[Gregorian chanting]
[bell dings]
Let's taste together this year's selection
of Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG,
produced by our chosen brother.
[cork pops]
[whispering] I'm here with the confraternity
of Valdobbiadene,
and they are pouring this year's prosecco.
But it's much more complicated than that.
This is a ceremony to honor and protect the purity
of the famous sparkling wine which originated here.
They're nominating the finest of the season
against which all others will be measured.
So, yes, it's prosecco but not as we might know it.
This is how seriously they take their produce here, in Veneto.
[bell tolling]
It's fair to say Veneto trades on its past.
Once the center of a powerful empire,
today it's the most visited region in all of Italy.
♪♪
It sits in the northeastern corner of the country,
sandwiched between the Dolomite mountains and the Adriatic Sea.
Its greatest attraction, of course,
is the glittering city of Venice.
A living monument to the region's rich history.
But I'm heading beyond the famous lagoon,
following these waterways inland,
to discover what else this region has to offer.
So this area,
it really is amazing, like, how completely flat it is.
It's beautiful and really fertile.
And they can grow a lot of stuff here in the traditional ways.
Which is great because in the end,
if we lose all that, everything ends up...
being of lesser quality,
and everything ends up tasting the same.
These flatlands have for centuries provided the perfect growing conditions
for one of Veneto's most famous products,
radicchio.
In order to grow, it requires huge amounts of water.
There's no shortage of that around here
thanks to the many rivers that flow through the area.
My first stop is on the Sìle in Treviso.
[both speaking Italian]
-Welcome. -Thank you, it's a pleasure.
[Stanley] I'm meeting Stefano Dotto,
the fifth generation of a farming family
who were among the first to cultivate
an intriguing Veneto delicacy
discovered almost by chance.
The now famous red chicory, radicchio tardivo.
Our grandparents tell us that 100 years ago the radicchio
was a wild chicory that grew in the Treviso countryside.
Over the winter, they harvested those chicories from the fields,
and they realized that by storing them in the stable,
instead of deteriorating or rotting, like other vegetables,
a new heart started to grow.
[Stanley] Ah.
And it became tastier, sweeter, red and crunchy.
Here, we'll pick up a radicchio...
It's just starting, here it is,
-slowly, slowly. -Oh, that there.
That there, it's starting to grow.
[Stanley] Ah, that's what you want.
Yes. In the field, remember, that doesn't exist,
only the surrounding leaves grow,
but the tasty, crunchy, red and white heart which we eat
grows here.
[Stanley] Having learned how to create this surprising ingredient,
the next challenge was to supply a growing market.
Over time, as the product became more popular,
Treviso, Italy and then the whole world was asking for it.
So slowly in the '70s, '80s, '90s,
it was discovered that the other resource in the area of Treviso,
which is water,
would make the chicories grow in the same way.
So, they've introduced this process of forcing and blanching,
inside the spring water tanks.
[Stanley] Growing the crops in these tanks,
mainly in darkness, replicates and improves upon the stables
where the process was first discovered.
Perfecting the conditions needed to bring forth the new growth.
And how long does it sit in water?
It stays in the water for a period that is not decided by us growers
or anyone else.
It's the radicchio that decides how long it will stay.
That's nature's way.
The radicchio makes up its own mind.
-Yes, of course. -Yeah, yeah.
[Stanley] The radicchio usually feels it's ready
after two or three weeks, and then,
the carefully curated process to get it
to the table can begin.
We see that from the radicchio harvested in the field,
that weighs up to one kilo,
we end up with a small heart of 300 grams.
Basically, the leaves are removed from one chicory at a time.
It's then passed onto a second operator,
who peels the root with a small special knife.
It's so much work.
-It's a lot of work. -A lot of work.
In the world of chicory,
this surely is the one that's most expensive, for sure.
Because it's the one that requires the most processing,
but it's also the tastiest.
-It's expensive? -Not as much as it should be.
[both laugh]
You could do many things with that.
Anything.
A risotto...
With risotto for a first course,
with meat as a second course.
Imagine, we even make a dessert,
or, even, the chicory amaro and the chicory grappa.
-Really? -Yes, really.
That's a beautiful radicchio, it's ready.
Yeah, beautiful.
And we can taste it.
So crispy.
That's delicious.
Slightly bitter, slightly sweet.
The right balance between sweet and bitter.
-Cheers. -Cheers.
