Ciao Italia

CIAO ITALIA celebrates the foods people love to come home for. In 13 programs, host Mary Ann Esposito shows viewers everything they've ever wanted to know about making and cooking pasta. With simple step-by-step instructions, viewers learn how to make delicious fresh pasta with ease, either by hand or with a food processor, and what to look for in commercially made dried pasta.

Description Air Time Salted Cod/Baccala Dried cod is rejuvenated in Mary Ann's kitchen sink, then combined with an ancient grain called farro for a nutritious, risotto-like dish. Mary Ann also makes a classic cold cod and cauliflower salad. Dec 2 8:00PM 10:00PM Amarena Cherry Roll/Salame Inglese Mary Ann travels to a tiny Sicilian pastry shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to cook with master pastry chefs Mary Ann and Paul Chiaramitaro. They make a classic Sicilian cassata cake that is beautifully decorated with a ribbon of green pistachio paste and whole candied fruits. Mary Ann makes an impressive molded jellyroll cake filled with pistachio cream and amarena cherry jam. Dec 3 8:00PM 10:00PM Amarena Cherry Roll/Salame Inglese Mary Ann travels to a tiny Sicilian pastry shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to cook with master pastry chefs Mary Ann and Paul Chiaramitaro. They make a classic Sicilian cassata cake that is beautifully decorated with a ribbon of green pistachio paste and whole candied fruits. Mary Ann makes an impressive molded jellyroll cake filled with pistachio cream and amarena cherry jam. Dec 9 8:00PM 10:00PM Onions and Baby Onions/Cipolle e Cippoline Viewers' eyes fill with tears of joy when they see what Mary Ann can do with common onions. They can be enjoyed stuffed with raisins, bread and parsley. How about sweet-and-sour onions, or caramelized onions? Mary Ann offers some tips, too, about planting onions. Dec 10 8:00PM 10:00PM Onions and Baby Onions/Cipolle e Cippoline Viewers' eyes fill with tears of joy when they see what Mary Ann can do with common onions. They can be enjoyed stuffed with raisins, bread and parsley. How about sweet-and-sour onions, or caramelized onions? Mary Ann offers some tips, too, about planting onions. Dec 16 8:00PM 10:00PM Cooking with Cooked Ham/Cucinare con Prosciutto Cotto Got a ham bone? Anna Nurse, Mary Ann's longtime friend, shows viewers how to make her family's favorite baked ham. Mary Ann enjoys it and asks for the bone to make a hearty ham-and-split-pea soup as well as a timbale of ham and lentils. Dec 17 8:00PM 10:00PM Cooking with Cooked Ham/Cucinare con Prosciutto Cotto Got a ham bone? Anna Nurse, Mary Ann's longtime friend, shows viewers how to make her family's favorite baked ham. Mary Ann enjoys it and asks for the bone to make a hearty ham-and-split-pea soup as well as a timbale of ham and lentils. Dec 23 8:00PM 10:00PM Tasty Tomatoes/Pomodori Saporiti Mary Ann takes viewers to a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, to talk to the 'Tomato Lady' about different varieties of tomatoes and how to use them. Then she heads nella cucina to make a layered and molded cold tomato and bread salad that is as stunning to see as to eat. Hold the mayo! Dec 24 8:00PM 10:00PM Tasty Tomatoes/Pomodori Saporiti Mary Ann takes viewers to a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, to talk to the 'Tomato Lady' about different varieties of tomatoes and how to use them. Then she heads nella cucina to make a layered and molded cold tomato and bread salad that is as stunning to see as to eat. Hold the mayo! Dec 30 8:00PM 10:00PM All Kinds of Gnocchi/Gnocchi Diversi Mary Ann travels to Wilmington, Delaware, to cook with expert gnocchi-maker, chef Anthony Stella. He reveals how to make delicious potato gnocchi served with a unique tomato sauce. Then Mary Ann heads nella cucina to show viewers how to turn bread into gnocchi. Dec 31 8:00PM 10:00PM

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