Stanley Tucci’s ability to poke gentle fun at himself in his series Searching For Italy is like a subtle hit of an unexpected but wonderful flavour that lifts an already delicious dish.
Laughing at himself when he can’t resist saying “Anything that ends in tucci, I like” as he enjoys the Tuscan tradition of dipping cantucci – crunchy almond biscuits – in the rich dessert wine known as vin santo, during his visit to Florence. Joking about whether a bald man needs to wear a head cover for a visit to a cheesemaker.
But perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. Tucci’s cheeky half-smile and ability to entertain, to sum up a feeling with just a few words or a lifted eyebrow, is so much a part of everything he films, from his lengthy screen CV to his hugely popular Instagram food clips. And so it is with Searching For Italy, in which he brings his uniquely wry, appreciative, clever approach to travel, creating yet another Italian travel show … that isn’t just another Italian travel show. Nor just another Italian food show, either, though food, and sometimes drink, is how he connects with almost all the places and people he encounters.
Aside from the flavour that his familiar face and that distinctive American-Italian voice bring to the show, there’s the personal element. Tucci, who grew up in America, has Italian heritage through both his mother and his father. When he was 12 his family moved to Florence for a year, his father, an art teacher, taking a year off to follow a dream. “It changed everything for me,” he says in the Tuscany episode of the series, where he, along with his parents Joan and Stan, revisit the city. “… it was the start of a lifelong love affair with Italy.”
In Searching for Italy, Tucci visits some of the predictable dishes – pizza in Naples, spaghetti bolognese in Bologna (where he goes in search of ‘the real bolognese’) – but also lesser-known places and recipes, some of them a return visit places that have meant something to him in the past: a small restaurant halfway up a mountain on the island of Ischia, where the family invite him to join them for lunch; the building where he lived when his family spent their year in Florence.
He meets chefs and cooks, people who make and grow ingredients, winemakers and historians, from world-renowned figures such as Massimo Bottura to the people running tiny hole-in-the-wall food stalls or, in Bologna, a charity kitchen that cooks food for those in need.
Professor Elisabetta Moro takes Stanley Tucci to discover the fried pizza maker Fernanda in Naples. Source: Searching For Italy / CNN
Whether it’s touching on some of Italy’s serious issues or having pure fun ordering a drink through a tiny ‘wine window’ (also known as a ‘little door of paradise’) Tucci – sometimes travelling solo, sometimes with his wife, Felicity Blunt, or his parents – is a great guide to the endless food and drink experiences that are part of any trip to Italy.
Stanley Tucci and Elisabetta di Giugno, a friend who is also a Renaissance scholar, at a wine window in Florence. Source: Searching for Italy / CNN / Christian Dametto
Eating while Searching
“Eat with me,” says Cesare Battisti, an innovative chef that Tucci meets in Milan. Of course, Tucci says yes, as he does to many such invitations during his travels. And watching him enjoy everything from roast gander at a village gathering (“like Christmas in my mouth,” says Tucci) to rigatoni all’Amatriciana in Rome, you might be hankering to head to the kitchen to make your own Italian eats.
Here are some suggestions inspired by Tucci’s gastronomic adventures in each episode of Season 1 (season 2 is also streaming at SBS On Demand) .
Episode 1: Naples and the Amalfi Coast
The pizza fritte Tucci eats in Naples is made by the last remaining stallholder still making this traditional style of fried pizza pocket, but it's an idea you can easily embrace. Try Paola Baccia's recipe (from Puglia, not Naples, but another excellent version of the idea of fried, filled pockets made with yeasted dough).
Cabbage rolls Source: Poh & Co.
Episode 2: Rome
Tucci starts his stint in Rome with rigatoni all’amatriciana. Originating in the town of Amatricia, the dish featuring guanciale, pecorino, white wine and tomato sauce has become a Roman favourite and is often served with the thick long pasta known as bucatini. Try it in or .
Silvia Colloca's bucatini amatriciana. Source: Cook like an Italian
Episode 3: Bologna
When Tucci travels to the capital of Emilia-Romagna, he meets one of the region's most famous food figures, Massimo Bottura, who takes him to meet a cheesemaker where they try both Parmigiano and ricotta and back at Massimo's restaurant they eat ricotta baked in an outdoor woodfired oven. Find plenty of ideas for ricotta - wood-fired oven optional . His taste adventures also include mortadella (if you'd really to dive in, you can ); tortellini (we love , which has a pumpkin, chilli, garlic and leek filling); a meeting with a man who is the 17th generation of his family to make high-grade ; a very old version of ; and the popular pasta strozzapreti, or priest stranglers' (try Matteo Carboni's .
Episode 4: Milan
Italy's second biggest city, stylish Milan has plenty of good food on offer too. Chef Cesare Battisti shows Tucci how to make a superb wiener schnitzel (which he insists is Milanese, not Austrian or German! You can find Italian, German, and Hungarian recipes and even a Mexican 'torta de Milanese version in this ). Milan is also very fond of the aperitivo, the post-work drink with light snacks (like these ). Inspired by a meeting with an alpine cheesemaker and a tasting of cheese with a very long history called Bitto Storico Ribelle, Tucci decides to cook , a dish of buckwheat pasta with Bitto cheese. The final meal here, with his wife Felicity, includes classic Milanese dishes such as veal chops and .
Olive alla Ascolana (Deep-fried crumbed and stuffed green olives) Source: Adam Liaw
Local chef Fabio Picchi cooks Tuscany’s signature dish, the magnificent bistecca alla fiorentina (try ).
Andre Ursini's bistecca alla Fiorentina Source: china squirrel
Episode 6: Sicily
The Mediterranean's largest island has plenty to offer Tucci's taste for food and stories. A local Michelin-starred chef makes his version of the humble Sicilian dish before Tucci heads south to visit one of the island's wineries. In Palermo, he enjoys a , before travelling to the very southernmost point of Italy, Lampedusa, where a sardine fisherman and his wife cook and . And of course, since it is Sicily, there has to be the island's famous .
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