That's delicious.
Meticulously raised in accordance with age-old methods,
this versatile radicchio can be perfectly paired
with Veneto's other water-reliant crop, rice.
Some of the very best is grown just south of Verona
in the River Po valley.
Near the town of Isola della Scala.
Food writer Valeria Necchio is a passionate advocate
for this area's culinary history.
I try to use food as a window
into bigger conversations about landscape
and, and traditions and also memory.
When I write about food, I write about my experience,
my grandparents, family,
but also that becomes sort of like a conversation
on other things about Veneto.
[Stanley] We're going to the oldest working rice mill in Italy.
Have you been to this place before?
I actually have, yeah, I was here when I was little.
[Stanley] It mills the short grained Vialone Nano variety,
which is ideal for making risotto.
How often do you eat risotto?
Um, probably I make it once a week.
-Yeah. -I like to try
different flavors, especially seasonal vegetables.
Yeah, I make it probably about once a week.
-I love it. -It's a very nice ritual,
it's very meditative in a way.
Yeah, it is! It is.
Like polenta but more interesting.
-More interesting, exactly. -[both laugh]
[Stanley] Gabriele Ferron keeps this piece of food history running.
It's an old mill,
still functioning today...
...it's like a poem.
OK? Please.
This is the original bit.
So, these are the old machines,
-from back in the day. -When was this built?
1650.
Incredible. But it's incredible.
There's nothing here
that is industrial
or electric.
-Well, how ingenious. -Yeah.
[Gabriele] Sì.
Because, in a modern rice mill,
you push a button,
and everything starts.
But the poetry we have here...
Ah, it's fantastic.
Mamma Mia!
-And is this moved by water? -All of it with water
from a waterfall
and then with all these machines,
these gears,
to make it faster.
[Stanley] It's a satisfyingly analogue process.
A stream running under the mill turns the waterwheel,
which drives the cogs,
lifts the beam, and drops the pestle.
Smashing off the tough outer shell of the rice
and leaving behind edible cream-colored grains.
The process is done in this way,
and this pestle
does not hit the bottom of the bowl.
They calculated
that it needs to stop at 27 mm,
because otherwise it would crush the grain of rice.
It's amazing.
For how long does it have to...?
This one here, this process,
it's six, seven hours.
-After six hours, -Yes.
what happens?
We put the pestle aside, like this,
and with the scoop we remove the rice.
And we sift it through these sieves.
-If you want, we can do it. -Yes.
-I wondered what that stick was for. -Yeah, right?
One.
And two...
Okay?
Maurizio, come.
Now, I'm sifting,
and all of the flour falls on the floor.
It looks like it's raining, snowing.
Okay?
-Whoop. -[Valeria] Wow.
-It's like a circus. -Yes.
I would have lost the whole thing.
Would have dropped them on the floor.
-I'm glad we didn't do it. -Exactly.
[laughs]
So, the ones that fall...
These are waste.
Waste that is used later
[Stanley] It's the waste.
for animals.
[Stanley] Ah!
[Stanley] The first sieve has a fine mesh
that lets through the dusty byproduct created by the pestle.
After all the acrobatics,
the second sieve's coarser mesh
filters out the husks and broken grains.
And now this one is done?
That one is finished, yes.
That one's ready to be cooked.
Now we'll make you another one.
[Stanley] Sì.
Where did you learn this from?
First, my dad -
and before that, my grandpa.
Grandpa, yes.
Sì.
We've been here for five generations.
-Five? -Five generations.
Now with my grandchildren.
My grandchildren are the fifth generation.
[Stanley] Across those generations, little has changed.
An hour's work only yields around three kilos of rice,
but efficiency is not the point here.
Why do you make rice in such a way?
With this old method?
First of all, it's a historical tradition.
An old tradition.
And we carry it in our hearts.
[Stanley] Sì.
It's our passion.
It's like the guy who still makes handcrafted furniture.
Because he brings the thing to life
he can feel it.
It's more effort, but...
it's something inside of you.
So, does this rice make a better risotto for you?
Yes, way more tasty.
It's different.
This one is tastier, fuller,
it gives you more satisfaction when you chew it.
When you eat it,
it fills your palate,
it's something sublime.
-I'm very excited. -Yeah.
Now we're going to cook with it.
Yeah. I'm really, really interested
in seeing how that comes out.
