Jamie Cooks Italy (2018) s01e06 Episode Script
Tuscany
1 Buon giorno, 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.
HE LAUGHS So, in this series, I'm going right to the heart of Italian cooking.
Oh! Oh! So good.
To the mamas .
.
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 gonna go nuts.
.
.
that use the nonnas' way to transform the simple into the sublime.
I have to stop myself eating.
It's so good"! MUSIC: Volare by Dean Martin It's autumn, and me and my partner in crime, chef Gennaro Contaldo, are in Tuscany.
It's so beautiful.
I've been coming here for 22 years, from a young boy to an old geezer now.
Look at the land, look at the forest.
One of Italy's most breath-taking regions, Tuscany is a foodie hotspot.
Gourmets flock here from all over the world, in search of fine food and wine.
But we wanna bypass the restaurants, get off the beaten track and meet the nonnas who hold the key to the most authentic Tuscan grub.
I wanna find all the little dishes that have been forgotten.
All the little dishes We will! .
.
that I've never seen before.
Tuscany has agriculture at its very heart.
And we're starting our adventure in Chianti country - in Panzano, a picture-perfect Tuscan town.
Just look at that.
Oh! Come on! We're meeting a revered home cook, who's written three recipe books full of Tuscan farmhouse classics.
Buonasera! Oh! Buonasera.
Che piacere.
Gennaro Contaldo.
Che piacere, Jamie, Gennaro.
Gennaro! Come stai? 89-year-old Nonna Miriam's promised to show me her favourite dish .
.
stracotto, meaning, "well cooked".
A melt-in-the-mouth beef stew, served with homemade pasta.
Delicious! Let's make it, then.
So, onions, carrots, sage and celery.
Si, no problemo.
This veg combo is called a soffritto, and it's the foundation of all sorts of super-tasty Italian dishes.
I always think it's such an honour to be able to cook with a woman that's cooked so many meals.
No.
She said, "This is nice because the chef's cut the vegetables for me.
" Is that O-o-h! SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN Interestingly, Nonna's using one of the cheapest cuts .
.
beef skirt.
She put a bit of salt on.
Yeah? I wanna take over but she's like, "We're fine.
" Nonna browns the meat, and softens the veg Si.
.
.
before cracking open a chianti.
Let it evaporate.
So Due.
We've got the beef stock here.
SHE LAUGHS Uno? Due? Eh, si, uno.
So, you wanna cover it right up to the top.
Miriam, finito? Si? OK.
The stracotto slow-cooks till it's meltingly tender.
Grande piacere.
Salute.
Si, si, si.
So we have fresh pasta.
Look at the size of her rolling pin.
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN That's why .
.
if Italian husbands get in trouble, they get whacked with one of these.
No.
Si.
Pappardelle.
Invented here, pappardelle is the ultimate Tuscan pasta.
Si.
Si? Si.
Si? Ah! GENNARO CHUCKLES Si, si.
I don't know what's going on right now.
I'm not sure if she's pleased with me or if she's laughing at me.
After three gentle hours of slow cooking, the stracotto is ready.
Look at that ragu! The beauty of this recipe is that it's two courses in one pot.
Clearly, they've invented a piece of equipment to pick it up, and I've never seen that in my life.
The sauce is eaten with pasta, as a pasta course.
Then you tuck into the meat, as a main course.
It is carvable, but it's on the brink of being pullable.
Oh, my, my! Look at that, hot and steamy.
The sauce, this is just the vegetables but, of course, it's been kissed with the goodness from all the meat.
Uno, du Ancora? Tre? Look at that.
I mean, it's very beautiful.
First to the table, that rich, warming sauce with fresh pappardelle and compulsory parmesan.
So good.
Mm! The flavour is phenomenal.
You know, it's like ribbons of silk.
Mm.
After the belly-hugging pasta, there's the beautiful soft beef, begging to be tucked into.
Give me your plate.
Are you excited? WHISPERING: Yes.
GENNARO LAUGHS Oh, my God! Go on, Gennaro.
Tell me, tell me, tell me.
It melt inside your mouth.
Oh, yeah! It's so simple.
Bene! Buonissimo.
It's kind of like the British Sunday roast, but it's the slow cook.
Delicious.
Miriam, grazie mille.
It's been fantastico.
# Unforgettable That's what you are She's amazing, right? She's indeed amazing lady.
It's not just the recipe, is it? It's more than that.
