Eating like an Italian doesn't mean pizza in one hand and lasagna in the other.

Eating like an Italian means celebrating food, respecting food.

The land it came from, and the art of cooking.

Meals are celebrated here, not raced through.

Let's cook and eat like Italians in Tuscany, today... on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

and by Jonathan█s Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: Hi, I█m Christina Pirello and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yup.

Will they all be delicious?

Absolutely.

Eating like an Italian is a celebration of a meal.

In America, we race through our meals to get to... what exactly?

I'm not sure.

More bad news on TV?

But celebrating, being together and eating a meal, even if you're eating alone.

Celebrate yourself and your ability to cook for yourself.

We're going to make a very traditional dish that's, as all Italian dishes, influenced by many cultures.

This one█s Sicilian.

It's called caponata.

Caponata is Spanish in origin, but it also might be Arabic in origin and has some French influence.

And when it arrived in Sicily, when they were being conquered by the Spanish, which everybody conquered Sicily█ it was a fish dish.

But Sicilians are poor, so it became a dish made with the less expensive eggplant, or melanzana.

And I'm going to show you how we're going to make this dish.

We're going to start by heating a skillet with some extra virgin olive oil There we go.

Nice medium flame, extra virgin olive oil.

Now, we're not going to let the olive oil heat too much.

And this is a rich dish, so don't panic.

There's a good bit of oil.

You can make it spicy, not spicy.

I'm going to keep this un-spicy.

A good amount of garlic, chopped garlic, some chopped onions, wed, white, yellow ██ your call.

And a pinch of salt, Just a pinch because this is going to get salty really quick.

If you're not careful, I'm going to let those start to sweat while we prep the eggplant.

This is a globe eggplant.

These are the big ones.

We're going to take off the top where you have this sort of crinkly paper.

And eggplant, as you know, comes from a family of vegetables known as the night shades.

There's the night shades and there's the deadly night shades.

The deadly night shades we're not so interested in.

That's things like hemlock.

We want the night shades.

But because night shades are fruits that are filled with an alkaloid called solanine, they can have a negative impact on your joints.

So we're going to take this eggplant because you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.

And you want to be able to enjoy the nutrient value of eggplant.

We're going to cut it into chunks and we're going to soak it in very salty water, very salty water.

Now, my family's from Naples.

We soak our eggplant in salty water because it's really easy.

That's the easy way to do it.

My husband's family is Sicilian.

If he were making this dish, he would take each one of these pieces and rub them with salt and put them in a collander with a weight and let the eggplant cure that way.

My family from Naples are a little more lazy.

We do it the easy way, which is the way I advise.

So you're going to take it and you're going to cover it with water so that it's really generously covered and you'll see the eggplant floats a little bit.

Now you're going to take some salt.

Buckle up.

Salt... and then salt and then more salt.

What this does is pull the salinity and the acid from the eggplant pieces and you let this soak like this for about an hour.

After an hour, you'll walk by and the water will be brown.

And if you were to dip your finger in, it would taste like vinegar.

So you're pulling all the acidic qualities out of the eggplant, so you get to have the benefit of the eggplant without the ill effects.

And after an hour, it looks like this.

Now, the reason I went right to this one is you have to rinse it really, really well.

Otherwise, your dish will be too salty.

Okay, so now we'll come back over here to our onions now that our eggplant█s ready.

And now we'll add to this.

The reason that you want to be careful with salt... into thi next goes capers.

I buy capers that are soaked, marinated rather, in salt.

You can buy the ones in brine, rinse them really well so it doesn't taste briny.

But I like the ones in salt.

I soak them a little bit so they're not salty.

The next thing to go in chopped green olives or black, you choose green olives is the tradition from Spain.

But it's your choice.

Now you see, no salt.

We're going to sauté these until the onions are starting to get shiny with oil.

As you can see, they are doing now.

Smells amazing, Caponata, because it is from Spain and from Sicily, also is sweet and sour.

I█m going to add to this some balsamic vinegar.

You can use apple cider vinegar, any kind of lemon juice or orange juice.

I really █ I love good balsamic vinegar.

I would drink it for breakfast if I could get away with it.

So we're going to use balsamic vinegar.

It's just my kitchen, my recipe.

Now, there are many ways to make carbonate as a result of it being an adaptation of lots of cultures.

This is my way.

The next thing to go in is celery.

I don't want to cook the celery too long.

