Lidia Bastianich Quotes

I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup, which they will try to foist on anybody who looks like a likely candidate.

I make a lot of soups and stews at home, and I always have fresh bread with it.

Hearty soups with relatively long cook times like minestrone, for example, are chock-full of aromatics and flavor-lending ingredients like bacon, onions, and garlic. These infuse the water with their flavor and produce a clean-tasting broth all on their own.

I cook mostly vegetarian vegetable and bean stews. Quinoa salads. I make my mother-in-law's recipe for chicken and barley stew all the time.

I enjoy domestic life. Cooking gives me great pleasure, especially if I can chop vegetables slowly and think about what I'm doing and dream a little about this and that.

I want Books and Babies and Beef stews.

I never feel more useful than when I'm making my kids a bowl of soup.

Gravy is the simplest, tastiest, most memory-laden dish I know how to make: a little flour, salt and pepper, crispy bits of whatever meat anchored the meal, a couple of cups of water or milk and slow stirring to break up lumps.

The kitchen is a sacred space.

I love to cook and feed people. I cook every day.

I think tripe is maligned. It's wonderful stuff, but everyone goes 'urgh.' You have to wash and then cook it, very gently braise it, for eight hours. It uplifts you but steadies you at the same time.

My mother is teaching me Indian recipes. I'll go to the market, get everything fresh, have a glass of red wine, and just do it. I find it really therapeutic.

I'm not cooking every day anymore, and that's the biggest withdrawal. Cooking is honest work. Now I don't know how to measure myself.

I love cooking, and I can make real good rajma chawal. It is a time consuming process and only for the consumption of a select few very special people. Also, I can make delicious mutton biryani, but I must confess I have stolen the recipe from my mother.

I love roasting because you can give it love, get it in the oven and go and play with the kids or whatever you've got to do, and then hours later you've got a lovely dinner.

Cooking is an important part of a good, stable family life. I like to get the family together; there's a huge nurturing element in it.

My sister would say I'm a feeder because I like cooking for people.

I love to make soups. My father used to say, 'There's nothing like a nice bowl of soup.' One of my favorites is... ready? Broccolini, white bean and hot Italian sausage soup. I've used escarole. Escarole in beans is unbelievable, or you can use bok choy, any kind. You can really fool around. That's one of my good ones.

I like to cook Indian food when I can. I find the process of creating a home-cooked meal to be unwinding.

I just never saw my mother in any other room but the kitchen. There were always pots going.

At the beginning of every week, I like to sit down and figure out what I'm going to make. I probably try at least two new recipes a week. But I have my standbys - jambalaya, meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

After a day of writing, I love nothing more than to go into my kitchen and start chopping onions and garlic on the way to cooking an improvised meal with whatever ingredients are on hand. Cooking is the perfect counterpoint to writing. I find it more relaxing than anything else, even naps, walks, or hot baths.

My ritual is cooking. I find it therapeutic. It comes naturally to me. I can read a recipe and won't have to look at it again.

I do endless chopping and preparing things. I really find that relaxing. I do a lot of thinking as I am chopping and cooking.

I love to cook for people. I equate food with love.