No.
I enjoyed it so much because it reminded my childhood - sitting and watch, er, some member of the family cooking.
That delicious food was totally accessible.
There's no reason that anyone can't cook that.
I love how Nonna Miriam's masterfully transformed a cheap cut of beef into a sensational dish, fit for a king.
And it's got me fired up.
So, this dish is absolutely inspired by Nonna Miriam, and that obsession by using the whole animal, and second-class cuts of meat that when they're slow-cooked, they're so tender and delicious.
And this, my friends, is the king of second-class cuts of meat.
This is .
.
a beef cheek.
My oozingly rich, slow-cooked, beef cheek ragu, with luxurious homemade pasta, made easy.
If you like spaghetti Bolognese, then you're gonna go crazy for this.
Let's season the beef cheeks.
Salt and pepper.
The cheeks are always the most delicious, succulent part of the whole animal.
Now, the smell is transforming immediately, with the pancetta.
Really nice.
It smells good.
Just like Nonna Miriam, chop up some carrots, red onions and celery to make a soffritto.
Next ingredient, we've got beautiful porcini that's been dried.
Simply rehydrate your porcini in boiling water, before adding them to the pot.
These are now soft and silky.
And to add even more flavour, I wanna use cloves.
So I'm just gonna use five cloves, and then add .
.
four cloves of garlic.
So, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.
And that's, like, the most beautiful little flavour bomb.
Let's get it in the pan.
Let's go in with about half a bottle of good, Italian red wine.
Half a stick of cinnamon.
That means you can't really taste it.
It's kind of there in the background.
Then ramp up the flavour with the mushroom liquor.
Passata.
And top it up with water.
And, to complete the story, add a fat bunch of herbs.
Now we're gonna put the lid on top.
That excess water's gonna reduce down over the next three to four hours and that meat will become so tender, it's gonna be the most insane ragu pasta sauce ever.
In the oven, or over the fire, cook this low and slow.
Ragu this outrageous deserves the finest homemade pasta.
Simply add egg yolks, semolina and olive oil to the pasta flour.
A good old knead-up, and you'll have a golden, rich, dough, ready to go.
I'm just gonna show you a few shapes to kind of get your taste buds going for making your own fresh pasta, cos it's really good fun.
We can roll it up like this.
So, if we go super fine Nice! So, this is Go on, Gennar! Little tagliarini.
And, then, this I would call tagliatelle.
Beautiful.
And then pappardelle can range, can't it? I mean, I would call pappardelle more like that, right? A large one.
Yeah.
Some people even do bigger than that.
And, er, if you wanted to do a lasagne sheet.
Yeah.
There you go.
Boom! You can make any pasta you like, but I'm going for pappardelle and I'm gonna make this one the prettiest in town.
I'm just gonna use a crinkly cutter.
That is really nice.
You want it to look, "fatta in casa", homemade.
Ha-ha! I love the word homemade.
Now, time to see the ragu.
Gennar, do you mind getting the ragu? Let me get the ragu.
Yeah, you're all right.
So, this has had, like, three, three and a half hours.
Hee-ya! Oh! Smells amazing.
So, I want you guys to have a little look.
I wanna show you just how tender this is.
I'm literally just gonna let gravity Oh! .
.
do that.
Cook your meat until it's so tender, it will just fall apart.
Then simply fork it through for the most outrageously gorgeous sauce.
In we go with the pasta.
It won't need much time.
It take less than a minute.
So, there you are.
A little plate of Tuscany, inspired by Nonna Miriam.
Don't use the mincemeat.
Take your Bolognese to the next level.
Yeah! Come on! Oh, yeah! Mm.
Mm! It is so good.
I mean, it's like game-changer.
Because it's not just about incredible flavour.
It's about the texture, isn't it? It's the cut of meat.
Mm! Mm! The silkiness of that pasta is insane.
Make the ragu, make the pasta, and have your little moment like this.
My ridiculously rich ragu, with that deliciously silky homemade pappardelle - totally Tuscan and a real treat.
Coming up - our travels off the beaten track continue, in a town that time forgot Whoa! No way! .
.
and I track down one of the most extraordinary Italian recipes .
.
I've ever seen.
That's delicious.
I love it.
It's autumn, and me and my mentor, Gennaro Contaldo, are in Tuscany, heading off the beaten track to seek out the region's ultimate home-cooked recipes.