I want a little bit of crunch for texture.

Our eggplant, that's been soaked Get them all in there.

And the last thing to go in is either crushed or diced tomatoes.

This is sort of the gravy █ sauce, gravy █ that this will cook in.

You're going to give this a stir and then you're going to cover this.

And your█e going to let this cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.

The eggplant will melt and wait until you see what we have to put on bread.

(gentle music plays) So you can see how creamy this got.

And soft.

The eggplant sort of melted.

I like to finish it with a little olive oil and then I serve this on toasted bread.

So as I enjoy my carbonata, if you want to eat like an Italian, you have to figure out how to do that from the source.

We're off to talk to Emilio Mignucci, one of the owners of Di Bruno Brothers in South Philadelphia.

Talk about eating like an Italian.

Let's go.

(gentle music plays) I█m here on the Ninth Street Italian Market with Emilio Mignucci, the owner of Di Bruno Brothers, a chain of seven stores in the city of Philadelphia.

Culinary pioneers, started as cheese shops.

Your store is steeped in family tradition, and I kind of want to talk to you about how that came about and how you have managed to maintain all those traditions in a business.

It hasn't been easy.

You know, as we grow and as we focused on really, we are who we are because of the way I was raised by my grandparents.

And, you know, growing up in South Philly, my my parents were here, of course, but my grandparents really had a greater influence on the way that we grew up, the way that we ate, how we did things during the day.

You know, and and I think that translated in the cheese shop.

And when my grandparents were going to retire, it was very important for us to maintain the business, you know, because it was the one little store.

But, you know, we felt like they worked so hard for so long, 50 years, you know, to make something to support their family that, you know, we didn't want it just to disappear.

Well, that's what would have happened if somebody in the family hadn't kept their tradition going.

It would have been bought and become who knows what by now.

Yeah.

And, you know, the stature of, you know, the second or the third generation taking over the family business, you know, it really isn't good.

And and we knew that going into it.

And our focus was just to maintain and keep doing providing the experience that Danny and Joe always provided to the customers who came in, which was to invite people around their kitchen table and make them feel less overwhelmed by everything that's in the store and give them the experience of taste before you buy so that when you left, you left happy.

Well, the sale wasn't as important to them as the experience of the food, so that then people were committed to that actual experience and wanted it again.

You are 100% right and when we took over the family business, I'll never forget it.

My grandfather said, you know, it's not about the, you know, the sale today.

It's about you know, the sale tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

And what he meant was, you know, nurturing those guests that come in to want to continue shopping here.

And so you need to be trustworthy and you need to be able to deliver an experience.

You need to be able to educate the people about what it is that we do in a way that we... From the first time I walked in your store in 1983 when I moved here, the discovery that it always felt warm and welcoming.

Nobody was ever rude or too busy.

Or to this day, when I walk in, especially this store, is is my favorite of your stores.

It█s the greatest.

I still work this store every Saturday.

This is my favorite store.

I love it.

You know, I still come back every Saturday and I work it through the holidays because I love seeing the old timers, the, you know, the second generation, the third generation who shop here and meeting the newer generation that wants to come and shop here, who have been coming with their parents or their grandmother.

And because like us, that that tradition has been built into our DNA now.

And and you would feel you would feel so sad if those traditions were gone.

Oh, 100%.

And I think it's very important for a store like ours that thrives on supporting and representing small producers.

Yes.

You know, around the world, but, you know, mostly from Italy and the United States, like representing those people, it's important for us to maintain that culture and that experience.

Well, because when you go to those small producers and you have introduced me to several, it feels the same.

They they immediately treat you like family because all I've said is “Emilio sent me,” you know, and it's sort of like, “Oh, well, if you're okay with Emilio, then, oh yeah,” you immediately become family.

And they pull out the food and they start feeding you and you get educated on their products.

So it's something that you were able to bring back here.

And now your customers, your guests, as you call them, experienced that as well.

One of the main things that I learned a long time ago in Italy is when you take that coffee break, take the coffee break, Don't don't go and get a coffee in a in a paper cup and walk.

And because like in Italy, everybody's looking at you like you're crazy.

If you walk around with a paper cup, go to the coffee.

Bar, stand at the bar, stand at the bar, have a cup of coffee, a little bit of espresso, take the two to 3 to 5 minutes and.

Enjoy it.

Yes.

Just, you know, sit back, smell the roses.

I'll tell you a quick story.

