Bottle of Red, Bottle of White

A bottle of white, a bottle of red, maybe a little rosé instead

Y'all, I'm in the kitchen today with the king of Italian, my buddy Steve Matarano

And today we're sharing some of our simplest, savory Italian recipes. First up, it's my grilled chicken parmesan with homemade marinara

You're not gonna believe how good it's gonna be. And then Stephen's got a fried eggplant stack that'll surprise your taste buds

I cook like my mother cooked, but I take it to another level with better ingredients. Finally, we're making a cheesy manicotti, an easy garlic bread that is so good it'll have you speaking a cake

Time to eat. Tutti mangiare. Tutti mangiare, y'all. That's terrific. I met Steve this summer

Yes, ma'am. In Atlantic City. And I fell in love with this man

Well, I'm so glad. I'm excited. I'm excited, too. I was just so, so happy when I heard that you were coming

I can't believe that I'm going to be driving the first recipe, y'all. The king of Italian cooking

And I've got to do a marinara sauce and a grilled chicken parmesan

Well, this is just a real simple dish. Yes, ma'am. You would be cutting up those onions, Steve

Yes, ma'am. And I'm going to be making a marinade, y'all, for our boneless chicken

And it's going to be the juice of one lemon of three or four cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and that's it

Okay, so talk, baby. Okay, I'm born and raised in South Philadelphia

That's where I started. And now I live in Florida. I have a restaurant

I didn't know you lived in Florida. Yeah, 20 years ago, I opened up that restaurant

And everybody said I would last about a year. 20 years later, I'm still there. Yeah, it's true

You showed them, didn't you? Yes, ma'am. So you hadn't lost that Philly accent

I don't know. I ain't got no accent. I don't know. I don't have no accent. You ain't

I say water. What do you say? Water. Same thing. So where did you learn to cook

From your mama? Well, no, I started, yeah, well, my mother and my grandmother, but how I started a business, I used to make sandwiches

and I would deliver the sandwiches myself out of my house. I did, too

That's why I really wanted to be here. I made these sandwiches, and I gave phone numbers out on a piece of paper

People would call me, and I would deliver the food. I pimp my children out on the streets

Okay, okay, what would they do? To sell my food, yes. Well, what's wrong with that

I didn't think anything was wrong with it myself. How did you market it? How did you get it out there

I didn't. I took one day, and Jamie and I went out into the medical arts area

and I told them what we were doing, and we were going to be coming around and offering good fresh food

Okay. And only had one person tell me no. So I put some pepper flakes and my garlic into my marinade

And you need to chop up four cloves of garlic for our sauce, Steve

All right, so I'm going to put a little olive oil in here, and if you would toss that onion in

We're just gonna cook those onions until they're a little bit translucent

and then we're gonna add the garlic and over here, Steve I have two 28 ounce

cans of whole peeled tomatoes and I pulsed them a little bit

These Italian tomatoes? No They're the best tomatoes in the world Say it again

My accent's stepping in Oh, he's got an accent He's mid-mitted, y'all

He's got an accent. A Sermonzano tomato. It's the best imported Italian. And you can buy those in the grocery store

Probably in Italian delis. And guess what? We don't have many Italian delis down here

I think I want to open up something here. Would you really? I swear on my mother. Oh, Mama, he didn't mean that

Well, I mean that in a good way, though. Go ahead. But I think you just need something

I really mean that. I mean that. Guess what? What? What? Tell me. I got a present for you

Since this Italian theme, right? It's a Italian theme. Can you open that for me

This is maloikio. That's the Italian horn. Oh, my God, I love it

See, look at that. It keeps the evil spirits away. Oh, God, let me put it on

You gotta put that on, right? I get it. Let me put it on, because sometimes those evil spirits

they'll creep in on you when you least expect it. See that

Oh, my God, I love it. Steve, the onions have cooked down enough

Now you can add in our garlic. I'm going to put a little red pepper in there. Hot pepper, cuz, or me