So I'm going to take you now to a town that I've wanted to go to forever.
Pitigliano.
Fantastic.
How do you say it? Pi-tig-liano.
Pitigliano.
One of the oldest cities in Italy.
So much history.
Our search for fantastic old family dishes has brought us to this extraordinary hilltop town, that time forgot.
Whoa! No way! I've always wanted to come here, to Pitigliano, because it's said to be the spiritual home of Jewish-Italian cooking.
For hundreds of years, the town was a thriving Jewish community, and it's still nicknamed Little Jerusalem.
Wow! It's so It's unbelievable.
But, of course, everything changed with the Second World War.
The Jewish population had to flee, and their authentic recipes were all but lost forever.
Look at these beautiful streets.
I know.
And pre-war, this would have been choc-a-bloc with a massive Jewish community.
I can imagine somebody in that window perhaps cooks something, and the smell of the food.
All the stories these walls could tell.
Jewish-Italian cooking is said to be amazing, and I want to learn more.
So Gennaro's taking me to meet the guardian of the community's ancient recipes - a local legend, and she's the town's only surviving Jewish nonna.
And I want to kind of just talk to her about the food of her childhood.
The stuff that made her feel really happy with cooking, what recipes she wants to save.
She's asked to meet us in the town's ancient Jewish quarter.
Piacere.
Piacere mio.
Jamie.
Gennaro Contaldo.
Elena, Gennaro.
87-year-old nonna Elena has dedicated her life to preserving the history and the food of her community.
Nonna Elena was hoping to cook for us, but after a recent fall, she's on doctor's orders to take it easy.
Instead, she's offered to tell us the secrets of her all-time favourite Jewish-Italian recipe.
THEY SPEAK ITALIAN Until now, this beloved family recipe has been a closely-guarded secret, and never written down.
So we have mincemeat It's a great recipe.
Grande? To preserve this recipe, we're going to cook it exactly the way Nonna Elena's family has always made it.
What's happening in there is a whole bunch of history.
A whole life, er, and her favourite recipe.
So Gennaro's going over the recipe, just to make sure, double sure, that we're going to cook this right.
Then we're going to take it back to her later on, and hopefully get the thumbs-up.
Nonna Elena has entrusted us with her incredible family recipe, and I can't wait to get cooking.
While she goes home for a rest, I'm going to teach you how to make this phenomenal dish.
? And what better place to do it than soaking up the history of the old Jewish quarter Got a whole load of artichokes, and we've just set up, as you do, in the middle of the town.
Look where handsome is.
Gennaro! I'm here.
Delicate Italian artichokes, stuffed with flavour-packed beef, and nestled in a beautiful tomato sauce - simple, delicious, unique.
Some people are really scared about prepping these.
Um, they don't know what to do with them.
So let me show you.
What we're going to do is just cut off the stalk, then click back these outer leaves, right? But as you peel back to where the sun hasn't got, right, see how lovely and light green it gets? Like that.
And that is tender.
Then just cut the flowery part at an angle, four times.
One, two, three, four.
And that's what you get.
Absolutely beautiful.
Now, I'm just going to rub that with lemon juice here, cos it will go black really, really quickly.
Then, here, I'm just going to go from here, down to the stalk.
Now, this is stringy but what's underneath is sweet and delicious, right? So, look.
We're going to cut this in half, all the way down the stalk like that.
And then we go into quarters, all the way down.
And then we're just going to remove that choke here in the middle.
Once the artichokes are cleaned up and quartered, you can start on the stuffing.
Gennaro, tell everyone what we've got here.
We've got very lean mincemeat, parsley, basil, one eggs, a little pinch of dried chilli.
Little salt, mix all together, hallelujah.
And important to season this meat, and then Gennaro is going to plop the meat in, like that.
And we're going to literally reformat it.
You only use three quarters to put it back together again.
Almost rebuilding its natural shape.
Now, at this point, we then go into some flour.
Really coat the artichoke and then we go into the egg.
This is going to be an amazing dish.
We've definitely done exactly what she's told us.
Now we're going to fry them.
Come on, Gennar.
Let's do it.
We've got oil, on a sort of medium high heat.
I would say about 160 Celsius.
So we want it to take about 12, 15 minutes Yeah.
.
.
to get it golden.
