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Yeah, this wasn't in Nonna Luna's recipe,
but I thought it'd be a nice addition.
Yeah, actually, this makes sense.
Oh, thank goodness.
My Aunt Raffy's coming over today,
and we're diving into my grandmother's recipe book...
...to sample some of her favorites.
No, you're not eating mine.
That's yours to eat. You made it.
No, it's too pretty to eat.
Frittata with tuna and tomatoes.
My grandmother loved frittatas, and this one is a winner.
I top it off with a creamy and luscious surprise.
Roasted red bell peppers and eggplant.
A Neapolitan masterpiece
that's truly a feast for the eyes --
the irresistible flavors of southern Italy
inside a vibrant little package.
Omelet with strawberries.
This one jumps off the page.
A sweet and savory combination
that will leave your taste buds begging for more.
My Nonna's recipes with a modern twist.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
We're gonna start with Nonna Luna's frittata
with tuna and tomatoes.
Delicious.
Yeah, and you know what I think is the best thing about this,
is that I didn't actually realize
that Nonna Luna liked frittatas so much,
but when I was going through her book,
there's a lot of dishes like this in it.
Well, she was semi-vegetarian, so she ate a lot of eggs.
Two cans of tuna.
Sbatto?
Yeah. Go ahead and whisk it.
It's dark-meat tuna in olive oil, which is very rich.
You couldn't get an Italian to use tuna in water.
I tried once, and they looked at me like I was crazy.
Okay, so, two cans of tuna, six eggs.
A little bit of milk to make it nice and fluffy.
Like 1/4 cup. You can measure it or you can guess, eyeball it.
Whatever you want. I like to measure.
I would eyeball it.
Oh, God.
1/4 cup. Done.
That was not 1/4 cup, by the way.
That was, like, two tablespoons, but whatever.
No.
Will you cut me a little piece of butter?
I'm gonna start heating up our skillet over here.
Okay, you do that.
You don't want me to measure, by any chance,
a little piece of butter?
Give me that knife. Gimme. Gimme!
Yeah.
Well, that's a lot of butter, but okay.
It's just to grease the bottom of the pan a little bit.
Oh, you're gonna do the anchovy paste, okay?
I'm gonna do the parsley.
I'm measuring, huh?
Yeah, you're measuring, all right.
Do about a tablespoon, will you?
All right.
So, what do you think about anchovy paste?
See, 'cause I thought that it kind of needed it.
It enhances the flavor a little bit.
Here we go. Dump the parsley.
Did you put some salt and pepper in there?
No.
Well, just a little bit. Not too much.
Well, remember that the tuna's salty,
and so is the anchovy paste,
so maybe not too much but a little bit.
I find that this coarser salt,
you have to be really careful with it
because it salts more.
And I like it 'cause I can feel it in my fingertips,
so I know how much I'm adding without measuring.
Yes. Go for it.
There we go.
Here. Why don't you make the topping?
I know. This is a little bit out-of-the-box.
There's a bowl back there. You can make the topping.
I bet you this was not in your grandma's recipe.
That's what I just said. I just added a little something.
Ahh.
Yeah.
I think that if you don't want to eat this in a sandwich,
then you can eat this over a salad
or you can have it for breakfast or for dinner,
and this is a nice little topping to add on top of it.
Quanto lemon zest?
Zest the whole thing.
You know me. I'm the lemon queen.
When I was going to school when I was a kid,
Mom used to make me frittata sandwiches.
Of course, everybody was like, "What in the heck is that?"
And we go, "Peanut butter and jelly?
Exactly.
So, now we're gonna let this harden a little,
and I'm gonna add the tomatoes right on top of the frittata,
at this point, okay?
And I didn't add them inside
'cause I just want them to be placed sort of on top.
I think it looks really pretty that way.
I'm all about color and flavor, I know.
I know. I know. I added more color.
Like, I added parsley, you know.
So, you just kind of -- you know, I have a, um...
...a spatula in there,
Done, done, done.
Done, done, done. Okay, well, guess what?
I'm gonna go put this in the oven
to finish it off on the top and finish cooking it.
400 degrees for about 10 minutes or so.
So, I'm going to the oven.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
Wow. This smells good!
Look how beautiful this looks.
Isn't that nice?
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
I just love it.
Okay, so let's slide it on here.
And do you want to cut a slice?
Okay.
See, that's why I like adding the tomatoes right on top,
because it makes it really pretty.
Very pretty. [ Speaks Italian ]
Yeah, yeah. That's good. I figured we'd just share.
Oh, you can use the knife.
Good call.
Since we're -- okay. [ Chuckles ]
Is this my sauce and only my sauce?
