Tucci in Italy (2025) s01e04 Episode Script
Abruzzo
1
[bird tweeting]
[Stanley Tucci] I'm in a region
that I've never been to before.
It's rustic.
It's wild, it's mountainous, it's rough.
And I'm in a part of it that
the locals call Little Tibet.
I'm in Abruzzo.
[sheep bleating]
[laughing] There's my ride.
I believe that the best way to understand
what makes a country and its people unique
is through their food.
This is incredible.
Oh, man!
And this is true nowhere more than Italy.
Okay.
Nice. Do you smell that?
Mm, mm, mm!
Where even the shape of your pasta
and the sauce you serve it with
speaks directly to identity.
-You like it?
-I love it.
-Oh, my God, it's so good!
-[laughing]
[Stanley]
And differentiates the character
and history of each region
sharply from the next.
It's just not what you expect.
I'm Stanley Tucci.
And I'm exploring the complex connections
between the land, the people,
and the food they eat
in order to discover
the essence of each region
in the country I love, Italy.
[bright music playing]
[Stanley] Abruzzo is right
in the center of the peninsula,
midway down the calf of the boot,
separated from much of Italy
by the Apennines,
an impenetrable mountain range
that forms the backbone of the country.
It's among the least densely
populated parts of Italy.
How does this brutal,
yet glorious geography
impact upon the people and their food?
I'm starting in a remote mountain village
called Senarica.
[bell tolling]
It's Sunday.
-Welcome to Senarica.
-Grazie.
[Stanley] And Chef Danilo Cortellini
has invited me to a traditional
lunch with his family.
[Danilo] Sun is not shy today.
[Stanley laughing]
[rooster crowing]
[Stanley]
Senarica is small and hidden away,
little influenced by the outside world.
Danilo, however,
has been cooking internationally
for 25 years,
12 of those as head chef
at the Italian embassy in London.
Despite his global pedigree,
his Mother Lucia
doesn't trust him with today's lunch,
a traditional feast day dish
called timballo.
♪♪
Stanley. Stanley.
-Mom is making crespelle.
-Yeah.
We can call them crepes,
but she might not like it.
So, let's call it crespelle.
Let's call it crespelle.
Because there's a French influence here.
-Right, isn't there?
-There is.
If you think about the French invasion,
they arrived here with Napoleon,
the French.
-With Napoleon, right.
-Yeah, that was Regno d'Italia.
It was the-- the kingdom run
by the-- by Napoleon in Italy.
And, um, it's quite easy to spot
this is very similar to crepes.
-[Stanley] Sure, yeah.
-And then--
-[Stanley] What is it made with?
-It's like a crepe
but instead of butter,
there's-- there's olive oil.
-Uh-huh.
-And instead of milk, there's--
-there's water, so it's lighter.
-Okay.
That's why they come out so thin.
[Stanley] Yeah, they're very
delicate, yeah, right.
[Danilo]
But I like to say better than crepes.
Of course.
You can say that, it's alright, go ahead.
So, one of the reasons that
I wanted to do this story
was because my family
makes this-- what we call timpano.
It's round, it has a dough on the outside,
almost like a pizza dough
kind of like, ish, thing.
Inside is, um, pasta,
and meatballs, and salami, and then baked.
-Baked.
-And then, like with this
-Flipped over.
-Flipped.
[Danilo] That sounds like a lot of work.
[sputtering] It was days of work.
It's egg wash with milk.
By putting a little bit of egg wash
in the middle of each layer,
it serves the same purpose
as a bit of a soufflé effect.
-Oh, I see.
-So, every-- every layer
will rise a little bit
-because of it.
-Ah.
Yes, it is sort of French, isn't it?
You can see the influence.
We just don't want to tell the French.
No, no, no, no,
don't ever tell the French anything.
[Danilo] Many places of Italy,
we share the concept
of mini meatballs.
Everybody says spaghetti meatballs
is not an Italian dish, it's an American.
-But actually, no.
-Yeah.
[Danilo] It stems from,
uh, something that we do.
Well, in America,
everything did get bigger,
and saucier, and meatier, and--
because there was more.
You had so much meat,
you had a lot of bread,
you had a lot of wheat, so everything
became bigger,
and that's why Italian-American cuisine
is so distinctly different
from Italian cuisine.
How many layers are in here?
Top of the tray,
or we finish the ingredients.
-Yeah.
-Depends.
-[laughing]
-Then-- then you stop.
This is a case when we stop
because we reach the top.
[Stanley] [chuckles] Yes, I see that.
We can make another one, but maybe later--
-later tonight.
-Well, it's a bit--
the show's not that long, I'm afraid.
[Stanley] The crew is incredibly grateful,
as this timballo is destined
to become their lunch.