I was taking a group into the Academy to see the David and one of my guests, and I have to get a coffee.

I have to get a coffee.

I'm like, okay, so he's gone for like And I go in and finally I said to him, What are you doing?

And the guy said to me, in Italian, “I don't do to go.

He wants it to go.” And I'm thinking he could have had five cups by now.

Finally, he gives them the cup with a napkin and says, “Take the coffee.” So speaking of coffee, I could use one.

Right?

How about you?

I was supposed to bring coffee?

What kind of Italian are you?

You only bring cofee for you?

Hi, Anthony.

Hey, Good morning.

Good morning.

This is Anthony Anastasio from Anthony's Italian Coffee House.

Anthony, Emilio and I are talking about Italian traditions and small family businesses built on those traditions.

So what I want you to talk about is kind of the same thing.

Like you or your family did not start with a coffee shop.

No.

So our family came from Sicily.

They were fishermen, and then they came here.

Really!

So they were in a small town called Spadafora.

When they came to the States, they they were continuing that tradition of being fishermen.

And they actually settled here on the Italian Market around 1906, and they were selling fresh fish.

Really.

That was my great grandfather.

His children during the Depression increased that to not just fish but also produce.

And then my dad continued that tradition as well.

After they had moved in the late eighties to more of a wholesale place, I decided to bring all the the culture and the and the clamor behind the coffee.

The coffee culture.

The coffee culture, you know, to our home.

Have you seen it change, the coffee culture, since when you started, like was espresso popular?

It wasn't very popular at all in the nineties.

Except at my house.

So when we opened in ‘95, we turned the original store into a coffee shop.

People really didn't know what we were really selling.

It was a produce stand.

People were used to walking in there and getting produce.

You totally bagged produce and went to, right to coffee.

We changed it to coffee and the idea was to bring all of the the tradition of the coffee shop and the gathering place.

And you did that?

And uh, thank you.

And it was a struggle from the beginning.

People used to walk by and say, “That's the place that sells this little cup of coffee.” The little coffee.

But years ago there were plenty of coffee shops in this neighborhood.

But obviously, as the decades wore on and you know that that tradition really faded.

And my idea was to bring that whole experience back to the Italian Market and to our home.

This is where we were born and raised.

Guys, been great.

I'm off to Bartolini.

I love it.

So you can see, even in a big country like America, there are little pockets where you can maintain your traditions and still eat like an Italian.

(gentle music concludes) (Italian music plays) and I'm here in Umbria with Ulderico Bartolini.

Ulderico, Where are we exactly?

We are in in a very green region, Umbria in the green earth of Italy.

The green Earth of Italy.

Yes, it Is a fantastic place.

that, in history, was full of lakes.

So this was all lake?

Yes.

All lake.

And the Roman people cut over there, the mountains.

And now we have the waterfall of Marmore.

So the highest waterfall in Europe is right here?

And the ancient Romans cut it to fertilize the fields.

And in the corner, as you can see, there are many, many olive trees on the top of the mountain.

Because in the past it was not possible.

The cultivation.

Because it was a lake.

Yes, it was a lake.

So the ancient Romans took the lake away and made the waterfall.

Yes, but left behind this rich soil for farming.

Think, in the past, that Leonardo da Vinci, very, very famous.

Leonardo, Leonardo da Vinci, our Leonardo!

Your Leonardo.

Yes.

The first painting he made.

It was the waterfall of Marmore.

He was 19 years old.

Borro, across the valley and is in Tuscany, is the painting.

It is fantastic.

So the history here is very, very rich.

Yes.

So your company began when?

My company began in 1850, when there was no electricity to crush the olive.

So we use only old stone, round stone to help to turn it, crush the olive, we need the the donkey, donkey that help to turn.

Yes and they are all, the old mill was located there in the middle of the mountain.

So very, very small.

Wow.

So that's how all of this began.

These are all your olives?

Yes.

Shall we go and talk about the company and how it grew?

Sure.

It█s behind.

Let's go.

(Italian music plays) So, Ulderico, now we are on the steps of San Lorenzo Church.

The patron of all cooks.

You started with this beautiful oil.

And you built what is considered a bigger business.

But my question to you is, so many times, when a business grows, it becomes compromised.

How did you maintain the integrity to say, “This is how we will do it even as we grow?” How did you do that?

I a festival.

We have a tradition, so we have been many generations.

And I know from my father, my grandfather.

