Cooking with Giada and Alan from 'Dancing With The Stars' | Lemon Spaghetti

When I met Alan, I asked him what his favorite dish was, and he said. Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. Instead of fettuccine, I'm making spaghetti gitarra Alfredo with lemon and some chicken. Grilled chicken for my boy, who loves his chicken. And cheese. All right, what are we making? What am I teaching you? Since Alan's been teaching me some dance moves, and I'm incredibly sore, I now am gonna be the teacher. I'm gonna teach him how to make We'll see how good of a learner I am. Yeah, let's see those steps. So we're gonna make lemon Alfredo. Yes. What do you like about Alfredo sauce? The cheese. I love cheese. And what is that then? Because I'm just teaching him about what parmigiano is. This is parmigiano, right. That we eat. And is what? The base to. The parmigian, what is it called? Bra. This is part of the dance. This is like me trying to do the basic steps of dance. Now you know how it feels, huh? Yeah, I just, yeah. You feel like you're learning a new language. Yes, I know how it feels. Fun fact though, when I went to Italy and France, I went to Florence, I had chicken Alfredo. Because that's the best pasta you can get. Where did you eat that? Olive Garden. Oh my gosh, you went all the way to Florence and ate at Olive Garden? No, but they. Alan. No, but they went to a local place and I was like, I really like chicken Alfredo. And they were like, okay. Okay, we'll make it. Wow. Okay, well they're making this. So, the base to my Alfredo is a Parmesan broth. So a Parmesan broth. Parmesan broth. Water, those Parmesan rinds. And you just soak it in the water? I put it in the water. Oh God, oh God. Oh boy, oh boy. Lift it, lift it, lift it, lift it, lift it, lift it. It's hot, it's hot. Just lift it. Yes, you want that to boil. Yes. So for pasta, what you wanna do is you wanna boil the water and then add a bunch of salt. I love it. And make it salty like the sea. And you got the good salt. I got your kosher salt because. I'm Jewish. That's right. So we had to get kosher salt. Plus, I love kosher salt. I love it coarse. I actually get it a little coarser than that. Okay, now. Now that it's boiling. Put some salt in that? Yes. Like that? That's all the salt? What do you think about salt? That's like me doing my turns like this. So you gotta go more. Oh, that's a lot of salt. Oh, you're going for it. Let me. How much salt? Don't make it too salty. How much salt do we put in? Yeah, that's good. You spilled. I spilled? Okay, well let's taste it. Here, taste the water and tell me if it's salty enough. It's supposed to taste like the sea, like the Mediterranean Sea. Did you go swimming? I did go swimming. I was just in Croatia. It's really hot. I didn't say sip the whole thing. I just said ever so slightly. Is it salty? Yeah, it's salty. It's also. Great. It's also a. It's also what? Boiling up again. Okay, so let's lower it. Burned my tongue. Really? Seriously? It's hot. Okay, you're done. You're done. Okay, so now. You wanna throw the spaghetti in? The spaghetti. So these are spaghetti ghettos. Do you know what that is? No. Okay, so spaghetti ghetto is like guitar. Guitar, yeah. Yes, because if you look at it, it's not round. It's actually. Square, yeah. So we just put it all in? Yeah. All of it? However you can fit, how much you can fit, because traditionally I cook it in a tall pot, but we don't have one here, so. And you don't break the pasta. You don't break the pasta, but you can wait for it to soften and then kind of twirl it around a little bit. And while that cooks, the idea is you put your sauce together. Of course. So you have your parmesan brado over here. Which is? Parmesan, how can I, broth. Correct. So it's, I mean, it's parmesan rinds like these. Yes. Okay, leftover from a piece of parm. They all have this. Hopefully it tastes good. I saw a video on TikTok. A guy bought like a parmesan rind from Costco. It was $4,000. Like the full. Not the rind. He bought a full wheel. And then they cut it. That's expensive. Oh yeah, they used to use it as money. In the north of Florence and all of that area, instead of, well, before they actually had paper money and currency, that was their currency. Parmesan wheels. Spice trades, like that's how they, that's how they paid people. Here's a wheel. Amazing. So anyway, you make it with the rinds, water. Yeah. And then you can add some herbs, some carrot and some thyme and some onion. Let it boil like you would any broth. Strain it all. And you've got this like really rich broth. Super rich. And you can use it as a base for many, many dishes. Oh, there's still some in there. Yeah. Some of the. Yeah, exactly, right? It's super rich and it's the base of the alfredo. So to that, we add a little bit of cream. We let that simmer together, reduce a little bit, and then you add mascarpone cheese, which I just did. And you see how it becomes lemony? Yeah. Like this. I mean, not lemony, creamy. Yeah. And then we're gonna add a little bit of zest. Lemon zest, go ahead. Add a little