She takes a big bowl of cleaned mussels and feels them. “If they
feel light in your hands, don’t buy them,” she instructs. “If they
feel like a rock in your hands, do.” Why? A lighter-feeling mussel
might be filled with sand.
To a hot pot Bastianich adds onions and red pepper flakes.
When the onions soften, she adds two dozen littleneck clams.
“The clams take longer,” she explains as she covers the pan and
allows them to open.
As we cook, Bastianich recounts the story of how her family
came to America—a story that involves escaping communist
Yugoslavia (her father was shot at as he made his way over the
border) and surviving a refugee camp in Trieste, Italy. “Life there
was rigid,” she tells me as she adds the mussels to the pot. “I
remember we stood in line for food.”
Bastianich and her family made it to America courtesy of
Dwight Eisenhower (who changed the quota for immigrants
escaping communism) and the Catholic Church. “When you come
here with fresh eyes,” she tells me, “only then do you realize what
America has to offer.”
The bounty that surrounds her now is clearly something that
Bastianich doesn’t take for granted. As she plates the mussels and
clams and proceeds through two more dishes—Ziti with Broccoli
Rabe and Sausage and Frico with Potato (a fried cheese dish)—she
tastes and expresses her pleasure with loud “mmm”s and “yum
yum yum”s.
She reserves her biggest enthusiasm, though, for her children