Jamie Cooks Italy (2018) s01e02 Episode Script

Puglia

1 BELLS CHIME Buongiorno, Torino! There's nowhere quite like Italy.
Look how busy it is.
I love it.
The landscapes, the people, the history.
It's unbelievable.
And, of course, the most amazing food.
Oh! I'm just having a moment.
I love it and I always have done.
This is like my idea of heaven.
Great food here isn't about Michelin-starred chefs - it's about home-cooked recipes.
So, in this series, I'm going right to the heart of Italian cooking.
Ohh! Ooh! So good.
To the mammas and the nonnas of Italy.
These are some of the best home-cooked recipes in the world.
They've perfected recipes handed down over generations.
I'm just doing what I'm told.
I love it.
I'm travelling far and wide to see what secrets I can learn from these true masters of the kitchen.
That is a game-changer.
And I'll be showing you how to cook up delicious Italian dishes With flavour like this, you're going to go nuts.
.
.
that use the nonnas' way to transform the simple into the sublime.
I'm going to have to stop myself eating.
It's so good! Look at all these beautiful, beautiful olive trees - I've never seen so many.
Me and my old pal and mentor chef, Gennaro Contaldo, are in glorious Puglia, discovering why this ancient agricultural hub has become one of the hottest food destinations in Italy.
It's the garden of Italy, isn't it? Oh, the food in Puglia, it is unbelievable.
The taste, and everything is tasty, and everything is natural.
This unspoilt slice of rural Italy is in the deep south.
It's the country's market garden, producing most of its olive oil, and fresh fruit and veg.
The incredible produce from both land and sea is why Italians come here on holiday - to feast on some of the best food in the whole country.
I mean, the thing I'm really excited about is all the beautiful ways of cooking vegetables here.
I mean, they produce most of the vegetables in Italy from this area.
This is the place.
At the heart of Puglia's culinary renaissance are the cherished family recipes of the local nonnas and Gennaro's taking me to learn their kitchen secrets.
Buongiorno! Buongiorno! Oh, buongiorno, buongiorno, buongiorno! Ciao! Ciao.
Jamie.
Buongiorno.
Gennaro.
Che piacere! These lovely ladies are lifelong friends and, as generations would have done before them, they still make fresh pasta every single day and always served with delicious home-grown veg.
So, we're making the pasta? IN ITALIAN: OK.
Slowly, slowly.
You girls like it slowly.
OK, well, I'm sticking with that.
Slowly.
OK.
I'm excited.
Gennaro Si, si, si.
OK, OK.
Christ almighty, her poor husband.
SHE SINGS She's singing, um, "It's beautiful to work, "but it's also beautiful to get tired.
" Which is kind of a nice way of upselling, "Pull your finger out and work hard.
" And be proud, you know? Choosing the right pasta for the right sauce is a serious business in Italy.
And for chunky veg, it's got to be orecchiette, which means "little ears".
No? She's making me nervous, though.
I'm really losing my skills.
They make it look easy.
Si.
Ah, there's a secret touch.
The key is to make little cup-like shapes deep enough to hold chunky vegetable sauces.
That's a good one, right, come on! Come on, Nonna! Come on! This is a good one.
Hey, this is a good one.
This pasta might look pretty, but it's the nonnas' sauces that turn it into a work of art.
So, we are now going to have a masterclass in sauces for orecchiette.
Nonna Cinzia paints her pasta with young broad beans and sweet, juicy tomatoes.
Nonna Vita is making an extraordinary sauce with aubergine, courgette, and a unique type of chickpea.
Ooh! I've never seen that before.
Black chickpeas.
Wow! Beautiful.
Let's do it.
So, we're slicing up our aubergine.
She's peeled it, you don't see that very often, and she's randomly cutting it, which I quite like.
Chopping the veg into different sizes is a nifty trick to add texture to the sauce.
Si, cipolla.
This is very, very exciting because I've never seen a sauce like this, ever, in any pasta.
Mmm! Che bravo! Si.
Once the onions are softened, it's in with the aubergine, and roughly chopped courgettes.
Vita Quanti? She's saying, "Hurry up!" They've boiled the water.
She wants the sauce.
While Gennaro grapples with cooking the pasta, I can't wait to get cracking on sauce number two, which is a real homage to spring.
So, this is new season's broad beans.
These are just completely delicious and tender.
Very quick recipe.
In with the onions.
The secret to this sauce is not to overcook the veg.
Just a couple of minutes' softening is all it takes.
And now we add the tomatoes? Si, a vai.