But first, it must cook, then rest,
a process that takes
just shy of two hours,
whereas Lucia made
this timballo earlier today.
It's now ready to serve,
but not before a moment of pure suspense.
A little bit. Yeah, I must say.
[Lucia laughing]
We're about to flip this.
The moment of truth. Ready, steady?
Yes.
-[Danilo] Ole.
-[Lucia] It's okay.
-Don't just say it's okay.
-Ahh, yeah!
-No?
-Ohh!
It's more than okay.
-Yeah.
-[laughter]
-That's great.
-[sniffing]
Here we go. The timballo is ready.
-[Stanley] The heavy timballo.
-[Danilo] It's a heavy timballo.
But I didn't drop it.
[Stanley] Danilo's wife, Gaia,
daughter Mia, and father Pietro
join us at the table.
Papa.
-She doesn't like timballo?
-[Danilo] No.
-No? Alright.
-[Danilo] Not much, yet.
-Yet.
-[Danilo] Shall I slice?
Oh, yeah.
-Okay, here we go.
-[laughing]
-[Gaia] I'm sorry.
-[Danilo] Here we go!
[Stanley] Eh
-That's for you.
-Oh! Grazie.
-That's a big one.
-That's huge, yes, thank you.
[Danilo] That's the half portion here.
[laughing]
[family chattering in Italian]
Wow.
[Stanley] Whoa. This is incredible.
The butter and tomato
together is so sweet.
-This is delicious.
-[Gaia] Mm.
[Stanley] Delicious.
Si.
[Stanley] That Senarica
could only be reached by foot
until the mid-1960s
is not unusual in this region.
She's eating it! She's eating it! Wow!
New influences don't
easily reach cut-off places,
but perhaps that increases
their impact when they do.
That is amazing.
I'm-- I'm serious.
But what might be the purest form
of Abruzzesi cuisine?
[laughing]
For that, I'm heading somewhere
even more sparsely populated.
[light music playing]
[birdsong]
[light music playing]
[Stanley] Senarica sits at the edge
of the region's largest
National Park, Gran Sasso.
The expansive landscape
is dominated by Corno Grande,
the highest peak in the Apennines.
It doesn't look like Italy.
It's a very, very unusual, uh,
landscape, beautiful landscape.
It's vast and peaceful.
[wind whispering]
[motorcycle revving loudly]
Save for the hordes
of motorcycle enthusiasts,
drawn here by the views
and an iconic barbecue joint
called Ristoro Mucciante.
-[people chattering]
-[dog barking]
Stanley.
[jazz music playing]
[Stanley] I'm here to meet
food and motor journalist
Cristina Bachetti.
She says this is the place to experience
Abruzzo's ultimate
culinary rite of passage.
[people chattering]
-Hi, Cristina.
-Stanley.
Panorama, si, si.
[Stanley]
This is and always has been sheep country.
For centuries, these elevated plains
were home to a custom
known as the transumanza,
where shepherds based down in Puglia
would drive their flocks over
150 miles north to graze here.
The less fortunate animals
became arrosticini.
Si.
[Stanley] Arrosticini are simply skewers
of cubed mutton.
The shepherds' tradition
of grilling the meat
in the open air continues to this day.
-[Rodolfo] Si.
-[Stanley] Oh, wow.
I know, I know.
[Stanley] In the 17th century,
over 4 million sheep
summered on this lush mountain plateau.
Used for meat, milk, and wool,
they generated huge wealth for this area.
Oh, yeah.
[Cristina chuckles]
♪♪
-[Stanley] Cheers.
-Cheers.
-Cheers.
-[Cristina] Cheers.
[Stanley] This is so good. Everything.
Super.
Si?
-Delicious
-[Stanley] Delicious.
Delicious. [chuckles]
♪♪
No!
-No!
-Si. [chuckles]
Cin cin.
[Stanley] Such rustic food,
forged from Abruzzo's shepherding roots,
seems appropriate fuel in this vast,
unchanged landscape.
Yet this region doesn't always lend itself
to preserving traditions.
[birdsong]
[Stanley] Located at the bottom
of dramatic slopes
in a lush valley, Villa San Sebastiano
is found at the westernmost
edge of Abruzzo,
and is known for
a tragic natural disaster.
[somber music playing]
On September 5th, 1955,
a landslide wiped away the village.
Four were killed,
dozens more were injured.
The villagers had two options.
They had to decide
whether to leave or to rebuild.
They chose the latter.
Starting with the church.
Then, the next most important thing.
[people chattering]
The communal bread oven
that had fed them for centuries.
Chef Lucia Tellone looks after it today.
-everything revolved around bread.
-This place?