At the same time, I'm going to make this tomato sauce, which is a different type of tomato sauce.
Er, she's not frying any ingredients, and then adding tomatoes.
She's boiling the tomatoes, then adding the veg.
I've never seen it like that before.
Nonna's sauce is fresh and easy.
Just dice celery and onion, and chuck 'em raw into the plum tomatoes.
I want to squash the tomatoes.
Next, chop up a handful of parsley and a clove of garlic, and whack in the pan with a pinch of dried chilli flakes.
We've been cooking a long time together, um, and we have never seen a method of that before, you know.
Um, and a sauce like that before.
Go on, mate.
You get those artichokes out.
They look beautiful.
Ah, nice! They're cooked but still not quite tender, and that's where this final part of the cooking is quite interesting.
So the frying seals in the flavours.
I'm going to plop this in now.
And we're going to be gentle.
What a dish! Really nice.
To finish, just simmer the artichokes in the sauce, for about ten minutes until they're perfectly tender.
Shall we have a little taste? Yeah.
What a lovely dish, Gennaro.
I'm going to make this at home.
Yes.
Look at that.
Right, let's break into it.
Go on, you go first.
The tomato really tastes nice.
Mm.
That's delicious.
I love it.
That's a lovely meal, and the things you could do with that.
And toss gnocchi or pasta in that lovely sauce.
An elegant mix of soft, velvety artichokes, a rich, meaty stuffing, and lashings of sweet, tomato sauce.
Unique, and delicious.
Italian food doesn't get much better than this.
What do you reckon? We did all right? This is the way.
That is definitely a dish worth celebrating.
Let's take it round to see her.
Let's see what she says.
I'm a bit nervous now.
Nonna! Gennar, come on! Fingers crossed, Gennaro.
Oh, you're telling me.
Grazie.
Oh, grazie.
Fantastico.
We did it! We did! It's a great recipe.
Thank you so much.
Really nice to meet you.
Grazie mille.
Buona notte.
Buona notte.
This is what we came to Tuscany to discover - the secret family dishes that locals love to eat.
What a trip! Next time - knockout recipes from Rome's fiery nonnas .
.
I rustle up a simple, super-tasty pasta So delicious.
.
.
and feel the pressure from a gnocchi master.
Such a good dish.
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.
HE LAUGHS So, in this series, I'm going right to the heart of Italian cooking.
Oh! Oh! So good.
To the mamas .
.
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 gonna go nuts.
.
.
that use the nonnas' way to transform the simple into the sublime.
I have to stop myself eating.
It's so good"! MUSIC: Volare by Dean Martin It's autumn, and me and my partner in crime, chef Gennaro Contaldo, are in Tuscany.
It's so beautiful.
I've been coming here for 22 years, from a young boy to an old geezer now.
Look at the land, look at the forest.
One of Italy's most breath-taking regions, Tuscany is a foodie hotspot.
Gourmets flock here from all over the world, in search of fine food and wine.
But we wanna bypass the restaurants, get off the beaten track and meet the nonnas who hold the key to the most authentic Tuscan grub.
I wanna find all the little dishes that have been forgotten.
All the little dishes We will! .
.
that I've never seen before.
Tuscany has agriculture at its very heart.
And we're starting our adventure in Chianti country - in Panzano, a picture-perfect Tuscan town.
Just look at that.
Oh! Come on! We're meeting a revered home cook, who's written three recipe books full of Tuscan farmhouse classics.
Buonasera! Oh! Buonasera.
Che piacere.
Gennaro Contaldo.
Che piacere, Jamie, Gennaro.
Gennaro! Come stai? 89-year-old Nonna Miriam's promised to show me her favourite dish .
.
stracotto, meaning, "well cooked".
A melt-in-the-mouth beef stew, served with homemade pasta.
Delicious! Let's make it, then.
So, onions, carrots, sage and celery.
Si, no problemo.
This veg combo is called a soffritto, and it's the foundation of all sorts of super-tasty Italian dishes.
I always think it's such an honour to be able to cook with a woman that's cooked so many meals.
No.
She said, "This is nice because the chef's cut the vegetables for me.
" Is that O-o-h! SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN Interestingly, Nonna's using one of the cheapest cuts .
.
beef skirt.
She put a bit of salt on.
Yeah? I wanna take over but she's like, "We're fine.
" Nonna browns the meat, and softens the veg Si.
.
