-Buongiorno.

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

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

I'm showing off.

Does this look like a good meal?

So make it.

For me, food is about gathering around the table to enjoy loved ones, share a meal, and make memories.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

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

♪ ♪ -Authentic Italian cured meats.

Paolo Rovagnati -- The true Italian tradition.

-Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese from Italy -- handcrafted from 100% sheep's milk.

♪ -Olitalia -- From chef to chef.

-Food and music create a feast for the senses.

And when I cook, I feel like a conductor just making a symphony out of the flavors.

I choose shrimp and scallops for my risotto with leeks, but it can be made with any fish of your preference.

Salmon is a good fish for roasting.

Here, I dress it with a bold mustard sauce and serve it with mellow vegetables.

Let's turn on the music and get cooking.

I go to Italy as often as I can, and I visit all of the regions because they're so unique, all 20 of them, with products, with traditions, and some of them really kind of say wow.

And I remember when I went to Sardinia and I tasted bottarga for the first time.

So bottarga is the eggs of the fish that's cured with salt, sort of preserve the sea flavor into whatever you put it, but it's dry.

They grate it on top, just like cheese on top of pasta.

Well, for me, that was like a bass, you know, that deep, velvety, but intense flavor that it brought to the mellowness of the pasta.

Another one that's like the percussion in my mind was Calabria and the peperoncino.

You know, I taste it in the pasta, I taste it in 'Nduja, I taste it in their capocollo.

Peperoncino, peperoncino all over.

It was like the percussion going on in my mind continuously.

That was exciting.

Finding these different flavors is essential for me because I find additional elements to cook with, additional facets of these regional cultures, and different melodies in the cuisine of Italy.

Seafood & Leek Risotto.

The music is playing, and I'm cooking.

So what you want is the fennel with the fronds because we're going to be using the fronds as well.

Let's see.

Let's cut it right here.

Cut it here.

And the rest we can all use because it's nice and tender.

Let's begin the risotto.

A little bit of oil.

And what you need for a risotto is a pan just like this, a nice heavy pan, wide.

Let's begin with the onions.

And I'm going to just season the onions and slowly mix it.

You don't want too high of a temperature.

You don't want the onions to brown.

You want them to melt, to sort of disintegrate.

So a low temperature will do that.

Let's get back to the fennel now.

I'm going to chop this.

And this we're gonna add at the end to give it the last oomph of the fennel flavor.

So you chop it just like you would an onion.

When you buy fennel, you want a nice, crunchy fennel with the green fronds.

And fennel lasts in the refrigerator, so you can have it.

And sometimes when you decide, "Oh, what am I gonna make now," that fennel could come in handy.

Let's put the fennel in.

The fennel takes a while to cook.

And I have a special ingredient, and that is saffron.

Let me reconstitute it first.

Get some of the hot water or stock that you have here.

And you can see that it is threads of saffron, and that's what you want.

So saffron is the pistil of a crocus flower.

It's an expensive spice, herb, whatever you want to call it, but it's worth the money, especially with a risotto.

So let's slowly mix this.

And I'll add just plain water here, because I want to make you feel comfortable that you don't always have to have that super duper deluxe stock to make a great risotto.

Once the water is all evaporated, then we'll continue on with the rice.

But next go in the leeks.

So let's put that in.

A little bit of the salt.

And one important thing in making a risotto is that whatever liquid you're adding is at the same temperature.

That means almost boiling because basically what you do in a risotto is you coax the starches out of the rice, and you need to continue at the same temperature.

I want to toast the rice a little bit, make this starch into a little capsule, if you will.

And then by the addition of hot stock or hot water, now it's the capsule.

It'll slowly release the starches because if you don't toast it like that, the rice kernel will automatically take in all of the liquid and open up.

And sometimes it's overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside.

At this point, we add wine, white wine, just like that.

Wine gives it acidity, gives it a flavor, and begins to get those starches out.

And once we get to the drying point, we'll continue to add hot water or stock or whatever you have.

Oh, I hear the risotto crackling.

It's getting there.

Needs a little bit of liquid.

That's music to my ear.

Not too much liquid.