[Stanley] This place helped
to rebuild the community
after the landslide,
but gradually, convenience culture
meant that those traditional
methods fell out of favor.
Eventually, the bread oven closed,
taking the social heart
of the village with it,
until Lucia came along.
Okay.
[Stanley laughing]
[Stanley]
Lucia resolved to teach the village
to bake again, and it turns out
that the children are her best students.
Si.
[birdsong]
[laughing]
[Stanley] They don't just bake bread.
This local ancient grain
also gets made into pan pizzas.
[child sneezing]
-[child speaking Italian]
-[Stanley laughing]
[light music playing]
[Stanley] Lucia lights
the bread oven once a week,
on a Saturday, and the community
gathers to cook and share lunch.
Okay.
[Stanley] Whoa.
-Mm!
-[Lucia] Okay.
-[child] Yes!
-[Stanley] Mm-hmm, si.
[laughing]
[Stanley] The bread oven
feels as relevant now as ever,
providing warmth, nourishment,
and community to the locals.
But the food that has really
put Abruzzo on the world map
isn't a staple, it's an indulgence.
[light music playing]
[Stanley]
Though isolated, sugar and spices
were brought to Abruzzo
by the trade routes
that connected Italy to Asia.
Years ago, the town of Sulmona
was an important stop on the spice trail,
being strategically located
between the port of Pescara and Rome.
[whimsical music playing]
The people of this remote provincial town
met this influx of luxurious
produce with real flair
creating what are probably
Europe's first ever candies
sugar-coated almonds.
Known as confetti.
Established in 1783,
Confetti Pelino is an institution.
[door bell jingles]
Today, seventh generation
candy magnate Mario Pelino
is giving me a tour of the factory.
-This hasn't changed.
-Hasn't changed?
It hasn't changed.
-Nothing changes. Nothing.
-Si. Nothing--
-[laughing]
-Nothing changes.
[whimsical music playing]
[Stanley] Almonds once grew profusely
in the hills surrounding the town.
The original confetti were made
of these almonds.
They were toasted
and then covered in a sugar shell.
They're being made in the factory today
in a process little altered
since the 18th century.
-We are inside the hall.
-Mm-hmm?
That is the beginning of the process.
-Okay.
-Where they do the peeling
-of the almonds
-Uh-huh?
the roasting of the almonds,
and the selection of the almonds.
So, they go through them by hand?
They do everything by hand, yes.
It's not really industrialized.
-[Stanley] Can we taste?
-[Mario] Yes, yes.
-It's-- it's hot.
-Tell me.
-It's hot.
-It's hot.
Oh, I see, it's steaming.
-Mm. Oh, yeah.
-Questi sono buoni.
-Very nice.
-Very good, they are very good.
This is the row of the copper machines
installed by my great-grandfather.
This is the beginning of the history
of the Alfonso Pelino factory.
[Stanley]
Sugar panning is the technical term
for what happens in these
beautiful old machines.
[Mario]
That is a thick solution of sugar.
75% of sucrose and 25% of water.
She puts about five spoons
-of, uh, solution.
-Right.
And those inside are the almonds.
[Stanley] The sugar solution
is repeatedly ladled
onto the tumbling almonds over
the course of a couple of days,
slowly building up the shell
one thin layer at a time.
It's at this point a vast array
of different flavors
can be added, including the exotic spices
that were passing through here
once upon a time.
That is lemon, I think, the lemon.
Lemon?
What I'm gonna show you now
is the copper pan
that is producing the cinnamon candy.
It is a very old product,
because as you know,
the cinnamon
-was an important spice.
-Yeah.
-Imported from the Middle East.
-Right, yeah.
[Mario] Okay?
-You taste the cinnamon?
-Oh, it's delicate.
I like that.
[Stanley] These little candies
are an inescapable part
of being Italian.
In the workshop, they're crafted
into bouquets and trinkets,
which appear at almost every celebration
across the country.
So, I will introduce you now to Marina.
-Mm-hmm.
-Because she's the person
-in charge.
-Oh, Stanley!
[Stanley] How many do you make a day?
[Stanley] They're so beautiful.
And then, do people--
people give them as gifts?
-[Mario] They give it as a gift.
-[Stanley] Yeah.
-They take it as a souvenir.
-Yeah.
Because they're made only
in Sulmona, no other place.
-Nobody else makes them.
-Nobody else make it.
[Stanley] They're used for weddings,
'cause I know
-these are always used
-They are used for weddings.
-for Italian weddings.
-Yes, they are used for.
-In America too, when you're
-In America.
In America, always you-- when
you go to an Italian wedding
-Yes.
-you always get the little.
[Mario] Bomboniera, a favor, a favor.
[Stanley] Yeah, a favor, yeah.
Confetti over there means
totally something different.
