Three Simple, Delicious, Go-To Pasta Recipes

It’s a Pasta Party! Here are three of my favorite go-to recipes. Each is simple, delicious and can be easily adapted to what you have on hand.
Penne with Kale Pesto and Crispy Bacon is a tasty variation – and you can always use basil or arugula for the pesto.
Farfalle with Shrimp & Fennel – I’ll show you how to make a quick and delicious butter, whit wine and garlic sauce.
Fusilli with Roasted Tomato Pesto – another simple recipe that’s big on flavor and easy on prep time, and your pocket book!
All three of theses recipes are perfect for a week night dinner – simple, delicious and economical, plus I’ll tell you all how to pick the best pasta shapes for different recipes. Buon Gusto! #LidiasRecipes #LidiasItaly #LidiasKitchen #LidiaBastianich #ItalianFood #25YearsofLidia #FromLidiasTableToYours #LidiasSoundtrack

00:00 – Intro
00:30 – Penne with Kale Pesto & Crispy Bacon
05:50 – Fusilli with Roasted Tomato Pesto
07:25 – Ask Lidia – Pasta Shapes
11:45 – Farfalle with Shrimp & Fennel

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pasta
party I dressed penet to impress with
this creamy kale pesto and make it even
better when I add crunchy bits of bacon
to it I marry tomatoes with pesto and
serve up a complex bowl of pasta that
will surely become a staple in your
house faral a butterfly shaped pasta is
the perfect carrier for this battery
white wine sauce paired with shrimp and
fennel
[Music]
easy fresh and nutritious so let’s start
with the
base a bit of oil let’s Crush some
garlic
and this is some bacon slices of bacon
uh paneta
whatever whatever you have while that is
rendering let’s put in the
pasta you know I always tell you when
you cook your pasta put put a nice
amount of water so that the pasta can
turn salted water not overs salted but
salted just to your liking you can do
more or less but if you don’t salt to
water the pasta will be flat and you do
not put oil in your pasta when you cook
the pasta because the olive oil kind of
inhibits the absorption and then the
sauce doesn’t S stick to the pasta so
the bacon is rendering the pasta is
cooking let’s make the pesto lots of
Italian parsley I love Italian parsley
it’s good for you it tastes good and
it’s abundant you can get it year round
so you know sometimes it’s
underestimated but parsley is really
very healthy for you and Dinosaur Kale
this cavalo as we call it in Italy just
these are only the leaves just you can
chop it a little less but the machine
will do the work just like that and some
garlic
cloves okay let’s make a pesto okay some
olive oil
here sometimes if it’s not catching you
just pulsate it a little bit or you go
in there with a spatula but pulsating
will should do
it okay so I
just okay
yes and the one thing you don’t want to
do you don’t want to cook the
pesta so we will add the pesto to the
pasta just like
this let’s add some
salt okay and the bacon is nice and
crispy let me just drain out some of the
fat
okay and I will add to this just a
little bit of the pasta water so it will
make a nice soft sauce and this is where
I will add the pasta too I’m going to
put a little pepperoncino in the basic
sauce just like that let me pull the
garlic also out of
here it has left its
flavor uh but we want the garlic
actually out so let’s see how the pasta
is doing
here okay yes the pasta is alente and as
you can see I don’t even drain it I use
this wonderful instrument here to push
out that pasta right
into the
sauce and toss the pasta with the
bacon and let it sort of permeate the
pasta
so take this off the
heat and
add the pesto right in there
again you
know with moderation because I don’t
want to smother the pasta with the
sauce I just want the sauce to coat
everything
perfectly and now that I have the pasta
all coated with the pesto going to add
the cheese all
right it’s time to Plate the pasta so I
always like to kind of spoon my pasta
into the serving vessel just like
[Music]
that and of course I have a little bit
for
Lydia just a little bit of cheese on top
just like that
and here we are simple delicious
nutritious and let me taste it m the
pasta is nice alente I can feel it under
my Fork
[Music]
complex in its Simplicity is quite
complex in flavor you have the bacon you
have the the cavalo the garlic the
pepperoncino the cheese everything comes
into harmony so going to finish this and
then I’m going to show you another
pasta
fomod it’s one of those recipes that are
really simple fresh full of flavor
especially if you make it in the summer
and you don’t need to fuss with a long
sauce all you need to do is get some
nice ripe Tomatoes slice them cut them
like that and you slatter them with a
little bit of tomato paste that really
intensifies and especially once it’s
baked some onions sliced thick Like That
season it with salt and oil and you put
it in the oven and when they kind of get
this color and kind of fall apart
they’re ready for the sauce just take
them right off
now you can see that this is this could
