Theres the family you're born into and the family you choose.

It's that special group of people upon whom you depend and who love you without condition.

They created you and made you who you are in the world.

They're your home.

For me, it's family over everything.

So let's gather around the table and celebrate those we love.

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.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also 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?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Yes.

When I was growing up in a big Italian family, my grandmother was the youngest of 17 children.

Let that sink in.

So we never had just the family for dinner.

I mean, we did, but the family was the family was cousins, uncles, whatever.

But there was always dinner on the table and you were expected to be there.

It was family over everything, whether you had soccer practice, a play to be rehearsing...didn't matter.

You were at dinner.

If you missed dinner, your excuse could be I died.

But that was about it.

You were at the dinner table and we very often had great big meals of pasta with gravies and sauces that were very satisfying, very simple, because we didn't have a lot of money, very easy and economical to make.

So today we have cooking in this pot right now, a pasta cut called Bucatini and Bucatini is used in this particular gravy or sauce, depending on what you want to call it, because it's hollow.

It's a spaghetti, but it's hollow inside.

So it's going to give us a lighter pasta that's going to take a little bit less time to cook.

But because the gravy or the sauce is heavy, the ragu is heavy.

Ragu means like a heavier gravy.

This will not create a heavy, heavy dish.

So the pasta's cooking in salted water.

Please remember to salt your pasta water and don't put so much water in your pan that the pasta's drowning.

Right.

You need to be able to see the pasta cooking to get good flavor.

So in this pan, we're going to take extra virgin olive oil, a generous amount, because it's going to be part of our gravy.

And then we're going to take some diced red onions, two smashed cloves of garlic, some chili spice, because we should.

And we're going to cook these just until the onions are translucent.

We're going to add to this some smoked paprika, two kinds of lentils, both red and green.

This is going to give us a high protein sauce that's also going to be very creamy because the red lentils are going to turn out to be sort of yellowish and very creamy.

You're going to stir them just until they're shiny with oil.

Same spoon, stir the pasta.

I'm telling you, I'm one of the laziest cooks out there.

If I have one spoon in my hand, that's the one I use.

I don't use every utensil in the house.

The next thing that goes in is crushed tomatoes, a little tomato paste--about two teaspoons.

We're going to stir this around.

And now you have to compensate for all the lentils in here and lentils cook about 3 to 1.

So we're going to take some water and add about three cups so that the lentils can cook and become creamy.

I'm going to give this a stir.

Now because they're lentils.

you don't need to add things like bay leaves.

And we're going to let this cook covered for about 40 to 45 minutes until it becomes super creamy.

And then we'll put the dish together.

Okay.

So our pasta is just about ready, and look how nice and creamy our ragu got.

It's very hearty.

You could get this past anybody who eats meat or whatever.

You won't fool them, but you'll satisfy them with the heartiness.

So now, using tongs, we're going to make a valiant attempt to take the Bucatini from the pasta pot right into our lentil gravy.

And the reason we're doing that is because I want the starch and a little bit of the pasta water to come in here and help to thicken and make the sauce creamy.

So you're going to take these out.

So, such a nice long pasta.

Like you really get to, you know, twirl this around your fork.

And this is such a satisfying dish.

I love this cut of pasta.

Okay, now we're going to stir this all together.

You can see that it's just got this gorgeous consistency.

If you feel like you want to--I don't think we need it--but you could finish this with a little extra virgin olive oil to really sort of add some shine to the pasta.

But I don't think we need it.

Instead, what we're going to do is take our tongs back and serve this right up into a serving bowl.

Now, my mother, if she was alive.. not my mother, my grandmother, my mother would have put this in a serving bowl.

My nonna would have taken this right to the table in the pan and said, have at it.

And we would have dipped bread in the lentils.

Because even though my family was not vegetarian when I was growing up, I got to tell you, we ate a lot of lentils.

Every Friday night, there were lentils on the table, lentil soup or whatever.

So now we've got some of our pasta in here.

I'm going to take a little bit more of our lentils on top.

We're going to clean the side of the bowl.

So it looks nice when it goes to the table, garnish it, add some toasted walnuts for some extra richness.

And you have a great main course that any family can enjoy.

Today is amazing.

I am in the kitchen with my friend, mi amica, Antonella Scala.

(Speaking Italian) a great cook and we are going to make our first dish, La Prima Pieta.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay, so, Antonella (Speaking Italian).

Okay.

Okay.

So these are tropea onions and all we're doing is cleaning them so that we can prepare them for the dish because they came right from the soil in the garden.

And so usually with a red onion like this, you peel away the outer layer so that you get a little bit of tenderness and nothing bitter.

(Speaking Italian) Why do you peel?

I never.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Because of southern Italy, they peel their carrots.

That's the best reason ever.

Okay.

Put these in a strainer.

We give them one last rinse.

Christina.

I didn't peel well enough.

She's fixing my work.

Okay?

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

(Speaking Italian) The celery is next.

(Speaking Italian) What part are we using?

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

(Speaking Italian) A quarter.

Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) So what she's doing is trimming away the tough celery that has like strings.

And we're going to use what's called the heart because that will be the sweetest and the most tender in the dish.

So it's it's about using the part of the vegetable that is the best for what you're doing.

Right?

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay.

So we're going to cut into small pieces.

Si.

Including the leaves.

So what we didn't use, will get composted for her garden.

So nothing goes to waste.

(Speaking Italian) Perfecto.

(Speaking Italian) So now I'm cutting the onions in small pieces.

See how that see how clean this root is, right?

You don't have to worry about this being cut off.

So we're just going to take and do a dice like this.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, so the carrots get split in half.

Just chunks.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

And you want the carrots to be the same size as, you know, in cooking because you want them to cook evenly.

So if the carrot is fat, you split it in half.

If it's small, it can just be rounds.

So these we're just cutting into chunks.

And what we're doing is preparing all of the vegetables before we cook so that everything is ready and something doesn't overcook.

When you cook with someone and it's their kitchen, you ask questions.

How would you like this?

Do you want this cut small or big?

Because it's their kitchen.

And when it's your kitchen, it's your kitchen.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, so she's putting oil to cover the bottom of the pan because this is actually making sort of the gravy, if you will.

So, we'll put a low flame.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

So she's just warming the oil so that this can, we can start to cook the onions.

So once this gets warm enough, then we'll start to fry the onions like right here.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) So if it doesn't sizzle, the oil is not ready.

(Speaking Italian) No.

Stir or no?

(Speaking Italian) So you just sort of toss the pan a little bit so that the onions become coated with oil, and then we're going to let them sweat like that.

Okay.

Christina, (Speaking Italian) Okay.

So they want to keep the fragrance and the steam in the pan with the onions.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) It smells sweet.

(Speaking Italian) Salt is later.

Okay.

So, you stir... You stir until the celery is now coated with oil, shiny with oil (speaking Italian).

So now we're going to let the celery and the onions sort of blend together and sort of blend their flavors.

Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) It smells so good.

Already, it smells so good.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay so three pinches, one for each vegetable --onion, celery, carrot.

So now this is going to sweat.

And then we're going to add a little bit of the water that's going to be cooking for the pasta.

In this dish you add a ladle of water for each person eating.

So since we're cooking for family, we start with two so that the vegetables can release their juices now that there's a little salt and they can simmer.

(Speaking Italian) Okay, so this is going to cook.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) Okay, so this part will cook for 15 minutes while we prepare the potatoes and then we'll add the potatoes to this.

If you add the potatoes too soon, it becomes smashed potatoes, right?

We don't want that.

So we're going to wash and peel the potatoes while this simmers.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

Since we're cooking for 12 people, 12 potatoes, one potato per person.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) She peeled nine potatoes to my three.

The winner.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) We're having a race.

So when you're doing something like this, it's also important that everything be as uniform as you can.

It's not about speed, although it is for us.

Okay.

Okay.

So we're going to check the vegetables and see if they're ready.

And if they're soft enough, then we add water and the potatoes and it continues to cook.

(Speaking Italian) So then this dish, this part of the dish will cook for one hour.

So let's see if the vegetables are ready.

Okay.

Mmm.

Wow!

So look at the juices that have formed in here with just a tiny bit of water, a little salt and beautiful oil.

Oh, mamma mia.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) So you put a nice, healthy pinch of salt again because the potatoes have to cook.

But also by doing it this way, salting each vegetable will maintain its character--onion, carrots, celery and potatoes.

(Speaking Italian) You mix it all together so it's nice and, you know, combined.

Okay.

So now this is going to simmer for 2 minutes and then after the 2 minutes we'll add 12 ladles of liquid.

Okay.

Okay, I'm at seven (speaking Italian).

(Speaking Italian) Okay, so you want to make sure that the water covers the potatoes and so that this can simmer all together and soak up all the water and create a soft, like a sauce.

If you can still see the potatoes, you have to add more water.

So we added two more, so the potatoes are completely submerged.

Okay.

Cover.

So you want to cook this for an hour, even 2 hours over low heat so that all the ingredients sort of come together and create one homogeneous mix that then gets mixed with the pasta.

So we'll check it and see how it's going.

Okay.

So, Antonella, this has been cooking for 2 hours.

(Speaking Italian) The vegetables are soft.

The potatoes are soft.

Look how the broth has thickened just on its own.

(Speaking Italian) Okay.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) (Speaking Italian) This is this texture here is perfect.

So now as the pasta cooks for the next 10 to 12 minutes, then this will thicken and become the perfect main course.

So the pasta has cooked and look how thick and beautiful this is.

Antonella, bellissima.

Okay.

(Speaking Italian) So this is, uh, I know in my house we (speaking Italian) a lot.

Do serve it a lot for the family, para familia?

Si.

This is one of those dishes that's comforting and warming.

And even on the hottest day, you will find us eating this in my house, because as I often say, it's family over everything.

Antonella, while I do this (Speaking Italian).

(Speaking Italian) Until next time when I see you again.

