With a focus on her Italian immigrant roots and a deep passion for both family and food, Lidia Bastianich is always ready to share tips, tricks, and favorite family recipes that she grew up loving. In a video on her official Facebook page, she reveals her Grandma Rosa's recipe for mashed potatoes with savoy cabbage. Bastianich explains the dish is ideal for making in large quantities and reheating the leftovers. This certainly makes it food fit for a feasting family and an easy recipe you can prepare on your own at home.
Husband-and-wife team Hakeem and Zura started cooking together when grounded in Morocco during the pandemic, and on returning to London, it evolved into the Duda Diner concept, their love letter to Malaysia. After popping up with it all over town, the pair have now found a permanent home for Duda Diner in Nunhead, taking over cafe Goodcup on Thursday to Saturday evenings.
Growing up as a Greek American, certain dishes were always part of my family's weekly dinner rotation. My parents used food to help my sister and me connect to our Greek roots, introducing us to dishes like pastitsio (like lasagna, but better), avgolemono soup (similar to chicken noodle), and baklava (a holiday classic). But no recipe is as quick and easy as my dad's Greek meatballs - or keftedes, as we call them. They're the perfect companion to some fries, pasta, or his Greek roasted potatoes.
"Pamana always stuck, because at the end of the day, what we do is for our family and what we learned from them, and that's how we keep a lot of our stories and our culture alive," says Geri.
Pastitsio is a baked pasta dish with ground meat and a béchamel sauce. It's creamier than a baked ziti and meatier than your classic lasagna.