be delicious just eating like that with
some
bread as AA and that’s another
idea
okay the fusili is cooking already and
kind of roughly chop it up so because
this is what we’ll will’ll toss the
fusili with
this I like chunky you can make it
thinner but I I like it nice and chunky
a nice Bowl to toss it with these
luscious tomatoes and onions
M let’s check on the fili okay a few
more minutes and again you know cook
pasta just in salted water no oil no
none of that stuff we’ll let that do a
little bit a few more minutes and I have
a question I love it when you ask ask me
questions especially pasta you know it’s
so simple but it has a lot of little
details that once you know it then
you’re the master of the pasta kitchen
and this is from Elizabeth kadil from
New York and she wants to know which
pasta go best with which sauces I heard
certain shapes hold different textures
better you’re right Elizabeth you know
it it is different texture that’s why
there are more than 1,200 different
shapes of pasta for this cas the fusili
you know it’s like a spring uh the fili
looks like like a little spring like
that and I can see how this little
pieces of onion or something will get
kind of caught hooked up in those spiral
kind of nooks and crannies of the fili
so if you have a sauce like a bolog
that’s a little chunky and whatever you
want the pasta I think that has little
holes or something so ratoni uh uh ziti
pen will go good uh where things will
will Lodge in um different like an
oilbased sauce clam sauce or garlic
sauce I love spaghetti I look long flat
pasta and so on down the line you play
with the texture of the pasta and the
sauces which pasta carries best your
sauce to your mouth that’s the object
there
so let’s fish out the pasta and you know
I can’t can’t repeat enough do not rinse
your pasta fish it out like that always
save a little bit of pasta water and
let’s
toss and you know this is kind of a
traditional onions and and tomatoes but
you can see if you have some nice
zucchini you put some zucchini to roast
they would go great in here you have
some broccoli You’ like to roast
absolutely so it looks nice and shiny
but I do want a little bit of
fresh
oil and uh
basil and I just like to rip basil and
basil you put in the last minute when
you’re ready to serve the pasta uh
because the heat of the pasta will Wilt
the basil and turn it black so the last
minute just before it goes on the table
is the best some grated
cheese just like that
okay I think I
am ready to serve nice warm
plates
[Music]
and that looks
good ricotta Salata ricot you all know
what it is it’s rot when they make too
much ricotta they used to drain it put
it in a container and let it drain with
a little bit of salt so the salt will
pull out the extra water the ricotta
will condense and will become a nice
kind of semi-
dry but still mellow like ricotta is and
you can just grate it like that or you
can grate it with a regular
grater and I kind of like it just like
that and that kind of gets mellow the
flavor comes out a little bit more of
Basil see I’m thinking where am I going
going to put this basil you would put it
something like that but otherwise you
can just shred it on top and I think
that looks good I’m going to take a
little bit
here where’s my tomatoes and onions
H
and put a little
bit of the ricotta Salata for
me okay that’s enough and let me taste a
little bit of Basil I need a little
basil let me
taste delicious fresh and kind of very
light the sweetness of the onions the
acidity of the tomatoes but still sweet
the complex of the cheese and the
basilly that’s that wonderful kind of
bow tie pasta that everybody loves and
Fel uh you buy the whole fennel head
with The Fawns is it’s the best because
you know that it’s fresh and you just
cut off The Fawns and if there’s
any this one I guess that’s it you pull
it out like that you cut it and then you
have the water for the pasta boiling you
throw the whole head right into the
pasta water so once it’s cooked you
plucked it out of the pasta water you
quarter it and cut it and will become
like this you see nice and mellow and
ready to to sauté with your pasta now
the fanss I use the fanss also as well I
save it I save it for Soups I save it
for many things but in this case I’ll
use it like you use parsley you know
just kind of you just pull it off like
that see I love fennel next we put the
pasta in Because by the time the pasta
will cook we will have our sauce done
shrimp it takes a few minutes to cook
but I like to give them a little
flavoring so it’s the first thing that I
kind of sear off in a little bit of
oil few slices of garlic just to flavor
the shrimp so you know there’s a saying
in Italian mamula pasta now we eat the
pasta now the real thing is happening it
is pasta time but it’s an occasion for
me to also teach you some few words
Italian words you know uh you ask me uh
that I share with you the Italian
language so Ado means
now now I go home Mamo You Know M the
