Plus her favorite comfort foods just in time for fall.
Ahead of the cookbook being available in stores, we had the incredible opportunity to talk to Bastianich herself.
EatingWell:Tell us more about your new cookbook,Lidia’s From Our Family Table to Yours.
Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
What makes this one stand out beside your other cookbooks?
EatingWell:Let’s talk about your Spicy Crispy Roasted Cauliflower recipe.
What do you love about it?
Lidia Bastianich
Bastianich:Cauliflower is delicious and nutritious, and it’s a vegetable that’s certainly in season.
Preparing it this way, roasting the cauliflower like this, it becomes crispy and sweet.
Bastianich:For us, we make a lot of soups.
Armando Rafael
Or pasta with cabbage with sausage.
And baked pasta with cheese, who doesn’t love baked pasta?
Also gnocchi, potatoes, sweet potatoes and cheesy baked chicken wings.
The kids love them.
EatingWell:What’s one ingredient you never use and why?
Bastianich:Cilantro, I don’t like it.
It’s not part of my culture, but you find it today in so many things.
I don’t like cilantro and I never use it in my cooking.
EatingWell:What are your top three pantry staples that you always have on hand?
Also, we have a lot of legumes.
Having them in the cupboard is so handy, whether it’s lentils, dry beans or split peas.
EatingWell:What does “eating well” mean to you?
Bastianich:Eating well means eating in the season, with the season.
And it’s eating a balanced meal.
I always think of the Mediterranean diet as balancedyou have vegetables, legumes, carbohydrates and proteins.
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