Or me. is because of good. If I don't remember your name, what do I say

Hey, cuz, how you doing? I say, hey, darling. You say, hey, cuz, now

You want this? Yes. Then you can add in the tomatoes. All right, so I have let this marinate

for about five minutes. You know, it doesn't have to marinate long. And we are gonna grill this

We're gonna let that cook for about 20 minutes. Okay. All right so we gonna just grill these It about three minutes per side You know how long not long All right now this is cooking So why don you get down here and start slicing your eggplant

Okay, okay. Because you're going to make an eggplant dish for us, right? Eggplant stack

And I'm going to take just a little bit of this marinade and put on top of that grilled chicken just to keep those chicken breasts moist

What is an eggplant stack? We take eggplant, we slice it thin, and we bread it, and we fry it, but we put fresh mozzarella, marinated tomato, and more eggplant, and we put arugula on top

I love arugula. Well, my style of cooking, Paula, is comfort Italian-American comfort food

So I cook like my mother cooked, but I take it to another level with better ingredients

Why don't we salt and pepper this? Okay. And you're going to come down here and salt your eggplant, right

Yes, ma'am. And why are you going to salt it? Eggplants sometimes can be a little bitter

It can be a little bitter. So you want to put the salt so you drain those juices out

That's right. Last, I'm going to add in some basil, and you can drain our eggplant in the sink, Steve

All right, now, if you would skip your cute little tail down there

Yes, ma'am. To the other end of the counter. Okay, so now. And grate me some cheese

We've got mozzarella in there. So what we're going to do, Steve, if you would

You want mozzarella on this one? Yes, we're just going to mix the mozzarella and the fresh parm

We're going to stick it in the broiler, y'all. Let it cook for about five minutes until it's melted

Smells delicious. And when we come back, we're going to put my cousin's stacked eggplants together

and you're not gonna believe how good it's gonna be. Coming up next, this big Italian guy

is showing us these towering eggplant staphs. Forget about it. It's good, ain't it

Forget about it, John. Forget about it. Then it's cheesy manicotti. This is how the Italian women have big arms

They're two-year-old dang great this. And later, no Italian meal would be complete

without some garlic bread, y'all. So how does that look

Did we put enough cheese on it? No, no, no, there's plenty. Okay, good. Are you ready to make..

I'm ready. I'm ready. Eggplant. We're gonna do stacked eggplant. Eggplant stacked

Breaded eggplant, fresh mozzarella, marinated tomato, more eggplant. The same thing, then a rudder on top

You had salted your eggplant. You should put a weight on top of it, like a frying pan

something that'll bring the moisture out of the eggplant. Okay. Pat it dry. Listen, I had heard through a mutual friend of ours that Steve really, really does a lot to help the inner city kids

100%. And that's wonderful. Thank you. And I also heard that Steve, look how manly, manly

I also heard he has little dogs. Four. What kind of little dogs do you have

Pomeranians. Don't you laugh. I swear I ain't gonna laugh. What do you want me with a pit bull

I love my babies. And, and, and... Do you walk them? I walk them

I play with them. And ain't nobody got guts to, uh... Unconditional love

Yes. No matter how bad your day is, they're there waiting. They don't want nothing from you

No. Just one, just one love. That's it. No, that's it. Well, let's get back to this eggplant, Steve

I'm gonna hand this to you. Okay. I'm gonna bring it to the... I want you to put some flour. We're gonna do a breading

Okay. Flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Okay, so flour in this one. Put a little salt and pepper in there

Okie dokie. Now you're going to put some egg mixture. All right, now what are we going to mix with these eggs

More salt and pepper. Yes, ma'am, a little bit. You want to season that as we're going. You know, I see you got some Parmesan cheese for that, too

You ready? We got some breadcrumb. Now this is store-bought breadcrumb. We need some parsley, right

Yes, we always need our veggies. Okay, we're going to do a rough chop. All right, are we going to go one, two, three

I'm going to put a little parsley in there. Okay. Get a little vegetable oil

Okay. You can use olive oil. We're going to fry this, right? Yeah

And I cut these pretty thin, so you just want to get a nice color one. You figure, what, two, three minutes and put it on the paper towel