bit of lemon zest. A lot or a little? Maybe you can sprinkle it. You know, you were sprinkling like this. What do you think about salt bae? I like salt bae. Look at that. Look at how you did that. Wait, are you gonna do it like you taught me? You do it the way I taught you. That's good. Wait. I thought I was teaching you. Delicate fingers. Delicate fingers, so. That's nice. I like that. But I can't hold the egg in the middle. See how good your fingers are there? Yeah, they're getting better. Show the camera. They're getting better. I taught her something. And then we're gonna add a little lemon juice. As you would. And what does it mean to reduce? Reduce means you let it simmer slowly for a little bit and then you start to see that the moisture evaporates. It's an evaporation of moisture so that it intensifies the flavor. But why is it called reduced if it's intensifying? Because reducing something equals intensifying something. That doesn't make sense. That makes sense. Put some more in there. Okay. Then parm. That's looking good. My pasta takes a while to cook because pasta from Italy, the way that it's dried and extruded, slow dry, takes longer to cook. And it's got a rough edge so it absorbs the sauce better. You see why I get that fingers? Yeah. You see that this is dry. This makes so much more sense. Because I'm talking and not looking. Yes, exactly. But now you're doing this. Exactly. So that's why I have to be more elegant. Okay, what is this? Pat migiano. You wanna taste it? I would love to. That's delicious. Okay, there you go. Now I like the rind. But the rind is a delicacy and we save them, we freeze them and then we use them in soups and stews and sauces. Why do you have to freeze it? It'll get moldy otherwise. Will it? Yeah, it's a great way to preserve it. And I say, when in doubt, add more cheese. Me too. Cheese is the best thing ever. This allows the cheese to melt. You could also use a blender or an immersion blender just to get a creamier. And you have to remember that when you add lemon, lemon is an acid to a dairy product, to a cream or whatever, you gotta make sure it doesn't come to a boil otherwise it'll separate. Because acid and cream. Got that, America? Good idea. Where are my? What do we need? No, I want, oh, here we go. Let's taste, let's see how this pasta. We just don't want it to stick. That's the only thing you gotta be careful, right? I'm gonna tell you, I've never cooked pasta in my life. You've eaten pasta? I've eaten, I've never cooked it. How do you eat every day? Oh, because you're a part of it. Well, I eat steak and chicken and eggs and stuff. This man only eats. Well, no, I can eat, I'll make rice, kind of. But why wouldn't you make pasta? Because it's a gluten or something and you don't eat it? No, I just, I don't know. You know what I did make? Your girlfriend is making? Because it was healthy. Oh, it was less calories. Have you heard of like, what's the, how do you pronounce it? Cognac noodles? Cognac? Oh, yeah. No, they're definitely not pasta. But why would you make that? Because it, I feel like you can eat a lot of that. So is it because of the gluten? Is that the thing? No, the calories. So there's too many calories in pasta? With the pasta I make and the cheese I make, yeah. So I'm putting some grilled chicken down. Is it cooked already? Oh, I hope so. So then I'll eat it. Oh, sure. This is grilled chicken just because you like it with chicken. But I will tell you that normally I do it with shrimp. Shrimp? Not chicken. We're having such, we're having stove problems. No, I got it, that's good. Stove problems. So this cooks boiling, but this one needs to just barely simmer. So I don't know, seven might be too high. I'm also like a speed cooker. I like to cook fast. Why? Because I don't want to wait to make the food. I like to enjoy eating the food. I don't like cooking, I like eating. Did your parents cook for you? Yeah. What did they cook? Soups, a lot of meats, potatoes, a lot of like salads. Yeah, Russian food. Okay, and so you have never cooked pasta. I've never cooked pasta. I've only been fascinated by what the dancers eat. Are you cooking? Yeah. Fascinating. Everyone's very different. And now I know that you only eat. Well, everyone's different. Do you make pasta for every meal? I make pasta a lot. Jade, do I make pasta a lot? I make pasta a lot. Is it good? But you know, I grew up eating a lot of pasta, so maybe that's why. I mean, we eat meat, we eat fish. Okay, so you see how it's reducing? Can you see how it's thickening? Yeah. Stick your finger on it and just taste it. One, two, three. Second. Pretty tasty, right? Yeah. You gotta lower it. Lower it, lower, lower, lower. This is one test of stove. Is it true if you put wood in there, it lowers the bubbles? Wood? Have you ever seen that? No. If you put like a wooden spoon on top. Try it. Well, it's only when it's, it's not a good wooden spoon. But I think wood, something with that. I could be making this up. Is this a TikTok? I learn all my things on TikTok. Colin Walsh does a lot of TikToks and