Each episode is full of regional specialties ready in household kitchens, native hangouts or Michelin-starred eating places.
Within the premiere episode of the second season of “Looking for Italy,” Tucci traveled to Venice, a area recognized for its bridges, gondolas and canals. Under is a information to the place you could find a number of the dishes Tucci eagerly samples on display whereas he is there.
CICCHETTI
Identical to the Spanish have tapas, the Venetians have cicchetti. These dishes together with bacala (codfish), fegato (liver), moeche (native crabs), sardines and radicchio, in addition to hams and cheeses, laid on a bit of bread or fried polenta.
Breakfast at All’ Arco is served standing up with a glass of wine.
BACCALA MANTECATO
Baccalà mantecato is “a snack that’s to Venice as pizza is to Naples” and “it is accessible in all places within the metropolis,” Tucci mentioned.
RISOTTO NERO DI SEPPIA
The pair took a gondola throughout the Grand Canal to the almost 1,000-year-old Rialto fish market to select up cuttlefish (seppia in Italian), a cousin of the squid and the octopus.
Making the dish requires three levels. First, you take away the ink sacks from the cuttlefish and use the ink to stain the dish black. The squid is braised with garlic, onion, white wine and tomatoes. Second, the rice is toasted and cooked in fish inventory. Lastly, the fish and ink are added to the risotto rice. It is topped with Parmesan cheese.
“Excellent!” Tucci mentioned after his first chew. “Not chewy, not mushy.”
Risotto nero di seppia is so nice that it is claimed by some neighboring nations as their very own invention. There is no method to actually know for positive, however within the Venetian cookbook, the ink’s been dry for a really very long time.
DUCK RAGU
Seafood clearly dominates menus in Venice. However there’s one other protein that is change into a favourite for Venetians.
Duck is a neighborhood delicacy usually served within the fall. It is eaten with pasta.
“It was an amazing custom of the Doge, the ruling authority right here in Venice, to donate 5 geese to each member of the primary legislative physique in Venice, however there have been a few thousand of them, so it meant 5,000 geese,” mentioned Robilac. “So, think about the push!”
And naturally, their dialog led to a duck looking journey.
Tucci traveled to Valle Pierimpie, an enormous wetland about 20 miles from Venice, to go duck looking. Tucci’s looking companion, Oliver Martini, shot down 15 geese.
“It has a sweetness to it,” Tucci mentioned whereas making an attempt the duck ragu. “It has a wealthy style, so you do not want a variety of it.”
CALAMARI TO GO
The feasting continued when Tucci joined journalist Maurizio Denez for a Venetian avenue snack of calamari sprinkled with sea salt. It was served in a transportable paper cone referred to as scartosso in Italian.
The fried deal with is usually a mixture of fried fish and shellfish — or simply calamari, like Tucci’s model.
Denez mentioned this avenue snack was initially the go-to for fishermen. “You’d solely must get out of your own home and catch some small crabs and small fish and you then fry it up,” Denez mentioned.
DORONA WINE
And you may’t neglect the wine. Matteo Bisol gave Tucci a tour of maybe probably the most distinctive winery in Italy, positioned on the island of Mazzorbo, about 5 miles northeast of Venice.
Wine performed a number one function within the very early historical past of Venice. Piazza San Marco, Venice’s most well-known sq., was truly a winery till 1100 AD.
The traditional white-skinned grapes, referred to as Dorona di Venezia, have tailored to outlive within the salty circumstances of the often flooded vineyards. They’ll solely develop within the Venetian lagoons, mentioned Matteo.
For hundreds of years, Venetians drank this native wine, however then it went extinct — or so that they thought — after the 1966 acqua alta, or excessive tide. In 2001, Matteo’s father, Gianluca Bisol, found just a few surviving crops and introduced them to Mazzorbo.
Tucci sampled a bottle from the winery. “That is wonderful. It is actually contemporary. It is dry and it is smooth, it is so smooth,” mentioned Tucci.
GOLDEN SPAGHETTI
Chef Chiara Pavan runs the Michelin-starred restaurant and makes use of substances from the salty soil, like asparagus and velvet artichokes.
Pavan confirmed Tucci tips on how to make a nontraditional golden spaghetti, topped with an precise leaf lined in edible gold.
“Balancing them with candy and bitter tastes, Chiara transforms salty substances into gold,” Tucci mentioned. “It is culinary alchemy.”
AFGHAN CUISINE
Tucci went to Cannaregio, one of many six oldest elements of Venice, which is residence to one thing new — and spicy.
Tucci tried kabuli pulao (a spiced lamb pilaf) and Afghan-style ravioli with greens.
“There is a multiplicity of flavors right here. There’s turmeric within the kabuli and cardamom within the rice. Style purchased residence to Venice from Hamed’s workforce,” Tucci mentioned.
“Some Italian politicians see the arrival of overseas meals, and the individuals who carry it, as a foul factor. I say including new substances simply makes the stew richer. That is the Venetian manner,” he added.
PORK GOULASH
Now it is time to discover one of the vital under-explored areas of Italy. Within the far northeast of Italy is Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which touches each Austria and Slovenia.
This space was as soon as the entry level for spices from Asia getting into Italy, making it a culinary gold mine.
With Polish, Jewish and Italian roots, Chef Antonia Klugmann is fusion personified.
Klugmann buys her meat from Slovenia and her fish from Italy; her greens come from her backyard or native markets. Her ever-changing menu consists of daring dishes like braised snail and mayonnaise, in addition to purple beetroot gnocchi, tomato and elderberry.
For Tucci, she whipped up a dish impressed by her grandmother referred to as pork goulash, which incorporates contemporary grapes, dried apricots and herbs.
“I like it! It is the proper mixture of so many various cultures proper in a bowl,” Tucci mentioned whereas making an attempt it.
The wealthy fusion of tastes in Friuli is available in half from a historical past of openness to outdoors influences that permeates Venice. It is the key of their culinary success.
