Dreaming of moving to Italy? Here's a slice of Sophie Grigson's adventures

Ever dreamed of packing up your life and moving to Italy? That's what food writer Sophie Grigson did, making a new life in Puglia. Join her as she makes new friends and learns how to cook the way to way her neighbours do.

Sophie Grigson on her balcony, with a dish of green olive leaf pasta. Credit: Finestripe Productions / Martin Willcocks

— See double episodes of Sophie Grigson: Slice of Italy, Thursdays from 8.30pm on SBS Food, 25 April to 27 June. Both seasons will also be available to stream at SBS On Demand from 8.30pm on 25 April. —

"On impulse, I decided to leave the UK, my lifelong home, for Italy," says Sophie Grigson. "I just thought, I’m gonna move to Puglia, and I did."

"I have never regretted it for a second," she says in the show that shares a window into the place she now calls home, Sophie Grigson: Slice of Italy.

"It’s been a good few years now since chance, luck, fate, call it what you will landed me in the small town of Ceglie Messapica, in the heart of Puglia. Then, I knew nobody, now I walk through the streets nodding to this and that acquaintance."

When the award-winning food writer, cookbook author and cookery teacher moved, food was one of the ways she explored her new home, learned about local history and met her neighbours.

Happy times as spring turns into summer in season 1 of Slice of Italy: Sophie Grigson helps pick cherries in an orchard. Credit: Martin Willcocks

In Slice of Italy, she shares local food stories, introduces us to local farmers and producers, and cooks up traditional dishes and her Puglian-influenced ideas.

Food is at the heart of it all, and while most of us can't pack up and move, we can enjoy a taste of Puglia! Here are some of the delicious dishes she cooks up across two seasons of Slice of Italy.

Frittata Pugliese di asparagifrittata

Sophie Grigson's asparagus fritatta. Credit: Martin Willcocks

Markets are a key part of life in many Italian towns and cities, so the first episode of the show should see Grigson take us along on a visit to her local. "Saturday is market day and that gives me the structure for the rest of my week. It’s the ritual and now familiar faces that I enjoy as much as the shopping," she says. "This is Ceglie Messapica market, it’s not remarkable, it’s a typical small-town Italian market in the south. A market like this epitomises the Italian attitude to shopping and fresh food. It’s about following the rhythm of the seasons." One of her market purchases is used the next day in a frittata Pugliese, served up along with a salad, burrata and cured meat for a light lunch with friends.

Pasta with chickpeas

Pasta with chickpeas. Credit: Martin Willcocks

In an episode titled 'Pasta - The Stuff of Life' (it's also what she calls it in the episode), after a visit to a market stall that sells pasta-making equipment and a local deli that sells fresh and dried pasta, she cooks up combination that's a favourite in Puglia, orecchiette with cime di rapa; practices her pasta-making skills during a visit to some friends and their children; and then, back home, makes a dish that features homemade pasta cooked two ways - some boiled and some fried ("so you get that combination of soft and tender and then the crisp and crunchy on top"), and served with chickpeas in a flavour-filled sauce.

Polpette di pane

Polpette di pane. Credit: Martin Willcocks

"There is never a shred or a crumb of bread wasted in Puglia. It just comes into recipes again and again and again," says Grigson, in an episode devoted to pane and pizza. One of the recipes she cooks is polpette di pane: bread and cheese fritters. "Often in restaurants, they’ll be perfect little round balls, but I like them a bit craggier, then you get ... more of the crisp bit on the outside," she says. And doesn't that sounds good!

Ricotta cheesecake with peaches in prosecco

Torta di ricotta con pesche al prosecco (baked ricotta cheesecake with peaches in rrosecco) Credit: Finestripe Productions / Martin Willcocks

"There's really little better than a good ricotta cheesecake... the great thing about cheesecakes, you can just play with what you do on top," says Grigson, who tops this torta ricotta (baked ricotta cheesecake) - with peaches in pink prosecco.

Mackerel with breadcrumbs, mint and capers

Sophie Grigson holds freshly made sgombro arracanate (mackerel with breadcrumbs), cooked in her home kitchen for a hot lunch. Credit: Finestripe Productions / Martin Willcocks

Life in Puglia means access to great seafood, and one of the seafood dishes Grigson cooks up in the show is a simple lunch of baked mackerel with golden breadcrumbs. Sgombro accacanate, she explains, means mackerel under a bed of breadcrumbs. The dish also features plenty of capers, which, she explains, grow all over Puglia.

Pettole al limone (lemony fritters)

Pettole al limone (lemony fritters). Credit: Finestripe Productions / Martin Willcocks

"There’s one fail-safe celebration morsel that turns up here at every party, small or large," says Grigson, as she sets to work cooking, in an episode about celebrations. "I am making the batter for pittule, or pettole. Or in Bari, I think a savoury version is called a popizza which is a really nice word. But I'm making pittule, pettole, pettole, which are kind of fritter, which is eaten in huge amounts at festivals around here." Her pettole recipe takes inspiration from another of the things she loves about her life in Italy. "My pettole are going to be lemony ones, with lemon zest in them, and limoncello in as well. There is something about seeing citrus fruit growing just near your doorstep that still sends me into, oh, ecstasy. I've seen it so often in four years, but, I don’t tire of it."

Potato dumplings in tomato sauce

Cocule di bietole al forno (potato dumplings in tomato sauce). Credit: Finestripe Productions / Martin Willcocks

When you're feeding a group of cyclists, as Grigson does in season two, you want something filling and hearty - and cocule di bietole al forno (potato and chard dumplings in tomato sauce) fits the bill nicely. Cucole, she explains, is a southern Puglian dish that's essentially potato dumplings, but can be made with other things too. This version has dumplings made with potato, Swiss chard (aka silverbeet), cheese, garlic and breadcrumbs. Nestled in a dish with a passata-based sauce, and topped with more cheese, it's baked till hot. The bike touring friends love it, and you can imagine why.

Looking for more Italian inspiration? Explore SBS Food's Italian recipe collection.