-Confetti's
-This is what they throw.
-It's what you throw.
-But you know why?
-Why?
-Because they came here,
they saw the confetti in different colors,
thrown out of the church
in the-- in the ceremonies.
-Oh, really?
-At the weddings, they used
-to throw the confetti.
-You mean, the-- the candies?
-Yes, outside.
-Oh, that's why
-it's called confetti?
-Yeah.
That's why it's called confetti.
I always wondered
why it was an Italian word.
That's the reason. The reason.
-You see how fast she is?
-[laughing]
-Si?
-You're like a magician.
Being a father to young children,
returning home empty-handed
from a visit to a candy factory
is not an option.
Thankfully, the store stocks upward
of 50 different flavors,
from cappuccino to champagne,
in a bemusing array of shapes,
sizes, and colors.
[Stanley]
Delicate little treats like confetti
are the last product you'd expect
to come out of this wild region.
Generally, Abruzzo has a reputation
for being tough to live in,
due to its very rugged landscape.
Its craggy Adriatic coast
being no exception.
♪♪
[Stanley] Head east of Sulmona,
go as far as you can,
and you hit a 24-mile stretch
of treacherous shoreline
punctuated by jagged rocks.
This is known as the Trabocchi Coast
because of these distinctive
wooden fishing platforms,
that use a complex system of winches
to hoist fishing nets up and down.
[Stanley]
Chef Gianluca Di Bucchianico
runs a restaurant
on one of these trabocchi
and he has agreed to show me
the ropes, quite literally.
[Stanley] The product of desperation,
these amazing platforms were built
by peasants facing famine,
a last-ditch attempt
to pull what protein
they could from the sea.
A history that's reflected
in Gianluca's menu.
Okay. [laughing]
[Stanley] The torcinello, or mutton offal,
is served with prawns,
a little liquid from their roe,
and a reduction of the region's
eminent red wine,
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
[Stanley] Wow.
-Bonne Appetit.
-Come here.
Who's got that--
give me that-- get over here.
You got it? I want to eat this right here.
Oh, man. Oh, man!
Who would put lamb intestines--
I know it sounds gross
coupled with shrimp and two different--
like an emulsification of--
oh, [bleep], sorry.
[Stanley] The second antipasto
is a pancotto, or bread soup,
inspired by Gianluca's ancestors.
-Bonne Appetit, Stanley.
-[both laughing]
Bravo.
-[speaking Italian]
-That's amazing.
That's amazing.
-The old bread, stale bread.
-Okay.
Si.
Si.
[Stanley] With his restaurant
not yet open for service,
Gianluca is going to join me
at the table for some pasta.
A simple spaghetti with olive oil,
garlic, and sweet chili pepper,
elevated by the addition
of lobster extract.
It's pretty here, isn't it?
No.
Bonne Appetit.
Oh, wow.
[both laughing]
[Stanley]
Trabocchi are incredible inventions,
part madness, part genius,
not unlike serving shrimp with mutton.
This ingenuity defines
the Abruzzesi spirit,
and there's further proof of it
out in the wildest pocket
of this region.
[Stanley] Like many other
villages across Abruzzo,
the hamlet of Castrovalva
has been hit hard
by population decline.
It sits surrounded by mountains,
a long journey inland from the coast.
I'm heading up above the village
with Chef Davide Nanni.
[jeep rumbling]
[sputtering] Yeah.
Beautiful.
Si. Si.
[gentle music playing]
[Stanley] Davide is going to make
the defining dish of his childhood.
[Stanley] A recipe that evokes
Abruzzo perhaps like no other,
pecora al cotturo, or mutton stew.
[Davide] Okay.
[Stanley] Despite its natural beauty,
the population has long been in freefall.
[water fountain babbling]
The economy was left in tatters
by the Second World War.
That, combined with
the challenging topography
and a series of devastating earthquakes
prompted many to leave.
[Stanley] Davide emigrated from here
like many before him,
but he's back permanently.
[Stanley]
Oh, look at that. Mm.
[Davide] Okay.
Thank you.
Wow.
-Yeah. Really, yeah.
-[chuckles]
[Stanley] After simmering
for about an hour and a half,
the mutton stew is ready.
Beautiful.
Ah, yeah. Si.
[plane engine rumbling]
Mm.
[Stanley] It's amazing.
[Stanley] No, no. It's okay.
-Si. Cheers.
-Cheers.
[gentle music playing]
[Stanley] All throughout Italy
I've met so many people
who emigrate only to return.
Like Davide, they're drawn back
by Italy's unparalleled food culture,
and compelled to write its next chapter.
I can understand the appeal
that Abruzzo has.
Isolated from external influences
by its uncompromising geography,
and a cuisine that is robust and pure.
