Each individual episode is chock-total of mouthwatering regional specialties well prepared by cooks all above the country.
For those people seeking to adhere to in Stanley Tucci’s footsteps, down below is an episode-by-episode manual to all the eating places — which includes neighborhood hangouts and Michelin-starred establishments — the actor frequented all through the show’s 2nd time.
LIGURIA
The Italian Riviera is greatly considered to be the most glamorous and picturesque coastline in Europe. Portofino and Cinque Terre, positioned in Liguria, are two of Italy’s most visited places. With its steep cliffs and wild countryside softened by sporadic villages of sweet-colored residences, this idyllic strip of mountainous land has breathtaking views. The harshness of the land has made the people today inventive. It is Liguria we have to thank for pesto, a single of Tucci’s favored points.
Chef Carlo Cracco reveals Stanley Tucci how to make pansotti pasta with preboggion and walnut sauce. “It can be incredibly diverse from anything I have ever tasted,” Tucci said. “Stanley Tucci: Seeking for Italy” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
Cracco Portofino is operate by Carlo Cracco — a person of Italy’s most famed, Michelin-starred cooks. His menu attributes dishes that are linked to the land. For Tucci, he cooked the standard Ligurian dish of ravioli-like pansotti pasta with a mixture of greens and herbs called preboggion and walnut sauce. “It’s quite unique than nearly anything I’ve ever tasted,” Tucci stated as he raved about the food.
Il Genovese is recognised for its pesto, which is crushed by hand in an historic mortar. Chef Roberto Panizza, acknowledged as the King of Pesto and the founder of the Pesto Environment Championship, created Tucci a pasta dish to showcase the delectable eco-friendly sauce. He additional environmentally friendly beans and potatoes to the pasta to make it added creamy. “So humble, this dish. So humble, just like me,” Tucci joked.
Antico Forno della Casana helps make some of the very best focaccia in the location, in accordance to food stuff writer Laurel Evans. The bread with its signature dimples is a operating-class staple that originated in Genoa. The local trick is to try to eat it upside down so the salt hits your tongue very first and the rest of the flavors stick to.
When cappon magro — a seafood and veggies dish arranged into a ornamental pyramid — strike the table, Stanley Tucci was speechless. “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
The Cook dinner is the hot new restaurant of chef Ivano Ricchebono that is positioned in a 14th-century palazzo in Genoa. “Wow! Wow! Wow!” Tucci exclaimed as he walked inside of and took in the architecture. Ricchebono specializes in seasonal and local components. Tucci arrived to try out corzetti, a Genoese pasta, and cappon magro, an ornate seafood dish. When cappon magro hit the table, Tucci was in awe of the presentation.
Ittiturismo, created into the cliffs of Cinque Terre, is the two a loved ones household and their restaurant. The head chef is the son, Pietro Galletti, who cooks the fresh fish foraged by his father, Guido. Tucci joined the relatives for lunch on their terrace. They feasted on pasta with fish sauce and fried anchovies stuffed with cheese and herbs then protected in breadcrumbs.
PUGLIA
Puglia is well known for its fragrant olive oil, gorgeous veggies, delightful cheeses and flavorful durum wheat. Commonly known as the boot of Italy, this southern area represents the nation’s culinary scene at its most basic — straightforward, clean, domestically produced delicacies. Inspite of becoming a person of Italy’s poorest areas, Puglia is coming into its very own, and Tucci discovers that you can find a newfound pleasure in its gastronomic roots.
Italian chef Celso Laforgia cooks up spaghetti all’assassina, or assassin’s pasta. This spicy dish delivers explosive heat. “Stanley Tucci: Exploring for Italy” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
At City Bistrot in Bari, chef Celso Laforgia cooks up pasta all’assassina (assassin pasta). The spicy and charred dish is manufactured by putting the pasta in a pan with olive oil and spices — but no drinking water — until finally it truly is burnt and crispy. “Truthfully, I’ve hardly ever viewed nearly anything like that ahead of,” Tucci mentioned. “And I’ve been close to way too.” According to Laforgia, the dish acquired its identify immediately after the 1st person who experimented with it referred to as the chef a killer because it was so spicy.