If you put a lot of water, it will quickly pull out all the starches and the rice again will kind of break down and become pappa, as we say in Italian, mush.

So nice and easy.

And you can see that already it's beginning to be a little creamier.

Now, let's go back to the saffron.

Look at the beautiful color, and it has a wonderful aroma.

So the saffron is plucked out of the crocus flower, and then it is put in a sort of mesh sieve the old-fashioned way in Italy, in Abruzzo, and they hang it over the coals of a fire.

Two minutes, it is dry and it is ready to go.

And at this point, I am going to add the saffron and the water.

Here we are.

So I'm going to continue this.

I'm going to clean, get the fish out, and we will continue with our risotto.

Here I am again in my library, and here I have an e-mail from Stu.

"Perhaps you can settle the debate.

Should risotto be more loose, runny, and spread across the plate?

Or should it be stiffer, stickier, and make a mound on the plate?"

Both are possibilities.

Depends on what the risotto is made of and depends on your favorite version.

The loose risotto in Italian is called a risotto all'onda.

The risotto to the wave, like the sea, the wave.

So it has the flow in the plate.

And it usually is with seafood, with vegetable, with lighter ingredients.

The other risotto usually is made a little stiffer and is made with meat, mushrooms, a lot of game that sort of holds in all of the meat.

Stu, I hope I settled your debate.

They're both good.

All right.

Nice and easy.

I think the risotto is getting there.

Let's clean the shrimp.

You can get them clean, of course, but you can just peel it like that.

And what I have here is a paper towel with a little bit of water.

And let's de-vein the shrimp.

So just cut around.

There's just a little here and you pull it out.

Okay.

Just like that.

Okay.

So the shrimp is clean.

The scallops, let me just pour it like that.

Okay.

The scallops are usually clean.

They have a little foot here, and that's the tough part.

So you remove that.

Just like that.

It comes right off.

They look kind of big.

Let me cut them in half.

And if you have the smaller scallops, the bay scallops, then you just don't cut them.

There we go.

Let me put the scallops right into the risotto, just like that.

The scallops take maybe a few more minutes than the shrimp.

Okay.

Let's chop the parsley.

I'm going to add the fennel fronds so it'll cook just a little bit.

So here we are.

Wow.

Looks delicious.

And let me put some more liquid, but not too much because I like a risotto that has a little bit of body.

Let me put the shrimp right in.

Okay.

So once you cook the risotto, there's no way of stopping it.

And you have to serve it when it's done, because otherwise it continues to cook and it overcooks.

And your guests should be seated when you serve the risotto.

Usually, risotto, the last step is mantecare, where you put the butter and the cheese.

But with seafood in Italy, we don't use a lot of cheese.

In Sicily, they use a little bit.

But the rest of Italy, no.

So just a little bit of butter.

And I would put a drizzle of oil, just like that.

And I'm waiting for the shrimp just to get pink.

Because the risotto is hot, I don't want it to overcook.

So I think we're there.

Let me add some parsley.

Okay.

We're ready to serve.

And of course, a little plate for Lidia.

I have my stash right here.

So I don't dribble all over, I always use a little plate underneath.

And I travel to the plate.

Mm-hmm.

And of course, Lidia gets her share.

And let me taste before I deliver it to the table.

Mmm.

Saffron and seafood just go so well together.

So we are ready to serve it.

Mm.

Look at this.

A full orchestra symphony here of flavors and deliciousness.

Mmm.

-Salute!

-Salute!

-It always brings me such joy to connect through food.

My friends are everywhere, from Italy to New York.

We always end up discussing all things delicious.

Buongiorno.

I'm so excited.

You know, I'm passionate about food, but I love music.

And I go often to the symphony.

And over 20 years, I developed this great friendship with Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, and he's going to call me today and I'm very excited because he's a good cook too.

He's calling.

Ciao, Gianandrea.

Come stai?

How are you?

-Ciao, Lidia.

I'm very well.

It's nice to be connected with you.

Such a long time we missed each other.

-This is great to connect with you.

You are the musical director of the National Symphony Orchestra in D.C. Tell me some of the things that you conduct that you're into.