♪♪
[bird tweeting]
[Stanley Tucci] I'm in a region
that I've never been to before.
It's rustic.
It's wild, it's mountainous, it's rough.
And I'm in a part of it that
the locals call Little Tibet.
I'm in Abruzzo.
[sheep bleating]
[laughing] There's my ride.
I believe that the best way to understand
what makes a country and its people unique
is through their food.
This is incredible.
Oh, man!
And this is true nowhere more than Italy.
Okay.
Nice. Do you smell that?
Mm, mm, mm!
Where even the shape of your pasta
and the sauce you serve it with
speaks directly to identity.
-You like it?
-I love it.
-Oh, my God, it's so good!
-[laughing]
[Stanley]
And differentiates the character
and history of each region
sharply from the next.
It's just not what you expect.
I'm Stanley Tucci.
And I'm exploring the complex connections
between the land, the people,
and the food they eat
in order to discover
the essence of each region
in the country I love, Italy.
[bright music playing]
[Stanley] Abruzzo is right
in the center of the peninsula,
midway down the calf of the boot,
separated from much of Italy
by the Apennines,
an impenetrable mountain range
that forms the backbone of the country.
It's among the least densely
populated parts of Italy.
How does this brutal,
yet glorious geography
impact upon the people and their food?
I'm starting in a remote mountain village
called Senarica.
[bell tolling]
It's Sunday.
-Welcome to Senarica.
-Grazie.
[Stanley] And Chef Danilo Cortellini
has invited me to a traditional
lunch with his family.
[Danilo] Sun is not shy today.
[Stanley laughing]
[rooster crowing]
[Stanley]
Senarica is small and hidden away,
little influenced by the outside world.
Danilo, however,
has been cooking internationally
for 25 years,
12 of those as head chef
at the Italian embassy in London.
Despite his global pedigree,
his Mother Lucia
doesn't trust him with today's lunch,
a traditional feast day dish
called timballo.
♪♪
Stanley. Stanley.
-Mom is making crespelle.
-Yeah.
We can call them crepes,
but she might not like it.
So, let's call it crespelle.
Let's call it crespelle.
Because there's a French influence here.
-Right, isn't there?
-There is.
If you think about the French invasion,
they arrived here with Napoleon,
the French.
-With Napoleon, right.
-Yeah, that was Regno d'Italia.
It was the-- the kingdom run
by the-- by Napoleon in Italy.
And, um, it's quite easy to spot
this is very similar to crepes.
-[Stanley] Sure, yeah.
-And then--
-[Stanley] What is it made with?
-It's like a crepe
but instead of butter,
there's-- there's olive oil.
-Uh-huh.
-And instead of milk, there's--
-there's water, so it's lighter.
-Okay.
That's why they come out so thin.
[Stanley] Yeah, they're very
delicate, yeah, right.
[Danilo]
But I like to say better than crepes.
Of course.
You can say that, it's alright, go ahead.
So, one of the reasons that
I wanted to do this story
was because my family
makes this-- what we call timpano.
It's round, it has a dough on the outside,
almost like a pizza dough
kind of like, ish, thing.
Inside is, um, pasta,
and meatballs, and salami, and then baked.
-Baked.
-And then, like with this
-Flipped over.
-Flipped.
[Danilo] That sounds like a lot of work.
[sputtering] It was days of work.
It's egg wash with milk.
By putting a little bit of egg wash
in the middle of each layer,
it serves the same purpose
as a bit of a soufflé effect.
-Oh, I see.
-So, every-- every layer
will rise a little bit
-because of it.
-Ah.
Yes, it is sort of French, isn't it?
You can see the influence.
We just don't want to tell the French.
No, no, no, no,
don't ever tell the French anything.
[Danilo] Many places of Italy,
we share the concept
of mini meatballs.
Everybody says spaghetti meatballs
is not an Italian dish, it's an American.
-But actually, no.
-Yeah.
[Danilo] It stems from,
uh, something that we do.
Well, in America,
everything did get bigger,
and saucier, and meatier, and--
because there was more.
You had so much meat,
you had a lot of bread,
you had a lot of wheat, so everything
became bigger,
and that's why Italian-American cuisine
is so distinctly different
from Italian cuisine.
How many layers are in here?
Top of the tray,
or we finish the ingredients.
-Yeah.
-Depends.
-[laughing]
-Then-- then you stop.
This is a case when we stop
because we reach the top.
[Stanley] [chuckles] Yes, I see that.
We can make another one, but maybe later--
-later tonight.
-Well, it's a bit--
the show's not that long, I'm afraid.
[Stanley] The crew is incredibly grateful,
as this timballo is destined
to become their lunch.
