MEREDITH VIEIRA, co-host:
This morning on
TODAY'S KITCHEN
,
BACK TO BASICS
, a homemade
fra diavolo
sauce. A fast, easy and inexpensive way to add some spice to a simple bowl of pasta, seafood or chicken. Chef
Lidia Bastianich
is host of the
public television
series "Lidia's Italy." Good morning to you.
Ms. LIDIA BASTIANICH (Chef Restaurateur):
Buon
giorno,
Meredith
.
VIEIRA:
Buon
giorno to you.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
All right.
VIEIRA:
Fra diavolo
means?
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Olive oil
, garlic. We start with a simple
marinara
.
Fra diavolo
means "
between the devil
," so we have the...
VIEIRA:
Between the devil
.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...we have the devil between you and I.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK.
VIEIRA:
So it is basically a
marinara sauce
with some...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Basically a
marinara
with a lot of spice in it. And the spice you can do with the peperoncino. So here I have garlic and oil.
VIEIRA:
Yeah.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Let's begin
the basic
marinara
. You get that golden. And you just put in some tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, you crush them...
VIEIRA:
Right out of the can.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Right out of the can. And if it's not really ripe in the summer, you know, everybody says fresh, fresh tomatoes...
VIEIRA:
Fresh.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...canned tomatoes are fantastic.
VIEIRA:
OK, good. Good to know that. Whoa.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK.
VIEIRA:
All righty.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK. So this is the...
VIEIRA:
I'll get rid of that for you.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Thanks.
VIEIRA:
Yeah.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
So this is bubbling away. And
marinara
is a quick cooking sauce. Put a
little
bit of sauce -- salt in there, as much as you'd like.
And I
'll leave the devil to you.
VIEIRA:
Oh. Oh, ho, ho, ho! So the -- as much...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Now I would -- let me tell you what I do for a real devil, I would put a whole teaspoon of that.
VIEIRA:
Oh. OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
But you can do
Tabasco
or you could have a --
put it in
.
VIEIRA:
That's going to be hot. And then the
Tabasco
?
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Whatever you like
.
Go for it
.
VIEIRA:
Yeah. All right.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
I think
Al
and -- they're going to come out after and taste?
VIEIRA:
Yeah, they'll taste mine.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Let's spice it up, we'll set it up.
VIEIRA:
Now that's -- now how long does it take to get from that...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
So you let it cook about
20 minutes
,
20 minutes
to half an hour. You break a
little
bit of the -- I'm just going to lower that -- you break a
little
bit the tomatoes and you'll see -- and this is a delicious...
VIEIRA:
Ah.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Now this sauce warrants a big pot like that. We made a single, but double...
VIEIRA:
OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...because you can store it. And you can do many things with it.
VIEIRA:
Yeah, let's see...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Like...
VIEIRA:
...three
things you can do
with it.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK.
VIEIRA:
We've got the shrimp right here.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
The shrimp. Shrimp with garlic and oil.
VIEIRA:
Mm.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You don't overcook the shrimps, you know...
VIEIRA:
Yeah.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...because you want them nice and crunchy.
VIEIRA:
OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
And we just add the
marinara
to the shrimp just like that.
VIEIRA:
Just like that. OK. You don't need any pasta with this, just like that?
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Oh, I have pasta.
VIEIRA:
Oh, all right.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
I'm making the sauce right here.
VIEIRA:
All right.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
So you can see that you have shrimp
marinara
.
VIEIRA:
That looks fantastic.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You can -- you can serve them just like this.
VIEIRA:
Right.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
And...
VIEIRA:
Oh.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Making a mess here.
VIEIRA:
All right. We're
running out of time
so we're going to move...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK.
VIEIRA:
Oh, put the -- there you go. Or just dump that right in.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
The pasta right in here. And you get yourself either shrimp
marinara
or
fra diavolo
or...
VIEIRA:
Fantastic.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...with the pasta.
VIEIRA:
All right.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK. Let me just toss this a
little
bit because otherwise...
VIEIRA:
All right,
Lidia
.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You let it cook together.
VIEIRA:
Perfect. We got a minute left so let's move on to the next one.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK. We'll let this simmer then?
VIEIRA:
Yeah, you let that simmer.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Let me take the sauce because we're moving on with the
marinara
.
VIEIRA:
Yes, let's move on.
ANN CURRY, anchor:
Ah.
VIEIRA:
Oh, here come the
little
piggies.
CURRY:
We're moving on with the
marinara
.
That's right
, here we are.
MATT LAUER, co-host:
That's not nice.
AL ROKER reporting:
Wow.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK.
CURRY:
Yum.
ROKER:
Mm.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
So here's the chicken.
VIEIRA:
Mm.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
The same thing, garlic and oil and pepper.
VIEIRA:
Same thing.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
And you add on and you get that great...
VIEIRA:
Oh,
Lidia
, lovely.
ROKER:
Ooh.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You see? So when you have chicken -- you can do this with fish. You have your
marinara
.
LAUER:
Whoop.
ROKER:
Whoop
.
Whoop
, whoop, whoop.
VIEIRA:
Whoa.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Sorry.
ROKER:
It's OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Sorry. I -- you know, I wanted to give you some food quickly here.
ROKER:
I'm going to -- I'm going to strain my suit and have some lunch.
VIEIRA:
Because he's not -- he is not eating these days, so.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Ah.
VIEIRA:
He's not eating enough,
Al
, that
Al
.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
OK. So...
VIEIRA:
All right, so...
Ms. BASTIANICH:
...a
little
basil.
VIEIRA:
Yum, yum. OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Just like that.
CURRY:
Beautiful.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Isn't that nice?
ROKER:
Mm.
VIEIRA:
And you got -- what are these?
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You let it simmer.
VIEIRA:
Corn bread
?
Ms. BASTIANICH:
Polenta.
VIEIRA:
Polenta.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
That's polenta.
VIEIRA:
Polenta. Oh, polenta, of course.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
That's like a cornmeal. You grill it. You cook it first,
put it in
the pan, let it chill.
CURRY:
OK.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
You cut it and grill.
ROKER:
Mm.
Ms. BASTIANICH:
And then you serve the chicken over the polenta just like that.
CURRY:
Oh.
LAUER:
Man.
VIEIRA:
While you do that, we'll say thank you,
Lidia Bastianich
.
“ ”