-Lidia, you know, I'm a very curious person, so I'm trying in the programming to give a big span of repertoire.

So for instance, a big project with "American Masters" -- So how to combine Beethoven symphonies, very well known, with less-known symphonies written and composed by George Walker, William Grant Still, Florence Price, African-American female composer.

So incredible, too, for me to discover this music and to put together these kind of things.

It's incredible how the variety we can present without only doing, you know, Brahms, which I love, Beethoven, which I love, Verdi, which I adore.

But trying to find different kind of things, how interacted this music, one to each other.

-You're getting into American composers.

I love it, but so appropriate.

You're in Washington, in America's hub, if you will.

So I'm very excited to come to see.

But you also get involved in education.

-Music is for everybody.

It's like food.

A good food should be tasted by the largest possible people.

So I find a time to go to their orchestras in the schools to see them, how they approach something which is a monumental piece.

And after that, after half an hour rehearsal with them, my aim is just to make it the music to look familiar, not something detached from the day-by-day life.

-Very important because I know, you know, I said my passion is cooking, but I am stimulated by the arts.

Music -- that stimulates me, gets me going.

-You know, the love you have for the ingredients and the way you cook is the same thing we do as musicians.

So we take care of the details.

But the details are not important if you don't put in the bigger picture.

-The passions overlap each other, get us excited.

But you were talking about food.

-Absolutely.

-And I know that your favorite is risotto.

So what is your instruction to the viewers out there about what makes your risotto special?

-Lidia, I'm so embarrassed.

You are the master of kitchen.

And sometimes I don't go to the market to buy food.

So I open the fridge and I say, "Oh, let me see what I have there," because risotto has a particular ability to go well with whatever you put together.

I mean, if you find in the fridge some vegetables or some sausage or mushrooms or sometimes asparagus, my grandmother from part of my mom was from Veneto.

And in Veneto, they sometimes put together berries with risotto.

So blueberries, raspberry.

So I don't have a special recipe.

Of course, being from Milan, the Risotto alla Milanese with saffron and done, you know, when you prepare the soffritto, with the onion, a little bit of butter, a little bit of oil, after that, you put the rice, and when it becomes a little bit blond, a bit of wine and you know the recipe.

What I can tell you.

-No, no, no, no.

We want to hear you.

-[ Laughs ] -You know, for me, risotto is like composing a symphony.

-Correct.

-It's harmonizing the elements, and it becomes smooth and mellow.

-And you can still detect the flavors, the different one, but they come together to make something unique.

-Gianandrea, I'm so proud to be your friend.

We'll get together and I'll listen to your music and you'll taste my food.

How's that?

-That is a fantastic idea.

But I want to help, just to share together the experience of the food and music.

-Salute, eh?

-[ Speaks Italian ] Lidia.

-Ciao.

-Ciao.

-Roasted Mustard Salmon with cabbage and carrots.

I'm here in Lidia's symphony hall.

That is my kitchen.

We're continuing with the symphony of flavors.

So a nice Savoy cabbage.

We'll cut it in four.

So let's do half first and then again in quarters just like that.

This one.

Okay, let's put this here.

So here we are.

Okay.

Now, these are peeled carrots.

Just cut them in kind of rough matchsticks just like that.

If you have baby carrots, you can put them whole.

Let's put them right here.

And as you can see, I'll set them just like that.

And I will make the dressing for them.

Let's start with the mustard seeds.

Uh-huh.

A little bit of honey.

Apple cider vinegar.

Some oil.

And enough oil, because that's the dressing for the fish and the vegetables.

Salt.

And here I have thyme.

I want to chop it a little finer.

This will give a lot of flavor.

Let's mix it well.

Let's dress it now.

So you can see this is simple.

You put this for about 20 minutes in a hot oven, 425 degrees, and then flip it over once and give it some more love here before we add the salmon, because the salmon cooks faster.

So if you like your cabbage and carrots crisp, do it like this.

You can add to it some wine.

That adds flavor and a little bit of moisture so it cooks through.

Or if you don't use wine, you can use just plain water.

And you put it in a hot oven, and we'll check with it in about 20 minutes.

Let's see how it's doing.

Here's an e-mail.