All right, so what do you think?
On top? On the side?
I'm gonna give you this end because I like the burned part,
and you can have it that way.
I like the crispy part.
I know. Well, I like the crispy part, too.
What do you think?
Oh, good.
See how nice and fluffy it is, too?
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Wait. I'm even gonna taste your stuff.
See, I think because of the tuna,
you almost need the mascarpone.
It kind of adds a little bit of velvetiness and creaminess.
It's good. It's good.
All right. Well, you know what?
Have some more wine. It'll help you.
Don't we have more to cook?
To the little frittata we do.
Okay. So, next --
roasted bell peppers with eggplant.
GIADA: Colorful roasted peppers
loaded with all the great flavors of southern Italy.
So, I do mine standing up.
Well, I do.
Nonna Luna -- your grandmother,
my mother used to do them standing up.
No. You do them standing up.
[ Laughs ]
You do them half?
Yes. Yeah.
So, I just take the top off, very much like you.
And then, for our roasted bell peppers,
scoop out all the seeds and all the rib.
Look how pretty it's gonna be, with its little head on.
Yeah, that's cool. It's very cute.
Do you want me to do these?
Okay. So, we're gonna put it in here.
Yes.
And I'm gonna put the two halves --
we're gonna roast these in the oven.
I think it's necessary.
We need to because this is only gonna go in the broiler
I'm just trying to think.
Okay. Let's do this for now.
Well, that's -- maybe we take it out a little early.
Oh, well.
This is why I'm saying that cutting it in half is a lot easier.
A little bit -- no, no salt.
Just 'cause the salt will make them wet and soft.
So, we just want to roast them in the oven, 400 degrees,
for about 20 minutes until they're nice and tender.
Then we'll fill them with the filling
and put it in the broiler for, like, two minutes.
So, those are cooking.
Now, you're gonna get started on the eggplant.
I'm gonna turn on the stove 'cause what we're gonna do
is we're gonna fry up some eggplant.
This is eggplant funghetto.
Right.
Which means "little mushroom."
Correct.
Which is a way of cooking eggplants
Mm-hmm.
'Cause they look like little mushrooms once they're cooked.
All right, so, I'm heating up the 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.
I'm gonna grab something else that we need.
We need some tomato sauce.
This is a really, really easy dish.
This is always the base
of the Neapolitan way of doing their eggplant.
Mm-hmm.
All right, I'm gonna chop the olives, okay?
'Cause you're still busy on that.
Quanta ne vuoi due?
Mm-hmm.
Yes, two eggplant, and we got to fry it up
before we can make the remaining filling.
So, I'm just gonna chop up a bunch of olives,
and I'm using black and green olives for this.
Using both is very Neapolitan.
The green have a little more of a tang to them,
and the black are very rich.
Growing up, we used to have all sorts of things stuffed.
I think my mom did love it so much just because
you can make it ahead of time and it sits really well.
Go for it. Yeah, for sure.
We're gonna fry those up.
No, you can do it in batches.
Absolutely, you can fry it in batches.
Because it's already not very much oil.
And these take a couple of minutes to fry up.
I'm using this. I think it's better to get them out.
Yeah.
I think they're getting there, though.
They're all golden brown. I think you can start...
I think you can.
Yeah, start pulling those guys out.
There you go.
Yeah.
Let's tag-team it.
Ooh, I only got four.
Okay.
There we go.
Uh-oh. Little guys.
Sale?
Yeah. Put some -- yeah.
Well, you know what I'll do?
Is I'll just take the sides
and just kind of wipe them down a little bit
before we add them back into the sauce.
Here. We can do it right now.
See, I would've put another sheet of paper on there.
There.
Let's try these and see what they're like.
[ Blowing ]
Mmm. I love them.
And as I did the frying,
you do the Parmesan cheese grating.
Well, there's only, like, a tablespoon.
Good. You do it.
[ Chuckles ]
That one needs a little bit --
There. There we go.
Perfect.
All right. There's paper towel right below.
'Cause they really absorb a lot of oil.
They do. They're like sponges.
Okay, so, let me get rid of a little bit of this oil.
I'm gonna pour it in this little bowl
and let it sit for a bit.
There we go. So, now --
I do this in order to --
Yeah, perfect. Don't forget to add a little bit of salt.
I did. I did. Didn't do it on this.
All right, now we're gonna add one jar...
[ Sizzling ]
...of marinara sauce.
Metto dentro.
Metto dentro.
Yeah. We're gonna add this. We're gonna add this.
Everything goes back in. There we go.
All of the eggplant,
all of the black and green olives
and all of the capers.
It's sort of a salty, tangy, yummy flavor.
It's good.