-[Stanley] Yeah, yeah. -Because I've never tried
-this one before. -No, you haven't?
No, not the Pila, not theirs.
Should we wrap it?
I'll take it all.
Right, we're taking it like this - thanks, thanks.
[Stanley] There is no doubting the passion and dedication
that Gabriele and his family put into producing this rice.
-[Valeria chuckles] -[glasses clink]
[Stanley] Valeria and I are making a renowned regional risotto.
We're going to make the Amarone risotto.
Amarone being this very dense, deeply colorful wine.
Yeah, look at the color of that thing.
-Yeah. -Almost impenetrable in color
so it's not transparent at all,
and that gives a lot of color to the risotto.
[Stanley] The wine will be complemented by the nuttiness of the rice
and the sweetness of the tardivo.
Did you grow up with a, with a real food family?
Like, my grandmothers more than my mum.
Lots of rice dishes actually.
Grandma had, like, three or four risottos
that she would jiggle.
-[beeps] -Uh-oh.
[Valeria laughs]
Oh, now the stove's freaking out.
I mean, you never know, they're so temperamental,
-you know, if you don't know. -I know.
You, you... Do you have induction at home?
-I have both. -Okay.
Because I'm, you know, incredibly famous.
[laughs]
[Valeria] So we'll fry the cipolle.
We will toast the rice on its own
with just a little bit of olive oil.
[Stanley] What do you want me to do?
Like, cut it into small chunks like this.
-Okay. -Okay.
[Stanley] This simple recipe highlights
some of the best ingredients Veneto has to offer.
[Valeria] The interesting thing is that
it's a very diverse region in terms of landscape.
-So you have the Po valley. -Mm-hmm.
[Valeria] Of course, the beautiful mountains,
very different from Venice, obviously,
which is on the water.
-Yeah. -So it's very, very diverse.
Um, but somehow managed to unite under, uh,
this, like, sort of, like, unifying culture.
-Like, the region is so rich... -[Stanley] Yeah.
[Valeria] ...in terms of traditions.
-[Stanley] Yeah. -[Valeria] Yeah.
-Okay, so we here. -So tell me, okay.
This is really interesting this rice because of the color.
You know, usually when you get risotto rice,
-it's so white. -Mm-hmm.
Probably through really harsh
industrial husk-removing systems,
then you end up with, like,
the completely peeled back kernel.
Yeah, yeah.
'Cause that looks like barley or something practically.
Sì. Yeah, and you see some,
some green ones, like it really looks alive.
Okay, so the moment this gets hot, we can add the radicchio.
-Add that. -Exactly.
You can smell the toasty notes of the rice.
At one point,
the rice will start hissing a little bit,
you hear it go shhh.
That's when it's ready to welcome
whatever liquid we're gonna add.
-[Stanley] Yeah. -So we'll add the wine.
-Mm-hmm. -[liquid sizzling]
-We'll let that evaporate. -[Stanley] Right.
[Valeria] And the Vialone Nano,
like any historical variety of Italian rice,
-will absorb flavor and color. -Mm-hmm.
-And, uh,
will start puffing up and release starch,
and that's how rice like this becomes risotto.
-[Stanley] Mm-hmm. -So, it's the time
to add the radicchio to the lovely rice,
and then we'll stir.
Look at that beautiful color.
-[Stanley] Yeah. Gorgeous. -It's like so, so nice. Um...
And what stock are you using?
[Valeria] Vegetable stock.
I've made it with carrots, onions,
celery, and a leek.
-And a leek? -Yeah.
[Stanley] Great, it really gives it a nice flavor, yeah.
[Valeria] Mm-hmm. So we'll start
with a couple of ladleful of stock.
From now on, it's like a classic risotto, so...
-Yeah. -Add a little bit of stock,
let it absorb, stir, chat.
[both laugh]
Yeah.
[Valeria] Okay, we'll let these absorb,
and then we'll add the butter.
And the butter has to be cold.
That's right. You want the thermic shock.
[laughs]
-[Stanley] Thermic shock. -[Valeria] Thermic shock.
Sounds like something you do in Iceland.
Yeah, like after a sauna.
[Stanley] Yeah.
-And you turn the heat off? -Yes.
You have to move it kind of quickly.
-Mm-hmm. -And the spoon
with a hole helps so you don't crush it
and at the same time, you create a vortex.
That sort of helps the starch and the fat come together.