So it's quite a quick dish, this one.
Nonna Cinzia finishes off with a few fragrant basil leaves.
In here? Oh, si.
Si? Aaah! I'm just doing what I'm told.
I love it.
And a good old sprinkle of salted ricotta cheese.
Absolute heaven.
Look at that! I love how both these vibrant veggie sauces nestle into the beautiful orecchiette.
This is food worth travelling for and I can't wait to tuck in.
So the black chickpeas, Gennaro, courgettes and aubergine.
What a joy! Buon appetito! Una forchetta, per favore.
Mmm This is so beautiful.
I mean, the girls have done a great job.
First up, the pasta, you know, you can taste the difference when it's made like this.
It's not the same as the stuff in the packs.
This is sublime.
And then, the sauces are fantastic.
So simple.
This one was so light, wasn't it? The sweetness of the tomatoes.
Everything is tasty.
Minimum ingredient Yeah.
.
.
maximum flavour.
No! Non brutti! This one here.
That's my one.
Salute, grazie mille.
Salute! You make me feel so young I'm so excited to learn from these wonderful women and their decades of cooking experience.
I want to channel some of that nonna know-how into my own recipe and show you how to make your very own Puglian pasta feast.
Do you know, some of these olive trees, they're 2,000 years old? Yeah.
Incredible.
Does that make you feel young? Yeah! Very young.
So, me and Gennaro are going to cook a lovely home-made pasta, inspired by those beautiful nonnas yesterday.
How good was that? That was incredible.
We've never been told off so much.
My easy-peasy home-made pasta is perfectly designed to hold my vibrant fresh broccoli and tangy cheese pesto, making every mouthful delicious.
I'm going to put a pan of cold water on the boil now and, by the time this takes to come to the boil, we're going to make home-made pasta from scratch.
We're going to do an easy shape that even a raving idiot .
.
can do, right? You're not going to have to struggle, like me on the orecchiette.
For two people, we're going to go generous.
We're going to go two big handfuls of this beautiful durum wheat flour, right? That's about 100g and you can pick it up in most supermarkets.
This is basically semolina flour here.
And we're just going to pour water in, right? And we want to, kind of, make a nice dough.
It's so simple.
And I'm going to start with a fork, OK.
Then it gets a little bit thicker, it looks a bit more like breadcrumbs.
And by the time it's too hard to work with the fork any more, then that's normally a good time to use your hands without getting them too sticky.
The pasta shape I'm making is so easy - you just can't muck it up.
I call it cortecci.
What does cortecci translate as? Well, the corteccia look, if you see this tree, it's the bark of a tree.
Yeah.
We've kneaded this for, like, three, maybe four, minutes.
And you can see, it's nice and tight.
Soft.
And now we can just take little bits like this.
Little, like, marble-size pieces.
And we're going to roll it like this, right.
Anyone can do this.
Until you've got that.
Very simple.
Then you take your little fingers - you can put it in flour if you want - and you just dig it in, and then you pull it towards you.
Right? And what you get is that.
I love the thickness there, the little divots.
Like the nonnas' orecchiette, this shape is the perfect carrier for fresh veg.
So, the pasta's done.
Now the sauce.
It's using a fantastic, typical broccoli of this area.
This is called cima di rapa.
Of course, you could use regular broccoli back home.
So, we're going to take the sprigs off here.
Those nonnas, they would all have this growing in their garden.
Yes.
Without question.
Right, Gennaro's going to slice up a couple of cloves of garlic.
Now, I've got some anchovies here.
It's kind of like a seasoning.
It is.
Four, do you think, is enough? Yes, four's enough.
Four anchovies.
And then we're going to use some spice from some lovely flaked chilli.
For the warm pesto, just fry up the anchovy, garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes.
Look, it's started to dissolve, the anchovies.
Like butter.
Then, in with the broccoli.
Straight in.
Gennaro's going to break the frying now, with a splash of water.
There it goes.
Cook it for, like Two minutes, three minutes.
But typically, the pestos that we know are raw, aren't they? Yes, Genovese, especially, with basil.
But this is cooked? That is cooked pesto.
So, let'slet's talk about that.
This, this is new, this is exciting.
Why do we cook it? Well, because, don't forget, they've got the little stalk, they're a little bit tough.
Cooking, you can mash it better.
So, this pasta, you know, we just made it, so it probably needs four minutes? While the pasta cooks, take your softened broccoli and roughtly smash it up to make a wonderful warm pesto.
