skin.

But maybe just here and there.

The skin is not all that thin.

And you can do it with a potato peeler or just like I'm doing it right here.

Let me cut it on a slant.

So I have five scallopine, I would need five pieces of eggplant, just like that.

Zucchini.

The same way -- of course, you wash them first.

And we'll do it on a slant, too.

I have -- let's see.

Four... Five.

Let me check the meat.

And at this point, you don't have to thoroughly cook the meat, the pork -- you want it to get a little crust.

You want the flour to cook a little bit, and then we'll finish cooking it in the sauce actually.

Some delicious provola, semi fresh, a fresh provola.

You see, it's soft.

It's delicious.

Then we're going to cut to put it on top.

So I would say I would cut... Maybe I'll do one and a half.

We'll see.

Okay.

Ah, you see, we're in my garden, you hear the -- the birds.

I think that's a blue jay that's looking for some food, I guess.

Let me just make a little more.

You never know if I might need it.

Okay.

I think that the meat is done.

Let's pull out the meat right here.

Yeah, and you can see it's nice and tender.

I'm going to do the same with the vegetables.

Let me just season them with a little bit of salt.

And let's put it in the eggplants.

Okay.

Could you make more pieces?

I guess, you know, whatever your skillet will hold.

You don't want to crowd it because if you crowd in all the frying, I want to get the little of crisp coating on it, the crust.

So I don't want to put the zucchini in now, I'll give the zucchini its time.

So here's the eggplant.

Mm-hmm.

So the eggplant is just about cooked.

I don't want it to fall apart on me, and we'll do the same to the zucchini.

I'm going to need a little bit more oil.

Let's put the zucchini in.

So nice, fairly high heat.

I'm looking for some color and some of the flavors to really build.

So, okay, I think we're -- we're getting there.

Let me put the zucchini.

Okay, so here we are now, we continue with this pot, and the sauce.

The sauce goes right in there, so...

Okay, let me put some vino.

So what I'm doing is I'm building the sauce here.

Peperoncino.

I like it nice and spicy.

A little bit of salt.

And let's bring this to a boil.

So let's put the meat in first.

One, two.

It's a little hot, but I -- I can handle it.

Three, four -- okay.

The zucchini right on top of each.

I cut it on the slant so one slice will do, will cover my piece of meat.

Just like that.

Okay, then the eggplant goes on top, just like that.

Okay, I think I want the basil in now.

We can really maximize the flavor of basil, just like that.

Mmm.

Now the cheese.

♪ Take just a little bit of the sauce and put it on top to give us some color, just a little bit like that.

♪ And a little bit of the grated cheese, to sort of finish off this beauty.

Okay.

Cover, everything we'll finish cooking, and the cheese will melt.

I'm going to clean up and we're going to be ready for dinner or lunch or whatever you're serving.

Buongiorno, here we are in my little library where I gather all my thoughts, write the books, and where I welcome you to send me questions and I can answer them.

And here I have a video from Nina and Mary.

Let's see what they need help with.

MARY: Hi, Lidia, I'm Mary.

This is my daughter, Nina.

We'd like to know what's the best way to select eggplant that has few seeds in it.

We'd also like to know if you salt the eggplant prior to preparing it to cook.

We love eggplant and would love to get any feedback that you have about that.

Thank you very much, and -- BOTH: Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

LIDIA: That's nice.

Nina and Mary, a nice, beautiful mother and daughter couple.

So, eggplants -- first of all, look for a firm eggplant.

The shininess of the skin.

Look that the stem of the eggplant is still fairly green.

All of those are important criteria in choosing eggplant.

The species of eggplant also will deliver different amounts of seeds.

So if you look at an eggplant, and it is a large, plump eggplant, the chances are that within that plumpness, there is a lot of seeds.

Do I put salt?

Yes.

You slice the eggplant, you put it in a colander, and you put salt between the layers.

You put weight on it and you put it in another sort of bowl to drain, and the salt will pull out the water; with the water will come out some of the bitterness.

You then rinse the eggplant away from the salt.

But do keep in mind that a little bit of salt has permeated the eggplant.

So, ladies, I hope this helps your eggplant shopping and eggplant cooking and relieves the bitterness.

All right, good question.

Let's see what's next.

Marta sent me some pictures of a dinner the other night.

She says she has made a simple basil pesto chicken with mozzarella and tomatoes, and served it over pasta with grated cheese.

A single serving just for her.

It was delicious and ready in 30 minutes.

This weekend, she's making the meal again, but with red pesto, which she recently learned about.

So let's see what she's talking about.

Ah, this looks really good.

You did your chicken with some mozzarella, tomatoes on top.

Good for her -- so she has the pasta underneath.

This looks delicious.

And you know what?

You gave a lot of people out there, a lot of single people that cook for themselves, a great dinner, so, brava, keep on cooking, Martha.

Let me unveil this beauty.

Look at this.

The cheese has melted, everything is cooked, you have some delicious sauce.

I want to take one for myself.

Let's see, which one... Maybe this one, this one is not as big.

Look how this...

It's delicious.

So let me put it on my little plate here.

Okay, and of course, I would like some of that cheese, which was mine, right back on here, just like that.

And of course, I would like... Ay-yi-yi!

Che delizia!

I would like some sauce, and that's for me.

So I am going to go right for it.

And we have our vegetables.

We have our melted cheese.

It's like a parmigiano -- who doesn't love a parmigiana?

So I want a little piece of eggplant, too.

I want a little piece of basil.

I'm going to have a mouthful here.

And you see how this provola really melts.

Let me taste.

You have the meat, you have the delicious tomato-y sauce, and then the mellow eggplant, zucchini, basil, and then the melted provolone top.

So I'm talking and talking, but I really want to invite you: Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

So why don't you come over?

The skillet, you can't not have a favorite skillet, and skillet is a great way of cooking things, and usually cooking them fast.

And the material of which the skillets are made of is an important fact.

Cast irons are thick, are big.

They keep the heat, even they keep the heat longer.

A nonstick skillet, obviously is a nonstick advantage right there.

Quick cooking, crisp crust.

Then there are the blue steel.

It's great because it could be very thin, therefore really get a lot of heat, quick cooking.

And the shape of the skillets are also important.

So basically you got two shapes, the straight edge and the slanted edge.

The slanted edge is easy because things will slide off.

You can flip it.

Also, things will evaporate.

It's leading the vapors out of the pan, so it has its advantages.

You might not have all of these shapes and forms in your collection yet, but, you know, as you go along, add to your collection.

It's always great to have these tools to cook better.

So let's listen to one song from Grandma's collection that will take us to the table.

[ Erminia singing in Italian ] LIDIA: I'll drink to that.

[ Stemware clinks ] ANNOUNCER: The food from this series makes Italian cooking easy for everyone, and showcases simple to prepare recipes that require fewer steps, fewer ingredients, and less cleanup -- without sacrificing flavor.

The recipes can be found in Lidia's latest cookbook, "Lidia's A Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl," available for $29.95.

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... Announcer: 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.

Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition yet contemporary.

And by...

Authentic Italian cured meats -- Paolo Rovagnati, the true Italian tradition.

Closed captioning provided by San Benedetto.

Lidia's kitchen studio provided by Clarke, New England's official Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.