So and we continue to work with the same method in the past.

So is very important.

Christina, to respect the natural and work in synergy, because in this beautiful place we are very lucky because we are high on the sea level.

So we have, we don't need to use too much Integrale chemicals because there is... No pesticides, no nothing like that because you high up.

Yes.

And we have also specific variety from Roman people that they are in this area.

So they they are with the natural and the integrate.

So it's your respect for nature and tradition that has allowed you to thrive but still maintain your quality of Bartolini.

Sure, because we have also the cows in the nature and the, with the natural excrement and in February, when we cut the olive after we crush together.

Okay.

And the bring it in the ground as natural fertilization.

So you use your actual plants to re fertilize your place.

Wait, do you guys hear this?

So they use the pits left from olive oil to generate power instead of using electricity.

So this is respect for tradition, sustainable, and a thriving business.

So it can be done.

So important.

It's important to know for all of us watching.

And when you look for food products to know the company that you're buying from so that you can buy the integrity that they intend.

Ulderico, thank you so much for having me, grazie mille!

Thank you for coming.

I love learning so much about what you do and about the region from you, grazie.

Grazie.

(Italian music ends) (Gentle music plays) so when you're eating like an Italian, there's no way that you don't make dessert.

So we're going to make a very simple Sicilian style rice pudding.

And what I have here is almost fully cooked Arborio rice and Arborio rice is that creamy sort of fat, beautiful rice that makes risotto.

And in it, I'm putting just a tiny bit of brown rice sirup and a mixture of maple syrup and agave.

And we're going to put this on a low flame and let it start to simmer and want to add to it some oat milk, you can use almond, you can use soy, whatever, and you want to add the liquid just to cover like this and give it a stir and see if it needs more.

It's going to kind of pull the rice up because the rice is cooked and gets very sticky and rice pudding is meant to be sticky and creamy.

So this is a good thing.

So I usually cook my rice first because it takes a long time otherwise, and I'm always in a hurry when it comes to rice pudding.

And since I'm the only one in the house that eats it, I need it to be ready.

When I'm ready.

Okay, so the next thing we█ll add.

I soaked some golden raisins.

I like to soak raisins before I use them because it makes them a little less raisin-y, a little less intense.

I mean, you want that sweetness, but I don't really want a ton of it.

So I put some raisins in and then save the water that the raisins soaked in, because you can use that in a dessert if you need to sort of pop the sweetness a little bit.

So you don't want too many.

I mean, I don't want too many raisins.

You could put in as many as you like.

You want dried, chopped prunes, apricots, whatever dried fruit you like.

Golden raisins are very typically Sicilian.

So I thought I would honor my husband's heritage and make it complete lightly.

Sicilian.

You can add cinnamon to this as well, but I think it's going to be sweet enough since I cooked my rice originally in a combination of oat milk and water, so it's already sweet to begin with.

Now next thing we're going to do really quickly is turn on the flame under this skillet, which has in it a sweetener that's made from apples.

But you could use brown rice yirup if you can't find that sweetener.

And I'm going to quickly take some orange peel like this.

This is going to be a garnish and slice it into very thin ribbons.

And we're going to candy it in this sweetener and put it on top of the rice pudding and it's going to be lovely.

And they're only going to take a couple of seconds.

What you're doing is just taking the bitterness off the scorza, as it's known in Italian, cooking the peel.

We're just going to let this sort of move around in this apple sweetener and become sweet.

You can caramelize it for a really long time or you can just lightly candy it.

It's your choice.

And then in this last bowl here, I have some toasted almonds, just toasted in a skillet until they're a little bit more flavorful so that you have a little crunch in the creaminess of the rice pudding.

Now everything's ready.

This is as easy as it gets.

So since I'm the only one in the house that eats rice pudding and no one's going to steal it, but I'm using it in my cup anyway, and it's going to be a very generous serving because I really like rice pudding.

I can make a meal out of it.

It█s the world's best comfort food in my world.

So that goes there.

We take a tiny bit of our candied orange peel.

Right on top of that, some toasted almonds.

And now you're able to finish off your Italian meal, eat like an Italian with a great dessert.

So what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board, and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks: the Macroterranean Way.

Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties: Sweetness, the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan█s Spoons individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at ChristinaCooks.com, and by following @ChristinaCooks on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Learn how to add delicious plant-based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles, featuring more than 80 easy-to-make recipes.

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