Okay. And then we'll stack this. That sounds great. So I'm going to take these tomatoes

We're going to slice these. Ooh, look, Steve. My mother would make these

She put 15 of them on a plate. By the time dinner came, there'd be three left

That's the way I was with fried green tomatoes and laso cakes. So you pop them whole, right

Yeah, I'd put them on the platter and I'd turn around and my children would make trips through the kitchen

These are looking good, so why don't you start slicing the mozzarella

Are you ready? I'm ready. Here a tomato You want to put a little salt and pepper OK Garlic powder You some vasana gold OK some vasana gold

You know, when I was a kid and I couldn't afford cologne, I used to go like, yes, come here, honey

You're coming with me. They follow me everywhere. Come on. And I've got a little oil here, Steve

Take a little bit of kumusikiam. You know what kumusikiam is? Kumusikiam, yeah. That's when you don't know something

You go, what a kumusikiam. Come on, that's a little bit of balsamia

That's not... I love... Whoa! Just a little bit. Get a piece of mozzarella

Give me another... All right, now what? Another. Another eggplant. Why do you keep talking like that

I don't know. Give another piece of tomato. Somebody in this room is making me talk like that

A little salt, a little pepper, a little garlic powder. A little garlic powder. A little vasana roll

A little vasana roll. Tell me I don't even look beautiful just like that. Yes. A little basil

A little basil. Put another piece of mozzarella. Put another eggplant on top of that

Great time of day. This is going to be hard to eat. No, watch. Give yourself a little bit of arugula

Put a little bit of salt. A little bit of pepper. A little bit of garlic. We're going to finish it up

And I want you to put this on top. On top? I'm swallowing hard

Come on, baby girl. Put a little bit on top. Take that. We're going to take a little bit of this

All right, now, should we get a clean plate? No, watch, watch. Well, that looks terrific

It does. It does. All right, so tell me what you think about this. If I want a chicken parm and I can't have the breading

I'm in the same family right here. Oh, the hot pepper. I brought that up

You don't taste that? Yes, I do. Seriously, where's the camera? That

Minga. Yeah, yeah. Because! All right, this is what I want to taste

All right, is there a right way to eat this? No, no, no, just cut it. And if it falls apart, if it falls apart

you just pick up the eighth plate, tomato, and the mozzarella, and the arugula. Okay

A little crispy, a little tomato, right? A little balsamic. Simple yet delicious

This is delicious, y'all. Coming up next, our Italian lessons continue with this cheesy manicotti

Simple Italian-American cooking. Simple. And later, we see if my Italian cooking impresses this Italian man

That's really good. You think I'm going to give you something bad? Y'all, I am so intimidated in here in the kitchen today with my friend Steve, the king of Italian

And here I am showing him my Italian dishes. I'm intimidated. Why

Because you're the best. Simple Italian-American cooking. Simple. Like Southern Foods. Simple

What are we making? Well, I need your help in making a cheesy manicotti. Now, we're going to start by boiling our pasta with a little kosher salt

So you got arigate? Yes. Come on. It's arigate, right? We got arigate, and we're going to put the arigate

I don't know where you get that. From R-I-C-O-T-T-A. Streak, baby. Streak

All right. Okay. Come on. We've got mozzarella. Mozzarella. We've got provolone

Okay, provolone. And we're using a frozen spinach. I get it. Because we're going to mix that with all these yummy ingredients

Okay. So if you would start shredding our cheese. I got you. And I'm going to be mixing up our filling

So I've got our 15 ounces of ricotta. So what's the egg for

is to bind, to make it a little... Yeah, because we don't want our..

You don't want the regatta to be too soft, right? Whatever your mama calls it. Yeah

We don't want it to come out. And this will stick us together

You don't have to season that at all, no? Yeah, I'm going to put a little Italian seasoning in it

A teaspoon of Italian seasoning. And then we're just going to mix up our..