So Jeff and Sharon are asking, "We were wondering if you listen to music while you cook or prepare for shows or write your cookbooks?"

Yes, Jeff, Sharon, I love music.

I think music is an element that inspires me.

So if I write, I put a symphonic music -- nice and mellow that I listen to, that sort of enhances my creativity.

And yes, combined with food, it's wonderful.

All right.

Halfway cooked.

So let's finish it up.

We'll nestle the salmon right in there.

A little bit of salt on the salmon and let's make a little bit of space for them.

See, the cabbage is halfway there, the carrots are just about there.

By the time the salmon finishes cooking, we are going to be having a great meal.

Here we go.

Here we go.

This one fits in here.

And some more of this in there.

Mmm, lots of flavor in here.

And you can see one baking sheet to wash, and you have a meal for four, and a delicious meal at that.

So the salmon would take about 20 minutes.

The cabbage will be finished at the same time, and then we're ready to eat.

So here is a video from Jane.

Let's take a look.

-I planted this Meyer lemon tree about four years ago, and it has really grown big.

Which one of your fabulous recipes would you recommend using Meyer lemons?

-Look at that tree.

It is wonderful.

I don't know where you are.

You must be in California.

But it's a beautiful tree.

And you know, I have a potted lemon tree in my house.

And I get about 6 to 8 lemons a year, and I cherish them.

Meyer lemons are especially delicious.

They're aromatic.

They're sweet.

And you know what?

A simple dessert is a tiramisu.

And of course, tiramisu is usually made with coffee, but I make it with lemon, with limoncello, and a syrup made out of these Meyer lemons with some sugar would be delicious.

So how about a lemon tiramisu, Jane?

And you look great in that hat.

The color, that tree behind you.

I am jealous.

-Salmon is ready, vegetables cooked.

And, you know, in cooking, you sense everything.

And there's a little acidity of the cider vinegar coming out.

So this is magnifico.

Now I will plate it for you.

Okay, so here we are.

The first thing, let's take a nice piece of salmon, a beautiful piece and an easy piece.

You know, salmon, you touch it like that, and it has to have a little bounce because if it doesn't have the bounce, it is overcooked.

Okay, let's get the salmon right here.

Mmm.

And savory cabbage.

Okay.

And then, of course we have the carrots just like that.

A little plate for Lidia.

Let me bring this to you.

The beauty about cooking is just like a musician.

You have all these notes, I have all these products, and then I put them together, makes a beautiful symphony, harmonizes, whatever you want.

So feel like an artiste when you're cooking.

This is for me.

It's a little bit of carrot and a little bit of cabbage.

Mmm.

All right.

And you can bring it just like that to the table.

Now I want to sort of pick up on the thyme that we put in there.

So here we have some great thyme, beautiful thyme.

When you see all the chefs with all this herbs on top of their dishes, the herb is in there cooking, and the fresh branch of the herb is just to refresh the taste that's already in there.

And when you're eating, you get the delicious aroma of fresh herbs.

So let's taste.

Mmm.

The cider vinegar has penetrated the cabbage and the salmon and has that nice sweetness, acidity.

So absolutely, we are ready to eat.

And I invite you to Lidia's concert hall.

Tutti a tavola a mangiare.

Salute!

For me as a chef, sometimes cooking is like creating a symphony.

I usually have music playing.

I can't help but thinking, "Okay, what notes are playing this risotto?"

Risotto is an easy one for me to compose, shall we say.

The rice is mellow like the violins in the background.

And then I add in the crunchiness of a little celery or carrots.

That brings the percussion in.

And so not only is a symphony of flavor, but to me of sounds and also of textures.

So when you have one of my recipes that you like, and of course, if you follow Lidia, you're going to be just fine.

But let's say that you have different ingredients and you want to create a different tone.

Think about the difference in the color and also the texture, the acidity, the punchiness of lemon juice, the lemon rind.

What is that?

Is that the clarinets?

Ultimately, it all turns into a great symphony.

[ Singing in Italian ] ♪ ♪ -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... ♪ 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... -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... -Grana Padano -- authentic, Italian, rich in tradition, yet contemporary.

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

♪ ♪