Oh, bello.

Okay, spicy potatoes.

I got to go now.

I don't know about you, but growing up in my house, my family ate soup at just about every meal.

We still do.

For me, a family meal starts with a great soup, and this one is adapted from one of my favorites from when I was a kid.

I was not a big bean eater as a child..uh, my parents would be happy to tell you that...but I do love them now.

This is a borlotti bean soup and borlotti beans are the Italian version of pinto beans.

So if you can't find borlotti beans in an Italian shop or online, get them, get pinto beans.

They'll work just as well.

Well, not just as well.

Borlotti beans are great, but they'll work.

So into the olive oil, before it gets too hot, go diced onions and two whole cloves of garlic.

You might be noticing a pattern here.

I really rarely smash and minced garlic anymore.

The Italian way of cooking is that the garlic's much more mild, so they use it either whole or they put it in and take it out, but they rarely, rarely, rarely use it chopped.

That's kind of an Italian-American thing to make really strong garlic flavor.

They don't do it so much.

A little chili spice, no salt yet.

This is a bean soup, right?

When you cook a bean soup, I usually saute my veggies, but I don't add a whole lot of salt, if any, because I want the beans to get tender.

So you got to be really careful with how much salt you add, because if there's salt, the beans will stay hard.

So next goes in celery, finely diced.

If you'll notice the vegetables are finely diced.

That's because in soup, you want your broth to be sweet.

So the smaller you can dice your veggies, the more surface area bleeds the natural sugars of the veggies into the broth.

And your broth becomes sweet, relaxes digestion, and gets you ready for the rest of the feast.

So now we have carrot going in and some fennel, diced fennel, which is going to add such a nice flavor to this soup.

That kind of smoky anise licorice flavor is just gorgeous.

Once your vegetables are shiny with the oil like this, you're kind of done stirring.

You don't have to worry about it anymore.

In those pureed tomatoes, you can use crushed or diced.

But I really like tomato puree in this because it gives me a smoother soup, that's all.

And since I'm not pureeing the soup, I kind of want it to be a little bit smooth.

Now we'll take our beans.

These are borlotti beans.

They look almost exactly like pinto.

And what you want to do is soak them for about an hour.

Don't soak them for a really, really long time, because then all of the enzymes that help you digest beans and not become musical are in your soaking water, which you don't use.

So soak them for about an hour, you'll see that they swell and get a little bit bigger.

They go in and now we add water.

You're going to add three times the amount of water as beans because there's tomato sauce in here.

So you're going to generously cover your ingredients, give this a little stir just like that.

You can put a bay leaf in if you want to, but you don't have to.

We're going to cover this and we're going to cook it for about 40 to 45 minutes until the beans are soft and then we'll finish off the soup.

So once your beans are tender, take your soup down to a simmer because now we're going to season it with miso and what you don't want to do is boil miso.

Miso is a Japanese product, which I know seems strange in an Italian soup, but it's going to give us two things - one, a really wonderful, cheesy kind of flavor.

But it's also going to give us digestive enzymes that will help us to digest the heavy protein from the beans and the soup.

And so that's kind of a win win.

So you want to dissolve the miso into hot broth and you're only doing this, it's not like special magic...you just don't want a big lump of salty miso in the middle of your soup.

So you dissolve it, then you're going to stir it back in.

Try to keep your soup from boiling.

Then we're going to take some frozen lemon and this is going to give us a nice astringent quality.

If you don't have frozen, you can just use lemon zest.

If you're going to use lemon juice, don't use it yet.

You don't put lemon juice in until the soup is done cooking because otherwise it will turn bitter.

But since I'm using a frozen one, I can do whatever I want.

So we're going to put some lemon in.

I'm telling you, you got to get a lemon in your freezer.

You have to do this.

It's the greatest thing you'll ever learn about cooking.

Literally the greatest thing.

Then the last thing to go into the soup is escarole.

This is escarole.

It's a lovely, bitter green, very often used in Italian cooking.

There's even sayings you can't the sweet without the bitter, and this bitter green helps you to digest again.

It's very good for the liver.

It helps you to digest your food.

It makes you happy.

It is bitter.

It is bitter.

Don't boil it before you use it.

Just chop it into ribbons.

Stir it into the soup, and we're going to stir it in just until it wilts.

You don't want to overcook this or it goes from bitter to metallic.

So just as soon as it wilts into the soup, we can plate up our soup.

We need to get a nice hearty bowl.

In our house, growing up, we ate hearty bowls of soup.

So, you want to get beans and veggies and lots of escarole and lots of broth.

And you have a wonderful high protein, super yummy starter course that will kick off any meal like you can't imagine.

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.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood.

Each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by.

You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at Christina Cooks.com and by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, The Macroterranean Way, Volume Two combines the Mediterranean diet with the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, allowing us to understand how food affects us, so we can cook deliciously while creating the wellness we want.

To order your copy for $19.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815.

Add Back to the Cutting Board and Christina's Iconic Glow, a prescription for radiant health and beauty and get all three books for $49.95, plus handling.

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