.
before cracking open a chianti.
Let it evaporate.
So Due.
We've got the beef stock here.
SHE LAUGHS Uno? Due? Eh, si, uno.
So, you wanna cover it right up to the top.
Miriam, finito? Si? OK.
The stracotto slow-cooks till it's meltingly tender.
Grande piacere.
Salute.
Si, si, si.
So we have fresh pasta.
Look at the size of her rolling pin.
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN That's why .
.
if Italian husbands get in trouble, they get whacked with one of these.
No.
Si.
Pappardelle.
Invented here, pappardelle is the ultimate Tuscan pasta.
Si.
Si? Si.
Si? Ah! GENNARO CHUCKLES Si, si.
I don't know what's going on right now.
I'm not sure if she's pleased with me or if she's laughing at me.
After three gentle hours of slow cooking, the stracotto is ready.
Look at that ragu! The beauty of this recipe is that it's two courses in one pot.
Clearly, they've invented a piece of equipment to pick it up, and I've never seen that in my life.
The sauce is eaten with pasta, as a pasta course.
Then you tuck into the meat, as a main course.
It is carvable, but it's on the brink of being pullable.
Oh, my, my! Look at that, hot and steamy.
The sauce, this is just the vegetables but, of course, it's been kissed with the goodness from all the meat.
Uno, du Ancora? Tre? Look at that.
I mean, it's very beautiful.
First to the table, that rich, warming sauce with fresh pappardelle and compulsory parmesan.
So good.
Mm! The flavour is phenomenal.
You know, it's like ribbons of silk.
Mm.
After the belly-hugging pasta, there's the beautiful soft beef, begging to be tucked into.
Give me your plate.
Are you excited? WHISPERING: Yes.
GENNARO LAUGHS Oh, my God! Go on, Gennaro.
Tell me, tell me, tell me.
It melt inside your mouth.
Oh, yeah! It's so simple.
Bene! Buonissimo.
It's kind of like the British Sunday roast, but it's the slow cook.
Delicious.
Miriam, grazie mille.
It's been fantastico.
# Unforgettable That's what you are She's amazing, right? She's indeed amazing lady.
It's not just the recipe, is it? It's more than that.
No.
I enjoyed it so much because it reminded my childhood - sitting and watch, er, some member of the family cooking.
That delicious food was totally accessible.
There's no reason that anyone can't cook that.
I love how Nonna Miriam's masterfully transformed a cheap cut of beef into a sensational dish, fit for a king.
And it's got me fired up.
So, this dish is absolutely inspired by Nonna Miriam, and that obsession by using the whole animal, and second-class cuts of meat that when they're slow-cooked, they're so tender and delicious.
And this, my friends, is the king of second-class cuts of meat.
This is .
.
a beef cheek.
My oozingly rich, slow-cooked, beef cheek ragu, with luxurious homemade pasta, made easy.
If you like spaghetti Bolognese, then you're gonna go crazy for this.
Let's season the beef cheeks.
Salt and pepper.
The cheeks are always the most delicious, succulent part of the whole animal.
Now, the smell is transforming immediately, with the pancetta.
Really nice.
It smells good.
Just like Nonna Miriam, chop up some carrots, red onions and celery to make a soffritto.
Next ingredient, we've got beautiful porcini that's been dried.
Simply rehydrate your porcini in boiling water, before adding them to the pot.
These are now soft and silky.
And to add even more flavour, I wanna use cloves.
So I'm just gonna use five cloves, and then add .
.
four cloves of garlic.
So, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.
And that's, like, the most beautiful little flavour bomb.
Let's get it in the pan.
Let's go in with about half a bottle of good, Italian red wine.
Half a stick of cinnamon.
That means you can't really taste it.
It's kind of there in the background.
Then ramp up the flavour with the mushroom liquor.
Passata.
And top it up with water.
And, to complete the story, add a fat bunch of herbs.
Now we're gonna put the lid on top.
That excess water's gonna reduce down over the next three to four hours and that meat will become so tender, it's gonna be the most insane ragu pasta sauce ever.
In the oven, or over the fire, cook this low and slow.
Ragu this outrageous deserves the finest homemade pasta.
Simply add egg yolks, semolina and olive oil to the pasta flour.
A good old knead-up, and you'll have a golden, rich, dough, ready to go.