But first, it must cook, then rest,
a process that takes
just shy of two hours,
whereas Lucia made
this timballo earlier today.
It's now ready to serve,
but not before a moment of pure suspense.
A little bit. Yeah, I must say.
[Lucia laughing]
We're about to flip this.
The moment of truth. Ready, steady?
Yes.
-[Danilo] Ole.
-[Lucia] It's okay.
-Don't just say it's okay.
-Ahh, yeah!
-No?
-Ohh!
It's more than okay.
-Yeah.
-[laughter]
-That's great.
-[sniffing]
Here we go. The timballo is ready.
-[Stanley] The heavy timballo.
-[Danilo] It's a heavy timballo.
But I didn't drop it.
[Stanley] Danilo's wife, Gaia,
daughter Mia, and father Pietro
join us at the table.
Papa.
-She doesn't like timballo?
-[Danilo] No.
-No? Alright.
-[Danilo] Not much, yet.
-Yet.
-[Danilo] Shall I slice?
Oh, yeah.
-Okay, here we go.
-[laughing]
-[Gaia] I'm sorry.
-[Danilo] Here we go!
[Stanley] Eh
-That's for you.
-Oh! Grazie.
-That's a big one.
-That's huge, yes, thank you.
[Danilo] That's the half portion here.
[laughing]
[family chattering in Italian]
Wow.
[Stanley] Whoa. This is incredible.
The butter and tomato
together is so sweet.
-This is delicious.
-[Gaia] Mm.
[Stanley] Delicious.
Si.
[Stanley] That Senarica
could only be reached by foot
until the mid-1960s
is not unusual in this region.
She's eating it! She's eating it! Wow!
New influences don't
easily reach cut-off places,
but perhaps that increases
their impact when they do.
That is amazing.
I'm-- I'm serious.
But what might be the purest form
of Abruzzesi cuisine?
[laughing]
For that, I'm heading somewhere
even more sparsely populated.
[light music playing]
[birdsong]
[light music playing]
[Stanley] Senarica sits at the edge
of the region's largest
National Park, Gran Sasso.
The expansive landscape
is dominated by Corno Grande,
the highest peak in the Apennines.
It doesn't look like Italy.
It's a very, very unusual, uh,
landscape, beautiful landscape.
It's vast and peaceful.
[wind whispering]
[motorcycle revving loudly]
Save for the hordes
of motorcycle enthusiasts,
drawn here by the views
and an iconic barbecue joint
called Ristoro Mucciante.
-[people chattering]
-[dog barking]
Stanley.
[jazz music playing]
[Stanley] I'm here to meet
food and motor journalist
Cristina Bachetti.
She says this is the place to experience
Abruzzo's ultimate
culinary rite of passage.
[people chattering]
-Hi, Cristina.
-Stanley.
Panorama, si, si.
[Stanley]
This is and always has been sheep country.
For centuries, these elevated plains
were home to a custom
known as the transumanza,
where shepherds based down in Puglia
would drive their flocks over
150 miles north to graze here.
The less fortunate animals
became arrosticini.
Si.
[Stanley] Arrosticini are simply skewers
of cubed mutton.
The shepherds' tradition
of grilling the meat
in the open air continues to this day.
-[Rodolfo] Si.
-[Stanley] Oh, wow.
I know, I know.
[Stanley] In the 17th century,
over 4 million sheep
summered on this lush mountain plateau.
Used for meat, milk, and wool,
they generated huge wealth for this area.
Oh, yeah.
[Cristina chuckles]
♪♪
-[Stanley] Cheers.
-Cheers.
-Cheers.
-[Cristina] Cheers.
[Stanley] This is so good. Everything.
Super.
Si?
-Delicious
-[Stanley] Delicious.
Delicious. [chuckles]
♪♪
No!
-No!
-Si. [chuckles]
Cin cin.
[Stanley] Such rustic food,
forged from Abruzzo's shepherding roots,
seems appropriate fuel in this vast,
unchanged landscape.
Yet this region doesn't always lend itself
to preserving traditions.
[birdsong]
[Stanley] Located at the bottom
of dramatic slopes
in a lush valley, Villa San Sebastiano
is found at the westernmost
edge of Abruzzo,
and is known for
a tragic natural disaster.
[somber music playing]
On September 5th, 1955,
a landslide wiped away the village.
Four were killed,
dozens more were injured.
The villagers had two options.
They had to decide
whether to leave or to rebuild.
They chose the latter.
Starting with the church.
Then, the next most important thing.
[people chattering]
The communal bread oven
that had fed them for centuries.
Chef Lucia Tellone looks after it today.
-everything revolved around bread.
-This place?
[Stanley] This place helped
to rebuild the community
after the landslide,
but gradually, convenience culture
meant that those traditional
methods fell out of favor.