he learns everything on TikTok. Everything I know is from TikTok. So is Jade. That's interesting. That's how you guys learn. Okay, so the sauce is pretty much, it's ready. Delicious. We're waiting for the pasta. It's not done yet, okay. So once the pasta's done, we put it in here, we toss it, and then we can plate it. What do you think? I think that's great. And then you're gonna taste it, but I think I need a fork. If you want more chicken, there's chicken here. Oh, I'm gonna put extra chicken in our pasta. We're not gonna put it in our pasta. We're gonna make it more delicate. Oh yeah, tell me about your shirt. Tell me about the shirt. If you've seen The Bear, this shirt is from The Bear. I did my research, as did everyone else. It was sold out for a long time. It's from Japan. Apparently chefs wear this shirt, Giada. I don't know if you know that. I don't. TikTok wouldn't lie to me. I like food. I just don't like the process of making food or cleaning up. Okay, so where do you go get great food? Uber Eats is pretty good. Oh my God. I'm telling you, if this is cooked enough for you, but you don't eat pasta, so maybe you don't eat pasta. Hot. Are your fingers not used to the burn? Are you just used to the burning? Yes. That's why your quads don't hurt and mine do. That's al dente? Mm-hmm. That's good. Are you okay with that? Yeah, it's delicious. No, no, no, no. Okay, let's do it. Ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay. It's teamwork right here. Yeah. You got it. I'll just watch. Why? You know what you're doing. I know what I'm doing, but it's okay. You can do it too. We only have one tong. That's true. All right, so here we go. And I would toss it, but I don't want it to end up all over. What do you mean toss, like this? Well, yes, but this is not a pan that you can do that with because it's too shallow. So those kind of pans that you can do that, they're deeper, like restaurants pans. Oops. This one's gonna just... So what I wanna do with the al dente is you want it to finish it in the sauce, right? So the pasta continues to cook in the sauce, which absorbs the sauce. It's gonna make it delicious. Listen, I'm all about the sauce. Are you? Yeah. Okay, here we go. Cheese and sauce. Cheese and sauce, bitch. What makes a perfect dance? The extra sauce. Okay. The flavor, right? You wanna add flavor to dance. All right, here we go. Oh God, oh God, are you flipping? I'm coming over here. You want me to do it? Smart. I'm gonna put it right on top of here. Oh, you put it on top? Oh, yes. Restaurant style. We don't like chop it up and put it in there. This is my famous lemon spaghetti. It's really a lemon Alfredo. And when I met Alan, I asked him what his favorite dish was and he said... Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. So instead of fettuccine, I'm making spaghetti alfredo with lemon and some chicken. Grilled chicken for my boy who loves his chicken. And cheese. A lot of chicken and cheese. Okay, so... Am I doing this? Not yet. Man, I'm excited. I love cheese. And now, we've just cooked it. Instead of chopping up the... The chicken? The chicken, we've sliced it and we're just putting the pasta on top, making it a little bit more elegant than chopping it up. We're classy, but... And we're also trying to hide the chicken. And we're gonna put a little extra sauce all over it because you never have enough sauce. You can never have enough sauce. Never enough sauce. Never enough flavor. Alan is going to do the plating by grating some fresh parmigiano reggiano right over the top. I'm excited. You tell me when. Go for it. And it's up to you how much cheese you wanna put. Holy cow. Is that enough? Yeah. All right, that's good. That was unbelievable. Do you not twist it? Do you know how to twirl? I don't. I feel like I know how to... Do you know how to twirl? I don't know how to twirl. I know how to twirl. My body, but I know how to twirl spaghetti. But I think that by the end of this, you're gonna teach me how to twirl. I hope so. Right? Ready? Yeah, ready? That's very good. You likey? Yeah, I want some chicken too. That's very good. It's pretty good, right? That's amazing. So Alan, this is the pasta that made me famous. Is it? That kept me in Vegas for the last 14 years. I can see why. The slurping means you love it. It's very good. Good job. Now show me the tango. Very good. Honestly, this is amazing. I made it an incredible pasta. Now you can tell all the other pros on the show made you a dish. Yeah, this is the second dish you made me. Oh yes, I made chipan lasagna when he wasn't eating any carbs. So it was kind enough to break his diet and taste the chipan lasagna. This is definitely off your diet. Oh yeah, we're done with the diet. 100%. This is amazing though. Okay, great. Good job. I'm gonna eat it all. Come on in, J.D. This is the best pasta you're gonna have because there's chicken in it. You're gonna be like, wow, I'm gonna put chicken in all my pasta now. Okay. Oh, she's good at the twirl. Impressive. She's had some practice on that. It's very good. Very nice job, you guys.