I'm just gonna show you a few shapes to kind of get your taste buds going for making your own fresh pasta, cos it's really good fun.
We can roll it up like this.
So, if we go super fine Nice! So, this is Go on, Gennar! Little tagliarini.
And, then, this I would call tagliatelle.
Beautiful.
And then pappardelle can range, can't it? I mean, I would call pappardelle more like that, right? A large one.
Yeah.
Some people even do bigger than that.
And, er, if you wanted to do a lasagne sheet.
Yeah.
There you go.
Boom! You can make any pasta you like, but I'm going for pappardelle and I'm gonna make this one the prettiest in town.
I'm just gonna use a crinkly cutter.
That is really nice.
You want it to look, "fatta in casa", homemade.
Ha-ha! I love the word homemade.
Now, time to see the ragu.
Gennar, do you mind getting the ragu? Let me get the ragu.
Yeah, you're all right.
So, this has had, like, three, three and a half hours.
Hee-ya! Oh! Smells amazing.
So, I want you guys to have a little look.
I wanna show you just how tender this is.
I'm literally just gonna let gravity Oh! .
.
do that.
Cook your meat until it's so tender, it will just fall apart.
Then simply fork it through for the most outrageously gorgeous sauce.
In we go with the pasta.
It won't need much time.
It take less than a minute.
So, there you are.
A little plate of Tuscany, inspired by Nonna Miriam.
Don't use the mincemeat.
Take your Bolognese to the next level.
Yeah! Come on! Oh, yeah! Mm.
Mm! It is so good.
I mean, it's like game-changer.
Because it's not just about incredible flavour.
It's about the texture, isn't it? It's the cut of meat.
Mm! Mm! The silkiness of that pasta is insane.
Make the ragu, make the pasta, and have your little moment like this.
My ridiculously rich ragu, with that deliciously silky homemade pappardelle - totally Tuscan and a real treat.
Coming up - our travels off the beaten track continue, in a town that time forgot Whoa! No way! .
.
and I track down one of the most extraordinary Italian recipes .
.
I've ever seen.
That's delicious.
I love it.
It's autumn, and me and my mentor, Gennaro Contaldo, are in Tuscany, heading off the beaten track to seek out the region's ultimate home-cooked recipes.
So I'm going to take you now to a town that I've wanted to go to forever.
Pitigliano.
Fantastic.
How do you say it? Pi-tig-liano.
Pitigliano.
One of the oldest cities in Italy.
So much history.
Our search for fantastic old family dishes has brought us to this extraordinary hilltop town, that time forgot.
Whoa! No way! I've always wanted to come here, to Pitigliano, because it's said to be the spiritual home of Jewish-Italian cooking.
For hundreds of years, the town was a thriving Jewish community, and it's still nicknamed Little Jerusalem.
Wow! It's so It's unbelievable.
But, of course, everything changed with the Second World War.
The Jewish population had to flee, and their authentic recipes were all but lost forever.
Look at these beautiful streets.
I know.
And pre-war, this would have been choc-a-bloc with a massive Jewish community.
I can imagine somebody in that window perhaps cooks something, and the smell of the food.
All the stories these walls could tell.
Jewish-Italian cooking is said to be amazing, and I want to learn more.
So Gennaro's taking me to meet the guardian of the community's ancient recipes - a local legend, and she's the town's only surviving Jewish nonna.
And I want to kind of just talk to her about the food of her childhood.
The stuff that made her feel really happy with cooking, what recipes she wants to save.
She's asked to meet us in the town's ancient Jewish quarter.
Piacere.
Piacere mio.
Jamie.
Gennaro Contaldo.
Elena, Gennaro.
87-year-old nonna Elena has dedicated her life to preserving the history and the food of her community.
Nonna Elena was hoping to cook for us, but after a recent fall, she's on doctor's orders to take it easy.
Instead, she's offered to tell us the secrets of her all-time favourite Jewish-Italian recipe.
THEY SPEAK ITALIAN Until now, this beloved family recipe has been a closely-guarded secret, and never written down.
So we have mincemeat It's a great recipe.
Grande? To preserve this recipe, we're going to cook it exactly the way Nonna Elena's family has always made it.
What's happening in there is a whole bunch of history.
A whole life, er, and her favourite recipe.
So Gennaro's going over the recipe, just to make sure, double sure, that we're going to cook this right.
Then we're going to take it back to her later on, and hopefully get the thumbs-up.