Eventually, the bread oven closed,
taking the social heart
of the village with it,
until Lucia came along.
Okay.
[Stanley laughing]
[Stanley]
Lucia resolved to teach the village
to bake again, and it turns out
that the children are her best students.
Si.
[birdsong]
[laughing]
[Stanley] They don't just bake bread.
This local ancient grain
also gets made into pan pizzas.
[child sneezing]
-[child speaking Italian]
-[Stanley laughing]
[light music playing]
[Stanley] Lucia lights
the bread oven once a week,
on a Saturday, and the community
gathers to cook and share lunch.
Okay.
[Stanley] Whoa.
-Mm!
-[Lucia] Okay.
-[child] Yes!
-[Stanley] Mm-hmm, si.
[laughing]
[Stanley] The bread oven
feels as relevant now as ever,
providing warmth, nourishment,
and community to the locals.
But the food that has really
put Abruzzo on the world map
isn't a staple, it's an indulgence.
[light music playing]
[Stanley]
Though isolated, sugar and spices
were brought to Abruzzo
by the trade routes
that connected Italy to Asia.
Years ago, the town of Sulmona
was an important stop on the spice trail,
being strategically located
between the port of Pescara and Rome.
[whimsical music playing]
The people of this remote provincial town
met this influx of luxurious
produce with real flair
creating what are probably
Europe's first ever candies
sugar-coated almonds.
Known as confetti.
Established in 1783,
Confetti Pelino is an institution.
[door bell jingles]
Today, seventh generation
candy magnate Mario Pelino
is giving me a tour of the factory.
-This hasn't changed.
-Hasn't changed?
It hasn't changed.
-Nothing changes. Nothing.
-Si. Nothing--
-[laughing]
-Nothing changes.
[whimsical music playing]
[Stanley] Almonds once grew profusely
in the hills surrounding the town.
The original confetti were made
of these almonds.
They were toasted
and then covered in a sugar shell.
They're being made in the factory today
in a process little altered
since the 18th century.
-We are inside the hall.
-Mm-hmm?
That is the beginning of the process.
-Okay.
-Where they do the peeling
-of the almonds
-Uh-huh?
the roasting of the almonds,
and the selection of the almonds.
So, they go through them by hand?
They do everything by hand, yes.
It's not really industrialized.
-[Stanley] Can we taste?
-[Mario] Yes, yes.
-It's-- it's hot.
-Tell me.
-It's hot.
-It's hot.
Oh, I see, it's steaming.
-Mm. Oh, yeah.
-Questi sono buoni.
-Very nice.
-Very good, they are very good.
This is the row of the copper machines
installed by my great-grandfather.
This is the beginning of the history
of the Alfonso Pelino factory.
[Stanley]
Sugar panning is the technical term
for what happens in these
beautiful old machines.
[Mario]
That is a thick solution of sugar.
75% of sucrose and 25% of water.
She puts about five spoons
-of, uh, solution.
-Right.
And those inside are the almonds.
[Stanley] The sugar solution
is repeatedly ladled
onto the tumbling almonds over
the course of a couple of days,
slowly building up the shell
one thin layer at a time.
It's at this point a vast array
of different flavors
can be added, including the exotic spices
that were passing through here
once upon a time.
That is lemon, I think, the lemon.
Lemon?
What I'm gonna show you now
is the copper pan
that is producing the cinnamon candy.
It is a very old product,
because as you know,
the cinnamon
-was an important spice.
-Yeah.
-Imported from the Middle East.
-Right, yeah.
[Mario] Okay?
-You taste the cinnamon?
-Oh, it's delicate.
I like that.
[Stanley] These little candies
are an inescapable part
of being Italian.
In the workshop, they're crafted
into bouquets and trinkets,
which appear at almost every celebration
across the country.
So, I will introduce you now to Marina.
-Mm-hmm.
-Because she's the person
-in charge.
-Oh, Stanley!
[Stanley] How many do you make a day?
[Stanley] They're so beautiful.
And then, do people--
people give them as gifts?
-[Mario] They give it as a gift.
-[Stanley] Yeah.
-They take it as a souvenir.
-Yeah.
Because they're made only
in Sulmona, no other place.
-Nobody else makes them.
-Nobody else make it.
[Stanley] They're used for weddings,
'cause I know
-these are always used
-They are used for weddings.
-for Italian weddings.
-Yes, they are used for.
-In America too, when you're
-In America.
In America, always you-- when
you go to an Italian wedding
-Yes.
-you always get the little.
[Mario] Bomboniera, a favor, a favor.
[Stanley] Yeah, a favor, yeah.
Confetti over there means
totally something different.
-Confetti's
-This is what they throw.
