Here's everywhere Stanley Tucci ate in Italy

From Rome to Sicily and Bologna to Naples, join Tucci as he meets and eats, discovering the food and stories that form the fabric of Italy.

Stanley Tucci meets Paolo Ciapparelli, an alpine cheesemaker. Source: Searching for Italy / CNN / Christian Dametto

--- Watch Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy Thursdays from July 13 at 8.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand. Watch episode one here. ---

 

Stanley Tucci’s ability to poke gentle fun at himself in his Emmy-nominated 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

Along the way, the locals share the history of their places, the stories behind their food, and of course, the food itself. Tucci, who so evocatively describes the importance of food to his own life in his book Taste: My Life Through Food (read an extract here), is an excellent counterpoint to all this – appreciative, attentive, and with just the right degree of joking commentary. When a segment in an episode devoted to Naples and the Amalfi Coast opens with a vision of a policeman talking to a serious-looking Tucci, the voice-over says “This isn’t what it looks like”. It’s a predictable joke, but it works – partly because of who’s delivering the line, but also because of what it’s introducing. Tucci is meeting with the Chief of the Municipal Police, and the ensuing conversation touches on the chaotic nature of the city, the problems caused by the presence of the Camorra (Neapolitan mafia) and the strength of character of the city’s residents. The people here, Captain Capuano explains, find ways to help each other. That’s exemplified in the coffee order he places for himself and Tucci: there are two, but he orders three. “We leave them here, for the suspended ones,” he says. This is the tradition of a suspended coffee – those who can afford to do so often pay for an extra, so others who need it can have a free coffee. “This is the Neapolitan people’s philosophy. Here in our chaos, things work,” says Capuano.

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

He says, at the end of an episode devoted to Sicily, that “the door is always open and you’re always welcome to join the feast”. He’s talking about the welcome Sicilians give when they invite someone to their home, but it also reflects the welcome he receives across all of the regions he visits. When Stanley Tucci goes ‘searching for Italy’, he finds a lot and shares it with wit and appreciation. Whether you’re a fan of Tucci, a fan of Italian food, or just looking for an armchair travel adventure, Searching for Italy is è un divertimento eccellente.

 

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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.   

WATCH EPISODE 1

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 panzarotti 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.

Also on Tucci's tasting tour on this episode is classic pizza (try this authentic Neapolitan recipe, based on the recipe used at one of the oldest pizzerias in Naples); sarme, a stuffed cabbage roll (try these Italian cabbage rolls, above, or this traditional Serbian recipe for sarme); a rabbit stew (try this hearty coniglio bianco); and a delicious lemon dessert called delizie al limone (a specialty of the Amalfi Coast, it's a multi-part recipe requiring special cake moulds; but you can embrace the deliciousness of lemon cake with this torta di mandorle al limone).

 

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 Silvia Colloca's version or Michael Bonacini's recipe.

Silvia Colloca's bucatini amatriciana. Source: Cook like an Italian

Pasta carbonara, various dishes from an offal restaurant, and fried artichokes from a Jewish Roman restaurant (try another Italian version here) are also on the menu during his visit to the Italian capital, as is cacio e pepe, one of the very traditional recipes of the region (try Ilaria Paeiella's version or Gino D'Acampo's recipe).

 

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 here. His taste adventures also include mortadella (if you'd really to dive in, you can make your own); tortellini (we love Guy Grossi's recipe, 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 balsamic vinegar; a very old version of spaghetti bolognese; and the popular pasta strozzapreti, or priest stranglers' (try Matteo Carboni's strozzapreti with pumpkin and bacon.

 

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 schnitzel recipe collection). Milan is also very fond of the aperitivo, the post-work drink with light snacks (like these stuffed olives). 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 pizzocheri, 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 risotto.

Olive alla Ascolana (Deep-fried crumbed and stuffed green olives) Source: Adam Liaw

Episode 5: Tuscany

Local chef Fabio Picchi cooks Tuscany’s signature dish, the magnificent bistecca alla fiorentina (try this recipe from Andre Ursini).

Andre Ursini's bistecca alla Fiorentina Source: china squirrel

At a village in the countryside, Tucci attends a threshing festival, where the fare includes wood-fired bread. "My night at the wheat threshing festival has reminded me of the epic insatiable obsession Tuscany has with bread. It's a love that has echoed through the ages and there are recipes for every stage of a loaf's life. The best ones, however, are saved for the advanced years when bread is old and stale. That's when Tuscan cooks get really creative," Tucci says. In a wonderfully named segment called 'All Bread Goes to Heaven', he then tries dishes including ribollita, pappa al pomodoro and panzanella. Finally, in the port city of Livorno, he eats cacciucco, a traditional fish stew. 

 

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 spaghetti alla bottarga before Tucci heads south to visit one of the island's wineries. In Palermo, he enjoys a timballo, before travelling to the very southernmost point of Italy, Lampedusa, where a sardine fisherman and his wife cook sardines in salsa verde and sarde a beccafico. And of course, since it is Sicily, there has to be the island's famous pasta alla Norma.