Nonna Elena has entrusted us with her incredible family recipe, and I can't wait to get cooking.
While she goes home for a rest, I'm going to teach you how to make this phenomenal dish.
? And what better place to do it than soaking up the history of the old Jewish quarter Got a whole load of artichokes, and we've just set up, as you do, in the middle of the town.
Look where handsome is.
Gennaro! I'm here.
Delicate Italian artichokes, stuffed with flavour-packed beef, and nestled in a beautiful tomato sauce - simple, delicious, unique.
Some people are really scared about prepping these.
Um, they don't know what to do with them.
So let me show you.
What we're going to do is just cut off the stalk, then click back these outer leaves, right? But as you peel back to where the sun hasn't got, right, see how lovely and light green it gets? Like that.
And that is tender.
Then just cut the flowery part at an angle, four times.
One, two, three, four.
And that's what you get.
Absolutely beautiful.
Now, I'm just going to rub that with lemon juice here, cos it will go black really, really quickly.
Then, here, I'm just going to go from here, down to the stalk.
Now, this is stringy but what's underneath is sweet and delicious, right? So, look.
We're going to cut this in half, all the way down the stalk like that.
And then we go into quarters, all the way down.
And then we're just going to remove that choke here in the middle.
Once the artichokes are cleaned up and quartered, you can start on the stuffing.
Gennaro, tell everyone what we've got here.
We've got very lean mincemeat, parsley, basil, one eggs, a little pinch of dried chilli.
Little salt, mix all together, hallelujah.
And important to season this meat, and then Gennaro is going to plop the meat in, like that.
And we're going to literally reformat it.
You only use three quarters to put it back together again.
Almost rebuilding its natural shape.
Now, at this point, we then go into some flour.
Really coat the artichoke and then we go into the egg.
This is going to be an amazing dish.
We've definitely done exactly what she's told us.
Now we're going to fry them.
Come on, Gennar.
Let's do it.
We've got oil, on a sort of medium high heat.
I would say about 160 Celsius.
So we want it to take about 12, 15 minutes Yeah.
.
.
to get it golden.
At the same time, I'm going to make this tomato sauce, which is a different type of tomato sauce.
Er, she's not frying any ingredients, and then adding tomatoes.
She's boiling the tomatoes, then adding the veg.
I've never seen it like that before.
Nonna's sauce is fresh and easy.
Just dice celery and onion, and chuck 'em raw into the plum tomatoes.
I want to squash the tomatoes.
Next, chop up a handful of parsley and a clove of garlic, and whack in the pan with a pinch of dried chilli flakes.
We've been cooking a long time together, um, and we have never seen a method of that before, you know.
Um, and a sauce like that before.
Go on, mate.
You get those artichokes out.
They look beautiful.
Ah, nice! They're cooked but still not quite tender, and that's where this final part of the cooking is quite interesting.
So the frying seals in the flavours.
I'm going to plop this in now.
And we're going to be gentle.
What a dish! Really nice.
To finish, just simmer the artichokes in the sauce, for about ten minutes until they're perfectly tender.
Shall we have a little taste? Yeah.
What a lovely dish, Gennaro.
I'm going to make this at home.
Yes.
Look at that.
Right, let's break into it.
Go on, you go first.
The tomato really tastes nice.
Mm.
That's delicious.
I love it.
That's a lovely meal, and the things you could do with that.
And toss gnocchi or pasta in that lovely sauce.
An elegant mix of soft, velvety artichokes, a rich, meaty stuffing, and lashings of sweet, tomato sauce.
Unique, and delicious.
Italian food doesn't get much better than this.
What do you reckon? We did all right? This is the way.
That is definitely a dish worth celebrating.
Let's take it round to see her.
Let's see what she says.
I'm a bit nervous now.
Nonna! Gennar, come on! Fingers crossed, Gennaro.
Oh, you're telling me.
Grazie.
Oh, grazie.
Fantastico.
We did it! We did! It's a great recipe.
Thank you so much.
Really nice to meet you.
Grazie mille.
Buona notte.
Buona notte.
This is what we came to Tuscany to discover - the secret family dishes that locals love to eat.
What a trip! Next time - knockout recipes from Rome's fiery nonnas .
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I rustle up a simple, super-tasty pasta So delicious.
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and feel the pressure from a gnocchi master.
Such a good dish.