word to eat so M Mamo and of course you
know la Pasta so la Pasta means like
beckoning everybody to the table let’s
go and eat it’s time this is it okay so
the oil is nice and hot uh make sure
that the shrimps when you do that you
know you wash them you clean them but
make sure that they’re dry that they’re
drained well and you want especially if
you want to sear them you know a nice
wide pan so that the the shrimp don’t
stick and that’s Browning let me chop
the fonds so I’ll have that
ready just like
[Music]
parsley let me chop
the fennel you’re trying to kind of make
everything about the same size so as
you’re eating and fishing with the fork
that you get uh the same kind of pieces
in your mouth so I’m thinking about we
could do it this way yeah okay let’s do
it this way so this is the
[Music]
fenel and you know we’re talking about
pasta and certainly we’ve done enough of
the traditional pastas
so there’s many ways of enjoying pasta
making it lighter refreshing it in a
sense just like this okay so I’m going
to this is enough for me cooked enough
just like
that and I’m going to add a just the
last minute to the sauce all of this is
is good stuff
that we are going to ultimately make the
sauce out of some butter right in
there some more garlic and I’m going to
crush the garlic so this way I can pluck
it
out just like that a little bit more
[Music]
oil let’s put in the leaks and I you
know I like using the green light green
leaves inside are great for for cookies
so use them don’t just use the white
part of the
[Music]
leaves with the peronino
and let’s put in the fenel usually you
know pasta was a filler you ate a nice
big bowl of pasta with tomato you were
filled it was delicious but now it’s
about you know balancing that filling
act not all star purchas so think about
your uh pasta plate having 1/3 of the
vegetables 1/3 of the proteins and 1/3
of the pasta so you still get the
satisfaction the deliciousness of pasta
which everybody loves and nutritionally
it makes a sense and uh use the seasonal
vegetables nice and fresh seasonal
vegetables are the
best so here we
cooking
away I’m looking I like that
caramelization going on I’m going to
deglaze all of this with a little bit of
wine what you want from wine certainly
is not the alcohol the alcohol
dissipates while you’re cooking but you
want the
acidity and the uh uh flavor of the wine
that you’re putting in and you know
having a nice little glass of wine while
you’re
cooking could be a nice setting
so here everything is the glazing all of
this and you know that I always tell you
that to make the sauce use the water
from the pasta cooking you know could
you use stock yes but you don’t need to
complicate things simple things you have
enough layers of flavors
here let all this kind of cook just like
that so the pasta is is alenta and I
want it a little denter I’m going to put
it right in here and finish cooking
right in there do not rinse the pasta
you can drain it but do not rinse it uh
I think this gadget here the spider is
an ideal Gadget to fish out
pasta uh especially shortcut pasta right
out of the cooking
water
and we are going to finish cooking it
right here so it will absorb the cooking
liquid this point I’ll throw in the
fonds
and you can see this is a really light
pasta in a sense of uh you know the
ingredients fenel and salmon goes great
so you can sauté some salmon chunks of
salmon added or any fish uh fennel and
chicken also goes goes well so you can
just you know I give you this recipe
kind of throw you the way but I always
tell you you know you can do it your way
so here we are let me add the shrimps
now in
there the juice and everything just add
it right in there like
that I think we are just about there the
pasta absorbed all of the sauce it is
cooked perfectly let me plate it a nice
warm plate for pasta you always want a
nice warm plate and you know I like to
Ladle my pasta or spoon my pasta if you
will rather than just empty it from the
pan because you know all the sauce will
pour out first and uh I want to sort of
top it off with the
[Music]
sauce oh the shrimp seems to be still
alive it’s going all over the place okay
and I’m going to make myself a little
plate
[Music]
okay and pour myself a glass
of
svon and you know when I when I do these
things uh I don’t know if it happens to
you but somehow every ingredient kind of
in my mind begins to develop the flavors
so I have it in my mind all the flavors
here the way I remember them Envision
them before I even eat so I look forward
to kind of matching my mental Vision to
the reality that I have in front of me
so
let’s shrimp little
[Music]
faral delicious it’s quite quite mellow
the freshness of the fennel of course
the hardiness of the pasta the the love
that comes with with pasta so it’s it’s
a nice mellow blend but very
gratifying certainly I have enough I
have seconds and I’m really looking to
finish this but before I do that I’m
going to invite you so come come and
join me
[Music]
n
[Music]