With a identify that usually means “historical flavors,” Antichi Sapori in Montegrosso is identified for transforming basic, humble substances into planet-class delicacies. These kinds of is the case with its signature dish, burnt obtain orecchiette in a fava bean product served with burrata cheese and charred black olives. Fava beans are a favored in Puglia they include a sleek, creaminess to the pasta. “It truly is the stability of flavors,” mentioned chef Pietro Zito as he served the dish to Tucci. “That’s remarkable,” Tucci explained. “Now, I cannot halt having.”
Trattoria Bere Vecchie, tucked in the labyrinth of alleyways of the hilltop city of Cisternino, is a butcher shop that won’t just offer meats, it cooks them on the location. The shop is operate by young restaurateur Vito Zurlo. Historically, this creating was a pharmacy, now it serves up meat spit-roasted in a way reminiscent of Turkish design kebabs. Tucci attempted bombette (rolls of pork stuffed with cheese, herbs and crimson pepper) and gnumareddi (lamb wrapped in intestines).
Caseificio Dicecca is a one particular-of-a-sort cheese bar, where by cheesemaker Vito Dicecca made anything unparalleled in this area: Apulian blue cheese. Over time, he’s designed 66 diverse forms of blue cheese. He served Tucci focaccia with burrata, which Dicecca’s mom use to make for his college lunches.
Ristorante Vitantonio Lombardo is an abandoned cave in the ancient town of Matera that’s been turned into a Michelin star cafe. Chef Vitantonio Lombardo whips up dishes with inventive names like “I dropped the Egg in the Garden” and “Drone Look at of the Murgia.” For Tucci, he created “Poverty and nobility with a purple wine sauce.” The dish is a veal filet and veal throat, or sweetbread, coated in black breadcrumb to seem like a black truffle — a image of decadence. It truly is then served with a potato puree and a red-wine reduction sauce. “That is f**king astounding,” Tucci said.
SARDINIA
Sardinia is the most distant location of Italy. Reduce off from the Italian peninsula, this island has developed its own customs and cuisine. Consuming here is like likely on the culinary equal of an archaeological dig considering that so numerous waves of settlers through history have affected the meals. Although halting in this article, Tucci discovered two sides to this intriguing area: the coast with its seafood and a stunning mix of cultures drawn from about the Mediterranean and the inside — a steep, rocky landscape the place locals stubbornly cling to their ancient traditions and freedoms.
Fregola, a couscous-like dish, is a central factor in Sardinian cuisine. Stanley Tucci visits the location and learns about its loaded background. “Stanley Tucci: Looking for Italy” air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
Fradis Minoris receives its supply of new seafood everyday from the bordering waters. The restaurant’s sustainable menu attained it a coveted Michelin Green Star — the to start with in Sardinia. When Tucci swung by, chef Francesco Stara created fregola ai frutti di mare, a regional staple. The star of the dish is the fregola, which is a North African-inspired, couscous-like pasta.
At Luigi Pomata, chef and owner Luigi Pomata is recognized as the king of tuna. Raw seafood, which include tuna, can take centre stage on his menu. In the course of Tucci’s visit, Pomata cooked up regional bluefin tuna with pesto in a classic pasta dish termed cassulli alla carlofortina. A great deal to Tucci’s shock, Pomata prepares it by getting the fresh tuna tummy and boiling it. “Which is scrumptious,” Tucci stated following sampling the dish.
Al Forno, located in the medieval city of Alghero identified as minimal Barcelona, is a small bakery. Tucci purchased panada — a type of Sardinian savory pie claimed to have obtained its name from empanada, a comparable pastry dish imagined to have originated in Spain. “Oh my God!” Tucci proclaimed. “It’s like Italy and Spain jointly in my mouth.”
Alghero is globe famed for its lobster. It is really so superior Queen Elizabeth II herself asked for it for her wedding day reception. “Stanley Tucci: Browsing for Italy” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.