So, we've got the flavour there of the broccoli, the garlic, the chilli, the anchovy, right? And then we can put just a little cheese in.
Right? I'm using grated pecorino, but you can use any tangy cheese you like.
And then I'll start adding a little more beautiful extra virgin olive oil, just to loosen.
So, a little bit of lemon juice goes in.
Just a little bit.
A couple of drips.
Let me just drain this.
And there's just enough residual water in there to, kind of, create a beautiful, light, delicate sauce.
Oh, my goodness me! And it's pungent.
Go on, Gennaro, a little olive oil.
Just a little bit of olive oil.
A touch.
Enough! Look at that.
Home-made pasta.
All the broccoli went inside the corteccia.
Just a final little bit of cheese.
Just like the nonnas' orecchiette, my pasta and pesto work in harmony to showcase that beautiful fresh broccoli.
Salty, savoury.
The freshness from the greens.
Mm, it's a beautiful, fantastic flavour.
I love the way the shape of the pasta just, sort of, holds on to the olive oil and the smashed-up broccoli.
Beautiful.
What are you waiting for? Oh! Mmm! Coming up, I head to the hill towns, where a centuries-old dish blows my mind.
Little bit? JAMIE CHUCKLES Inspiring my spectacular seafood one-pot wonder.
Oh, my goodness me! Wow! Me and my best mate and mentor, Gennaro Contaldo, are in Puglia, in southern Italy, seeking out secret recipes from the area's best home cooks.
I love the way they just, like, jump off the boats, set up their shop.
Puglia is fast becoming the hottest food destination in Italy.
And one of the star attractions is the sublime seafood.
Gennar, look at the old, the sea urchins.
Yes, look.
How beautiful is this? So what's really exciting is it's like the freshest fish ever.
The local seafood obsession has inspired many a recipe here, but there's one that's got us both really excited.
When the moon hit the sun like a big pizza pie, that's amore Do you know what? You've got a nice voice, Gennaro.
Si.
# When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie That's amore We're heading to Locorotondo, one of the stunning hilltop towns that dot the Puglian landscape.
This place is incredible.
It's like a labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets, and some of the most dazzling buildings I've ever seen.
I love all the whitewashed walls.
Oh, look, look! Beautiful.
We've come to meet a nonna whose cooking is so legendary, local chefs go to her for inspiration.
Her most famous dish is a simple treasured family recipe that sounds a bit like paella.
Linda! Ciao, buona sera! Buona sera.
Very well, thank you.
Gennaro Contaldo.
Come stai? Nice.
Oh, bless her! 81-year-old Nonna Linda's been making her signature dish since the 1950s.
It's a unique baked rice dish called tiella, that dates back to when Puglia was under Spanish rule in the 16th century.
So this is very exciting.
I've never seen or heard of it before.
It kind of feels a little bit like Pugliese kind of paella.
Dice.
So Look at the way she's done it.
What we doing? I can't do that.
I think we might be going back to school today, Gennaro.
I know! Really? 15 years old.
Really? Ha, ha! I love it! I've never seen anyone cut a potato like that in my life.
No.
Basically, she's kind of criss-crossed the potato.
I'm going to go home and start chopping like this.
We've got one onion in there, one clove of garlic, celery.
And we're ready now to go in with the parsley.
I mean, I like this recipe already.
It's all in one pan.
It's really quick cooking.
This dish is all about creating mouthwatering layers.
Next, a couple of handfuls of rice, grated Parmesan, chopped tomatoes, and a good old glug of extra virgin olive oil.
A little bit! Now, time for the fresh seafood Puglia is so famous for.
Here we go.
There's the mussels.
We're shucking the mussels into here, which is so delicious.
She's kind of using the mussels like fish sauce.
You know, that savoury, umami sort of flavour you get from anchovies.
It's going to be amazing.
Do you know what? I never had a dish like this before.
I can't wait.
All these succulent, fresh mussels will really super-charge the tiella.
Nonna Linda's giving us a real masterclass in flavour.
I haven't even tried this, and I know that this is serious.
This one-pot wonder is classic Nonna cooking.
Layer up those ingredients, and let the oven do all the hard work.
Gennar, look at this place.
Oh, I love it.
Really? 55 years.
She's had all those children, she's a great-great-grandma, and she's been cooking that dish all of this time.
Yeah, I love that advice.
Seize the moment, right? Do it now.
Bella.
Grazie.
Nonna's spent years tweaking this recipe, and after half an hour in the oven, we finally get to tuck in.
Linda, complimenti.