So then we add a little cheese.
And here you have it.
[Stanley] Look at the color of that.
[Valeria] Yeah.
-[speaks Italian] -Grazie.
Oh, it's really, really nutty.
[Stanley] Isn't it?
-And very different... -[Valeria] Yeah.
...than the Vialone Nano that I'm used to.
-Yeah, yeah. -You too?
Interesting bite.
-Yeah, absolutely. -Yeah.
-But more like a wholegrain... -Yeah.
It's like a barley or a farro.
[Valeria] Mm-hmm.
I like it.
Hundreds of years of tradition can be tasted in this dish.
But sometimes, preserving a recipe and its history
can lead to controversy.
♪♪
[Stanley] I'm in Treviso,
home to what is arguably Italy's most famous dessert.
Tiramisu.
It's become a world-renowned dish.
It's the most well-known Italian word after pizza.
Yes?
[Stanley] But Tiramisu's origins are fiercely contested.
With many suggesting that its name,
which translates as "pick me up,"
originated in the city's red light district.
Something restaurateur Carlo Campeol has strong opinions about.
There's a frequent mistake
which comes from an incorrect interpretation.
So, I'd like to clarify once and for all,
that the famous restorative dessert that used to be served in brothels
isn't tiramisu - it was sbatudin.
Ah.
It was made with egg yolk
beaten together with sugar.
Sì.
So, that's sbatudin.
Tiramisu was created in the 1970s in Le Beccherie
when my mother and a young cook who worked with her
had the idea of combining sbatudin and mascarpone.
This is then put on top of sponge fingers dipped in coffee
then covered with unsweetened cocoa.
[Stanley] But the controversy doesn't end there.
A neighboring town also refutes Carlo's story.
There are people who think that it's from Friuli.
[Carlo chuckles]
Tiramisu is a triumph,
and everyone wants to lay a claim to it
and say that it's theirs.
There's only one simple story behind it:
it was conceived in Le Beccherie in the 1970s -
that's that.
[Stanley] I think we're all clear on that now.
What was Carlo's family restaurant,
Le Beccherie, is now a shrine to Tiramisu.
Manuel Gobbo keeps the traditional recipe alive.
Let's first understand what the ingredients are.
We've got sugar,
sponge fingers, mascarpone,
cocoa powder, egg yolk,
and coffee.
The right coffee for tiramisu is coffee from a moka.
And this is the original recipe?
Yes, the original, as it was done once upon a time.
[stand mixer whirring]
-Where are you from? -I'm from Treviso.
For people here, tiramisu is something families make.
All housewives make it.
In fact, it's hard to make it well,
because everyone has a memory of how their mother made tiramisu.
People will say, "It's good, but it's not my mother's."
It comes down to nostalgia.
Cooking triumphs when it taps into nostalgia.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In Manuel's kitchen, it's tapping into that sense of nostalgia,
while paying close attention to the original recipe,
that he believes makes this dessert perfect.
Eggs and sugar should be beaten very well.
I will show you.
See?
Creamy.
Very creamy.
Now, let's add the mascarpone.
There isn't any sugar...
in the mascarpone?
No, there isn't any sugar.
Actually, mascarpone tends to be acidic,
and it is very important for the balance of the dessert.
Okay.
Then we have to continue beating the mascarpone
it still needs to absorb air
until it reaches a consistency which is soft, but compact.
And let's start.
We will make a thin layer
with very little cream at the bottom.
Then we'll start putting the ladyfingers.
[Stanley] The dessert's signature flavor comes from coffee-soaked sponge fingers.
Let's proceed with the first layer of cream.
Let's spread it.
And you don't add alcohol?
-No. -No.
The original tiramisu only has six elements, and they are these ones.
You are an artist.
Really.
Almost a bricklayer.
[both laugh]
The tiramisu, as is, is ready.
The other very important thing, cocoa.
We will add it only right before eating.
This is because the cocoa gets too wet otherwise,
and it creates an unpleasant layer.
I understand.
Let's prepare the dish.
[Stanley] Okay.
-Shall we eat together? -I'd say yes.
So...
Guests first.
[Stanley] Okay.
Wow.
Is it good?
Yeah. It's... It's...
-It's very buono. -[laughs]
That is perfect.
-Eat! -Me too?
-Yeah. -Okay.
How is it?
I'm quite good at it.
[both laugh]
[Stanley] Doing things the right way is important here.