-It's what you throw.
-But you know why?
-Why?
-Because they came here,
they saw the confetti in different colors,
thrown out of the church
in the-- in the ceremonies.
-Oh, really?
-At the weddings, they used
-to throw the confetti.
-You mean, the-- the candies?
-Yes, outside.
-Oh, that's why
-it's called confetti?
-Yeah.
That's why it's called confetti.
I always wondered
why it was an Italian word.
That's the reason. The reason.
-You see how fast she is?
-[laughing]
-Si?
-You're like a magician.
Being a father to young children,
returning home empty-handed
from a visit to a candy factory
is not an option.
Thankfully, the store stocks upward
of 50 different flavors,
from cappuccino to champagne,
in a bemusing array of shapes,
sizes, and colors.
[Stanley]
Delicate little treats like confetti
are the last product you'd expect
to come out of this wild region.
Generally, Abruzzo has a reputation
for being tough to live in,
due to its very rugged landscape.
Its craggy Adriatic coast
being no exception.
♪♪
[Stanley] Head east of Sulmona,
go as far as you can,
and you hit a 24-mile stretch
of treacherous shoreline
punctuated by jagged rocks.
This is known as the Trabocchi Coast
because of these distinctive
wooden fishing platforms,
that use a complex system of winches
to hoist fishing nets up and down.
[Stanley]
Chef Gianluca Di Bucchianico
runs a restaurant
on one of these trabocchi
and he has agreed to show me
the ropes, quite literally.
[Stanley] The product of desperation,
these amazing platforms were built
by peasants facing famine,
a last-ditch attempt
to pull what protein
they could from the sea.
A history that's reflected
in Gianluca's menu.
Okay. [laughing]
[Stanley] The torcinello, or mutton offal,
is served with prawns,
a little liquid from their roe,
and a reduction of the region's
eminent red wine,
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.
[Stanley] Wow.
-Bonne Appetit.
-Come here.
Who's got that--
give me that-- get over here.
You got it? I want to eat this right here.
Oh, man. Oh, man!
Who would put lamb intestines--
I know it sounds gross
coupled with shrimp and two different--
like an emulsification of--
oh, [bleep], sorry.
[Stanley] The second antipasto
is a pancotto, or bread soup,
inspired by Gianluca's ancestors.
-Bonne Appetit, Stanley.
-[both laughing]
Bravo.
-[speaking Italian]
-That's amazing.
That's amazing.
-The old bread, stale bread.
-Okay.
Si.
Si.
[Stanley] With his restaurant
not yet open for service,
Gianluca is going to join me
at the table for some pasta.
A simple spaghetti with olive oil,
garlic, and sweet chili pepper,
elevated by the addition
of lobster extract.
It's pretty here, isn't it?
No.
Bonne Appetit.
Oh, wow.
[both laughing]
[Stanley]
Trabocchi are incredible inventions,
part madness, part genius,
not unlike serving shrimp with mutton.
This ingenuity defines
the Abruzzesi spirit,
and there's further proof of it
out in the wildest pocket
of this region.
[Stanley] Like many other
villages across Abruzzo,
the hamlet of Castrovalva
has been hit hard
by population decline.
It sits surrounded by mountains,
a long journey inland from the coast.
I'm heading up above the village
with Chef Davide Nanni.
[jeep rumbling]
[sputtering] Yeah.
Beautiful.
Si. Si.
[gentle music playing]
[Stanley] Davide is going to make
the defining dish of his childhood.
[Stanley] A recipe that evokes
Abruzzo perhaps like no other,
pecora al cotturo, or mutton stew.
[Davide] Okay.
[Stanley] Despite its natural beauty,
the population has long been in freefall.
[water fountain babbling]
The economy was left in tatters
by the Second World War.
That, combined with
the challenging topography
and a series of devastating earthquakes
prompted many to leave.
[Stanley] Davide emigrated from here
like many before him,
but he's back permanently.
[Stanley]
Oh, look at that. Mm.
[Davide] Okay.
Thank you.
Wow.
-Yeah. Really, yeah.
-[chuckles]
[Stanley] After simmering
for about an hour and a half,
the mutton stew is ready.
Beautiful.
Ah, yeah. Si.
[plane engine rumbling]
Mm.
[Stanley] It's amazing.
[Stanley] No, no. It's okay.
-Si. Cheers.
-Cheers.
[gentle music playing]
[Stanley] All throughout Italy
I've met so many people
who emigrate only to return.
Like Davide, they're drawn back
by Italy's unparalleled food culture,
and compelled to write its next chapter.
I can understand the appeal
that Abruzzo has.
Isolated from external influences
by its uncompromising geography,
and a cuisine that is robust and pure.
♪♪