News

Before she even opened her namesake restaurant in the Strip District in 2001, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich was a household name among Pittsburgh foodies. She had owned or co-owned noted New York restaurants -- including Buonavia Restaurant, Villa Secondo and Frico Bar -- and remains the owner of Felidia and Esca (New York City), Lidia's (Kansas City, Mo.), and co-owner, with son Joseph, of Becco (New York City).

Her first book, "La Cucina di Lidia" (Broadway, $19.95 paperback), was published in 1991, and she has been featured in national food magazines and cooking shows. If the subject was Italian food, "Lidia" usually followed in subsequent sentences.

In Bastianich's fourth cookbook, "Lidia's Family Table," she brings it all home. In a 420-page volume that features at least as many photos of her grandchildren as the dishes she prepares for Sunday dinners and holidays, Bastianich provides a basic reference for home cooks who might question whether they could master authentic Italian fare.

Per usual, Bastianich makes it seem so easy -- even strudel dough! -- with lovely step-by-step photos by Christopher Hirsheimer. And she is generous with instructions; it's as if she is in the home kitchen, lovingly and patiently guiding students through each stir, saute and simmer.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be happy to see Bastianich's emphasis on vegetables. "... Vegetables are as important as pasta and rice and at times even more important than meat in an Italian home," she writes. There are Skillet Brussels Sprouts with Lemon Sauce; Roasted Winter Squash with Orange Sauce; and Slow-Cooked Summer Tomato and Eggplant Sauce.

Other chapters cover appetizers and salads; soups, pasta, polentas and risottos; seafood, poultry and meat, and fruits/desserts.

Bastianich sprinkles kitchen and cooking tips throughout the text and shares a story with readers about most of the recipes and her family history.

Of her four cookbooks, "Lidia's Family Table" is the friendliest, with more than 200 recipes gently and thoroughly explained; the novice should have no problem taking first steps with the plate that Bastianich has prepared.

And we'll forgive her for making the book a showplace for her grandchildren and family. Grandma has a right to be proud.

---

Bastianich offers this sausage-based skillet sauce; the recipe illustrates her method of caramelizing each ingredient as it is introduced to the pan -- especially the tomato paste, which is given a good toasting before being liquefied in the pasta water.

Ziti with Sausage, Onions and Fennel

• 6 quarts water
• Kosher salt
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (without fennel seeds)
• 1 large fresh fennel bulb with stem and fronds (about 1 pound)
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions, cut in half-moon slices (2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried peperoncino (crushed red pepper)
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• Boiling water from the pasta cooking pot
• 1 pound ziti
• 1/3 cup finely chopped fennel fronds
• 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese

Add the water to an 8-quart pasta cooking pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and bring the water to boiling.

Meanwhile, remove the sausage from its casing and break the meat up a bit, using your fingers. Trim the fennel bulb. Slice the bulb in half lengthwise, then slice each half in 1/4-inch-thick lengthwise slices. Separate the slivers of fennel if they are attached at the bottom; cut the long slivers in half so you have about 3 cups of 2-inch-long matchsticks of fennel. Chop and reserve 1/3 cup fronds.

Pour the olive oil into a 12-inch or larger skillet and set it over medium-high heat. Add the sausage meat and cook, stirring and breaking it up more, using a wooden spoon, until it is sizzling and beginning to brown, for about 1 1/2 minutes.

Push the sausage a bit to the side and drop the onion slices into a clear part of the pan. Saute, stirring, until they are sizzling and wilting, another 2 minutes or so, then stir them in with the meat.

Clear a space in the pan and drop in the fennel pieces; let the fennel heat and wilt for 1 minute or more, then stir it around with the sausage and onions. Sprinkle on 1/4 teaspoon salt. Push the contents aside, and drop the crushed red pepper into a "hot spot" to toast the flakes for 30 seconds. Stir them into the sausage mixture.

Clear a good-sized hot spot in the center of the pan, plop in the tomato paste and cook, stirring it in the spot for a good minute or more, until it is sizzling and caramelizing, then stir it in with everything else.

Ladle 3 cups boiling pasta water from the pot into the skillet, stir well and bring the liquid to a boil. Adjust the heat to maintain an active simmer all over the pan.

Drop the ziti in the boiling water in the pasta pot. Stir and bring back to the boil. Cook for about 8 minutes (a minute less than what is recommended on the package), until the ziti are not quite al dente.

Continue to simmer the sauce until the flavors have developed and the fennel is soft but not mushy, for about 6 minutes or more. The sauce should not get too thick; stir in another cup or two of boiling pasta water if it reduces rapidly. When the sauce is done, taste it and add more salt, if desired. If the pasta is not ready, turn down the heat to keep the sauce at a very low simmer until the ziti are on their way -- then turn the heat up.

As soon as the ziti are ready by your timing. lift them out of the pot with a spider (Chinese slotted spoon). Let excess water drip off only for an instant, and drop the wet cylinders into the simmering sauce.

Start tossing the pasta and sauce together. Ladle in more water if the sauce seems too thick.

Sprinkle the chopped fennel fronds all over, and continue to cook and toss the ziti in the skillet for 2 minutes, or until they are perfectly al dente and coated with sauce. If the pasta appears dry, ladle in more hot pasta water; if it is soupy, cook rapidly to thicken the sauce.

Remove the skillet from the heat, sprinkle the grated cheese over the ziti and toss it in. Serve the hot pasta right from the skillet into warm pasta bowls.

Makes 6 servings.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News