This is the base of Neapolitan food.
Do you want to give this a nice stir?
Sure.
We'll give it a little salt, a little pepper.
Buttare via questo?
Uh-huh. Throw that away.
You want to grab a spoon?
[ Speaks Italian ]
There we go.
Now, we let this simmer for a few minutes
until it thickens a little bit and cooks down a little bit.
Just to kind of blend all the flavors together.
But not much.
And then we're gonna fill the peppers
and get them in the broiler.
Ching, ching.
Until then... we enjoy ourselves.
Look at how cute mine is.
Yes, yours is very cute. No question.
All right, so, next -- you grab the Parmesan cheese.
[ Speaks Italian ]
I'm gonna grab the bread crumbs.
And you're gonna grate some cheese.
Really?
You're gonna grate some cheese, and I'm gonna fill this.
Will you hand me a spoon? I'm gonna fill this.
Don't mess up my pepper.
Look at this beautiful filling. You see how it reduces down?
I think it's perfect.
Yeah.
Take the spoonfuls of the filling.
I made you extra sauce.
You could take some of this sauce home
and toss it with pasta for dinner.
I may put it on that frittata with tuna we made.
Okay.
Dove la vuoi?
Okay, so you're gonna mix it with some bread crumbs.
We'll move this out of the way.
And I'll put this in a container for you later.
Just do a tablespoon or so. Mix it in there.
That's it. So, we're done with the bread crumbs.
Excellent. Okay, so now...
Hold on. Keep it right there.
Huh?
[ Speaks Italian ]
Okay. You do it. You do it. You do it.
It's my favorite part.
So, just a little bit
of bread crumbs and some Parmesan cheese.
Sprinkle it right on top so it gets a nice crust.
I'm gonna drizzle a little bit of olive oil.
I think I'm gonna take my tappeto out.
Okay, you take the lid off.
Normally, what I would do is I would leave it in
for, like, a minute, but I don't trust you
because you're gonna try and mess up with my pepper.
I will not!
So I'm gonna take it out.
I'm gonna pop this under the broiler
for about two minutes until the top gets nice and crusty
and the cheese melts.
There we go.
[ Chuckles ]
No. That's good.
All right. Let's put this under the broiler.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
All right. Do you want to take yours?
Stay away from mine.
Stay away from mine.
See how you needed two things?
I need my own plate. Move it over.
I think mine's pretty good-looking, too.
Look at that.
You're always bragging about color.
Would you please look at mine?
You're right. Yours is stunning. I'm gonna hand it to you.
Yes, please. Now you can eat it.
No, I'll eat yours because the taste is the same,
and that is too cute.
'Cause that's harder to eat, isn't it?
I'm gonna take a picture of this one.
No, you're not eating mine. Back off, woman.
That's yours to eat. You made it.
No, it's too pretty to eat.
Mine's pretty, too!
[ Chuckles ] No, yours is not pretty.
It's good, but not pretty.
Yours is more difficult to eat.
Yes.
Good?
Buonissimo.
It's excellent.
It's really good.
I like the crust on top and the eggplant.
Got a nice tangy flavor to it.
I think it's pretty great. What do you think?
I'm gonna take a picture of my pepper.
What, so you can tweet it to all your fans?
And up next, we're gonna make --
What are we gonna make?
I don't know, but something pretty again.
[ Chuckles ]
We're gonna make Nonna Luna's sweet dessert omelet.
GIADA: My grandmother loved to mix things up.
This time, to sweet perfection.
So, we're slicing strawberries.
We're gonna make Nonna Luna's strawberry omelet.
I don't remember this dish from my mom.
But this would make a fabulous breakfast dish
here in America.
Yeah, I know, right?
Yep.
All right. So, I've got four eggs that I'm beating.
Raffy, you're slicing a bunch of strawberries, right?
Yeah. I think eight, because I didn't count this one.
Okay, awesome.
I need a little bit of heavy cream --
about a tablespoon of heavy cream --
and a couple tablespoons of sugar.
Would you mind just...
I'm gonna eyeball that.
Oh, merci.
Okay.
And a little bit of sugar.
I think you're gonna need about a tablespoon of sugar for that
and a little bit -- about a tablespoon --
of white wine vinegar.
It's too much, one tablespoon.
Well, then just do a little drop.
There you go.
And actually,
I think it's a little more sugar than one tablespoon.
Okay. That, I will go with.
Because the vinegar makes the strawberries sweat
and it makes them have that nice flavor.
The creaminess.
Yeah.
And then, when you have a second --
I'm gonna add a little bit of salt to mine.
And then, when you have a second, will you --
Here -- I'm gonna start heating the pan,
but will you add a little bit of butter and olive oil
into the pan so that I can add the eggs and start cooking them?