Como se llama? Yes. With our egg. This is how the Italian women have big arms, you know

Let's sit here all day and grate this. Now, we just need to drain our spinach as much as possible before we add it in

All right. All right. Let's add about a cup and a half of the mozzarella. Okay

A cup of provolone. Check the macaroni. Yes, ma'am. Now, this is still too hard

Is it tearing up? No, no, it's still too hard, but it's starting to tear. Oh, okay. You want it a little firm, right

Because we want to bake this. El dente. Yes. Tough to the teeth

Firm to the tooth. Firm to the tooth. It's all right. I knew it had something to do with teeth and hard

We're going to take this out. We're going to take this out. Okay. Now, you're going to rinse this off

The macaroni is going to cool it off a little bit. Easy for us to handle, right? Okay if you say so Yes ma All right now we got our sauce over here I going get our dish Now this is old school This isn a pastry bag Teach me

This is when you ain't got no pastry bag at home. It's a regular Ziploc kind of bag

Yeah. We're gonna fill this with your regatta, I guess, right? Yes

And then we'll make our own little bag out of this. I want you to show me how you would stuff your shells in your restaurant

I'll line our pan with marinara sauce again. We're going to seal this up. Okay

And we're going to make a little bag. And we're going to cut. Let's just take a little piece

And I'll take that so that won't get in our... Yeah, it won't go in here. You want to hold one

Yes, I'll hold one. You hold it, I'll fill it. Okay, look at there

You ready? If it's not perfect, no big deal, right? That's right. Whoa, uh-oh

That's okay, okay. Oh, no. I thought your bag was screaming. No, no, no, no, no, no. Get a little bit in there

Push it in. See, my mother, people get a little offended with your hands, right

My mother cooked all her life with her hands. Exactly right. That's good

It doesn't have to be perfect. That's good. All right, so there we go. There's one

Yum, this looks pretty good, Steve. So this is really fun

So how would you do it if you were by yourself? I'd go to the store and buy them

We're going to put this sauce on it. So this is that sauce that we made earlier

so it's really had a chance, y'all, to really cook the way I like it

So let's put our cheese on, baby. We're going to put this in a 350 degree oven, about 35 or 40 minutes

And when we come back... Tanti, tutti mangiare. Tutti mangiare, yum. That's terrific

That's terrific. Coming up next, we find out if I get an A in Italian

Tutti mangiare. Tutti mangiare. Let's eat. Or an mmm in cooking. Yum

I have to say, y'all, that my time in the kitchen today with Steve has been way too short

And I hope you'll come back. You can invite me, I'll be here

And speaking of quick. What are we doing? Guess what time it are. What do we got

It is time to take out this wonderful, you want to do it

Yes, ma'am. So this is the Monogaston. Yes, and look at that

Wow, that's beautiful. And we can't... Look how gorgeous that is. Watch your hands

So, we've got to have us a little garlic bread. Now, I've got our pan heating up right here, Steve

Okay. So, just cut a soft chunk any way you want to cut it. Yes, ma'am

Down the middle or like that is great. And I've got a little butter

A little butter? A little butter. We're going to add some garlic powder and a little dried parsley

You okay? Look at that, yeah

That's beautiful. I had the pan really nice and hot. I'm going to go ahead and turn it off

Why don't you plate those up for us, and I'll watch this bread. I'm going to eat two

Okay. You eat one? Yes. I'll do you first? Okay. No, one is a gracious plenty

Okay. I'm going to go out there. In my dreams. All right, how many pieces of bread you want? Two

Two. Everything comes in two in my world. Do you mind if I take a little vase of gold, put it on top just a little bit

Oh, I want you to take that vase of gold and put it there. Never above you

Uh-huh. Never below you. Uh-huh. Just always with you. I love that

And I've got one for you. I'm listening. They're tall ships. Tall ships

They're small ships. They're pretty ships. And they're ugly ships. But the best ship of all is friendship

100%. Best dishes and love to you, baby. Same to you. Now let's eat

Duti mangiare. Duti mangiare. I'm starving, too. Eat up, baby. You don't like

You tell me. I keep going back. It's delicious, I swear to God

It's tough, y'all. Garlic bread. That's really good. You think I'm going to give you something bad

No, I swear to God, it's really good. I know. So kiss me

Thank you. I'm back. Yes, ma'am. Yum