Mabrouk is a previous 16th-century monastery transformed into a restaurant. Chef Antonietta Salaris functions with the local lobster that’s acknowledged to be some of the ideal in the planet. She would make the regionally well-known lobster a la Catalana. In the US, lobster eggs are typically thrown out, but Salaris adds them to the sauce for a salty sweetness. “That’s so f***ing tasty,” Tucci reported.
Arimani, in the ancestral village of Battista in northern Sardinia, is a culinary faculty, so here you ought to prepare dinner your possess lunch just before feasting. Chef Simonetta Bazzu has devoted her lifetime to preserving Sardinia’s conventional cuisine and historic recipes. For Tucci, she manufactured pane carasau — a thin, crispy bread relationship back to at minimum 1000 BC — and a zuppa gallurese, pane carasau soaked in sheep broth, topped with heaps of cheese and wild mint and baked into the woodfire oven.
CALABRIA
Of all the regions of Italy, Calabria holds the most this means for Tucci. It is really his ancestral homeland and a place he had dreamed of going to because he was a boy. “I want to get to know the region my relatives left powering,” Tucci stated on the present. This wild, rugged location can make up the “toe” of the country’s boot-shaped peninsula. It is recognised for its sprawling beach locations, mountains and regional foods, which include regular salami, sweet red onions and chili peppers.
Panificio Cuti, operate by baker Pina Olivetti, has been serving regular Calabrian bread — a sourdough yeast bread called pane de cuti — because 1985. The location is situated in Marzi, which is recognized as the valley of wheat. When Tucci swung by the bakery, he experimented with pane di cuti, a 100-year-previous recipe. For Tucci and his hungry mother and father, she also created morsello, a bread bowl filled with sausage and broccoli rabe. This transportable food was at the time a preferred between farmers and hunters who needed to carry a not-so-little slice of dwelling with them anywhere they went. Nowadays, this dish is often served at weddings and celebrations.
Tropea is famous for its crimson onions. They are so sweet, they can be served in pasta, preserves and ice product. Tune in Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to watch all-new episodes of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.”
At Osteria della Cipolla Rossa (Red Onion Inn), operate by Michele Pugliese and Romana Schiariti, the specialty is the unapologetically easy red onion spaghetti. The vital component is the region’s renowned sweet purple onions, referred to as cipolla rossa, which only improve alongside the little extend of coastline surrounding the town of Tropea. The onions are so sweet that, for the duration of the episode, Tucci bit into a uncooked just one as if it were an apple.
Il Principe di Scilla is a spouse and children-operate restaurant in Scilla, Italy, that is all about the nearby swordfish, the most highly regarded or prized sea creature in Calabria — and for a region surrounded by drinking water on 3 sides, that’s truly indicating some thing. “It’s like prosciutto and smoked salmon experienced a like little one,” Tucci said as he sampled the clean raw swordfish with cafe owner Johnny Giordano. Tucci also tried out scialiatelli alla ghiotta, which is like a swordfish ragu. “It really is absolutely nothing limited of incredible,” Giordano explained of the pasta dish.
In the dishes at Qafiz, tucked in the Aspromonte mountains, chef Nino Rossi uses local components. He prepared for Tucci the signature dessert that helped the restaurant snag a Michelin star: fireplace. Inspired by the plan of renewed development immediately after the 2021 wildfires, the aptly named dish is designed of meringue flavored with charcoal, sliced apple and white chocolate foam. “It truly is like a million diverse flavors in there,” Tucci mentioned as he dove in for seconds.
La Collinetta, positioned in the mountain town of Martone, is operate by farmer and chef Pino Trimboli. When Tucci visited, Trimboli produced lamb in clay, an historical Greek dish. The lamb is surrounded by wet clay prior to it’s baked to seal in the fragile flavors and juices. This historic method comes with a tradeoff: Each individual dish will take over four hrs to cook. But Tucci explained the resulting “drop off the bone” lamb was value the wait.
Continue to be tuned for updates as Tucci travels to two more regions of Italy. Previously this yr, Tucci traveled to Piedmont, Umbria, Venice and London. For a manual to all the places he frequented all through season 1, click on below.