This is a really fun omelet, I think,
'cause you could kind of use whatever fruit you like.
I think I'm gonna need
a little bit more vinegar with all this sugar.
And I'm adding a little bit of mint to this,
which was in Nonna Luna's recipe, by the way.
Of course.
Strawberries and mint is always great.
Yes.
Little bit of olive oil. Perfect. Yeah.
And the longer you leave them, the more juice they'll make,
but we don't want them to make too much juice, right?
No, 'cause it's gonna make the omelet wet.
I am going to add the eggs.
I was told you need to put a lid on the omelet.
Okay, so we're gonna cook the omelet.
I'm gonna add 1/2 a cup of cream,
and I'm gonna make homemade whipped cream.
'Cause we're gonna -- you serve this with whipped cream.
Now, this wasn't in Nonna Luna's recipe,
but I thought it would be a nice addition.
Yeah, actually, this makes sense.
Right? Okay.
Would Buzz eat this for breakfast?
'Cause Jade would. That's for sure.
I think Buzz would like it, yes.
He loves strawberries with vinegar.
He likes omelets.
Mm-hmm.
There we go.
I add a little bit of powdered sugar
to the whipped cream
and a little bit of vanilla extract.
And you could also add bananas in here.
Anything. Any fruit you want. Yeah.
And I'm just gonna whip this up real quick.
You check that out, 'cause you don't want
the inside to be too wet when you add the strawberries.
You want it to be almost done so all you have to do is
cook it, like, three minutes and then you're done.
I'm gonna lower the heat a little.
There we go.
Perfect. All right.
Whipped cream is done.
How's it coming?
[ Whispering ] I think we should've put a lid on it.
[ Whispering ] Oh, you can put a -- we can put a lid on it.
Okay, there we go. Lid's on.
Perfect.
All right. So, let me see this for a second.
That's magnificent.
But the trick here, though,
is that when you put them in the omelet,
you need to use a spoon that has some holes.
You don't want all this liquid in the center.
It'll just make the omelet super-wet.
We won't put the liquid.
Okay. I'm gonna grab the plates.
Put it right here. How's it looking?
In the kitchen, you taught me -- you have to be patient.
Yes.
I'm patient.
So, let's see. Go for it.
Yeah. Let's go down that side,
and then I'm gonna grab this flat spatula
'cause you want to be super-gentle when you do this,
'cause otherwise, you'll break the omelet.
[ Whispering ] She eats all the food before it gets in the omelet.
Right in there.
I'm gonna see how good it really is.
[ Chuckles ]
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
Okay. Mmm.
If you make it for grown-ups, instead of vinegar,
you could use a little cognac or pecan.
Yeah. Okay.
Ooh. Nice.
Look at that. Right?
Okay, so now you let it cook a couple more minutes
so the inside gets nice and cooked.
It's patience, like you said.
In the kitchen, patience.
Patience in the kitchen.
Let's do it.
Let's do it, baby. Let's do it.
Okay, ready?
Nothing.
[ Speaks Italian ]
Yeah, come. Come closer.
Ready? One, two.
Isn't that nice?
[ Speaks Italian ]
Mmm. I'm dying to taste this.
Okay. So, now --
I would like to taste it first without the whipped cream,
just to figure out the flavors.
And to figure out how my mom used to really make it.
Look how beautiful that is. Isn't that gorgeous?
Okay, so, do you want to go over there?
Okay.
Here, I was just gonna cut, like, right like that.
[ Speaks Italian ]
Taste the egg.
Veramente buono.
Mm-hmm.
Awesome.
Get a strawberry.
Veramente buono.
Mmm!
That is so good.
It's like a meatier sweet and savory crepe.
Yes. It's like a crepe.
Okay, so, if you really want to go over the top,
then what you do is you would put
a little bit of whipped cream right over the top.
But you certainly don't have to.
It's not too sweet at all.
I don't think it's too sweet.
Here.
[ Speaks Italian ]
What?
To me, it's a lot more interesting without.
Because you can feel
a little bit of the saltiness and the sweetness.
But you know me. I like to finish things off.
Yeah, but the whipped cream
makes it taste like whipped cream,
which is good, but it's not as unique.
I agree.
Right?
Way more fabulous than you would ever think
a strawberry omelet would be.
Actually, probably the best dish we made today.
There you go. Saving the best for last.
Veramente buono.
All right, now we got to check out
some more of Nonna Luna's recipes.
Yeah.
And make some more of her food.
Thank you, as always.
[ Chuckles ]
Buonissimo.
It's good. It's really, really good.
I'm too interested in eating.