It looks incredible.
I mean, the smell is amazing, isn't it? Ottimo! It is so bloomin' delicious.
Honestly, the depth of flavour, the rice and potatoes just suck up the flavour from the mussels.
It's just delicious.
That's exactly what me and Gennaro wanted when we came on this journey, to find undiscovered recipes.
Well, there you go.
There's one.
What a joy.
Grazie, Linda.
Yeah.
I'm so chuffed I've discovered this extraordinary seafood recipe, layered with simple local ingredients, family history, and all that flavour.
That is the story of the food, isn't it? It is.
Mum, looking after, taking care of your family.
All that kind of stuff.
Amazing.
Lovely lady.
Every family needs a one-pot wonder, so I've come up with a simple seafood sensation that's packed to the rafters with fresh Puglian produce.
This is a triumph of a dish.
I know you're going to love it.
It's absolutely inspired by Nonna Linda.
Just like Nonna's tiella, my super-charged one-pot seafood stew is simple to prep, and outrageously tasty.
In a funny sort of way, I'm un-cooking, right? I don't want chefs' food, I want Nonna's food.
Onions first.
I think it's very interesting, this kind of way she was using her knife.
And here I am, copying her.
The celery.
It doesn't matter if it's erratic.
Twist it around like that.
I'm going to use one clove of garlic.
The potato here, just like her, I want to just peel the potato, and then I'm going to cut mine slightly bigger, slightly more substantial.
And then I'm going to use a little chilli.
Fresh or dried, it's all good.
And then some parsley, just like she did.
You know, I'm kind of chopping this with a slightly blunt knife so, of course, when you start to bruise and tear and twist herbs, you're getting more flavour out it.
I'm going to turn the gas on, and we're going to fire it up.
Just soften your veg on a medium heat, then for a splash of colour, whack in some roughly-chopped courgettes.
I now need flavour, and when it comes to fish and flavour, you're never going to get that, really, from fillets of fish.
You're going to get it from claws.
You're going to get it from heads.
So when you put something like a langoustine in, squeeze the head.
That is like the most amazing stock cube, right there.
Use any combo of fish and shellfish you like, but the secret is to keep the heads on, and the fish on the bone.
And now we'll break with white wine.
Just a little white wine, half a glass.
As that starts to simmer, we go in with some beautiful passata, or you could use a couple of tins of really good tomatoes.
Look at that.
Have you got those mussels, big boy? I am coming now! Now this has had, like, six or seven minutes, let's put this on top, right? Oh, my God! Just like Nonna Linda, I'm using washed mussels to ramp up the taste.
Plus, fresh clams and a handful of peas.
The squid here, I'm going to literally just slice up, nice and delicate.
Squid is a funny one, isn't it, Gennar? You either want to cook it quick It's between.
.
.
or long.
Yeah.
Anything in the between is tough.
It's tough.
The clams, mussels and the squid, they need three minutes max.
So we'll put that on, and then it's going to start to steam.
The mussels and the clams, they'll release their incredible, gorgeous juice.
To make a delicious garlic aioli, simply whisk two or three egg yolks and slowly add olive oil until it thickens.
Squeeze in some lemon juice, then hit it with a smashed-up garlic clove, and an anchovy fillet.
And that's going to completely transform a mayonnaise.
When it hits the heat of the broth Wah! .
.
it gives it a woof! You ready? Yeah.
Grab it.
One, two, three.
Oh, my goodness me! To mop up all that rich sauce, serve with a good old hunk of crusty bread.
Just get some juice on to that bread.
That bread's going to suck it up.
Look at the colours, Gennaro.
Little bit of this, lovely garlic and anchovy aioli and then we put it on the top.
Yes, yes.
And then if you want to put a few bits of parsley, just on top, go for it, go for it.
Wow! Yes! It is a wow.
Cooking all these fresh ingredients in one pot has created layer upon layer of mind-blowing flavour.
Topped up with that sublime, creamy garlic aioli - what a feast.
Mm! You got the squid.
Mussels, clams.
With flavour like this Oh, my gosh! .
.
you're going to go nuts.
And look, look at this, as the sauce goes into that bread, it just soaks it all up.
Heaven! Mm! Aioli's amazing.
I think this dish is an absolute homage to Linda.
An incredible woman.
And a great cook.
And a great cook.
Next time, we hunt down age-old recipes in feisty Naples.
I give you my favourite pizza ever.
It's so good.
You have to give it a go.
And we escape the city for a seafood masterclass.
After so many years, I can still learn cooking.
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