And that's been put to surprising use at my next stop.
♪♪
[Stanley] Around Easter time,
the cake shops are full of traditional sweet treats.
Some of the most tempting can be found here
in the ancient city of Padua,
which sits south west of Venice.
But these artisanal delights come from a surprising location.
-[door clangs] -[alarm ringing]
Due Palazzi is a high security facility,
housing criminals who have committed serious crimes.
It has over 550 long-term inmates.
The prison is home to the Giotto project,
run by Matteo Marchetto.
We started 20 years ago
only with one pastry chef and three prisoners
but since the beginning
our fundamental creed, our fundamental principle,
is the one written there.
"Fatti non foste a viver come bruti."
[Stanley] It means, "You were not made to live like brutes.”
It means that you are not only your mistakes.
Think about the pride for a person that thinks they don't have a future
and instead they discover that, "Maybe I can do something with my life."
[♪ pleasant music playing]
[Stanley] In the bakery,
prisoners work under the supervision
of master baker Ascanio Brozzetti.
-Hi. -A pleasure.
The pleasure is mine.
What is this?
"Colomba."
Oh, "the doves".
It is a traditional dessert that is made for Easter.
Every day we make around 700 doves. It depends.
-700? -Yeah.
It rises a lot, like panettone.
It is made with two doughs.
One evening dough, where you put yeast, egg yolk, sugar, flour,
and it is left to ferment for one night.
The morning after, you use the same dough,
and you add sugar, flour, egg yolks again.
Since it is a very rich dough,
very rich in butter, in yolk,
I can smell it, yeah! Yeah, yeah.
of course,
it needs to be made in more than one step.
[Stanley] Keeping this rich dough light and fluffy
is notoriously tricky.
It's so heavy it needs to be suspended upside down when first baked.
But you can see the handcraft of the product.
Sì. Sì, sì.
And this is the sense of the message we want to give outside,
that we can make good things
in an artisanal way.
It is a great opportunity for the guys.
[Stanley] There was a time customers reportedly spat out the bakery produce
on discovering its origins.
Now, it's more fairly judged on the quality of the confectionery
and not on the bakers' confinement.
Oh, it spins.
What do you think about this program?
-Oh, the program is nice. -It's good?
Because it can make me pass my time in the jail,
and it's good for me to have, to work here
so I have some knowledge, something to think about to do.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. -In the future,
because, you know, I'd like to work again,
-you know. -Yeah.
Thank you.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you very much.
[Stanley] The results of this project speak for themselves.
See that 80% of detained people,
once detention is finished,
they commit another crime and get back inside.
While those who work with us,
who follow a re-education path,
only reoffend less than 10% of the time.
And it is a huge difference, it is an amazing result.
♪♪
-That is Giovanni. -Giovanni.
-One of our guys. -Hi.
How long have you been here, in jail?
-Six years. -Six years?
And do you like doing this? Is it better to do this job?
Of course. It means being free.
-It means being free. -Yeah. Yes.
When you get out, what do you want to do?
Well, something in cooking.
Did you ever do this before?
Never patisserie.
How old are you?
-28. -28.
You're a young man.
[chuckles] Sì.
[Stanley] It's heartening to see a new purpose
for traditional Venetian recipes.
But is there also a place in Veneto
for reimagining some of those recipes?
♪♪
[Stanley] Verona is the largest city of the region
and full of reminders of Veneto's glorious past.
It's just an hour inland from Venice
and predates its neighbor by hundreds of years.
Yet, these ancient streets are home
to one of the region's most innovative restaurants.
Chiara?
Good morning.
-Good morning. Stanley. -Chiara, nice to meet you.
My pleasure.
[Stanley] The restaurant was previously struggling,
but its owners brought in young Roman chef
Chiara Pannozzo to shake things up.
The Dalfini family
trusted me
to create a cuisine tied to meat, but that is creative.
I'm always revolutionizing, changing or studying.
We like to create cuisine packed with flavor
beyond tradition or not.
[Stanley] Chiara is going to make her unique version
of a Venetian classic
and a dish that's one of my favorites,
Pasta e Fagioli.
I love...
pasta with beans.
I eat it every week.
So, we'll try to make my own version.
With a white tripe ragù.
Okay.
So we have fun experimenting with various doughs --
today we tried to flavor a fresh egg pasta
with what typically goes inside
a classic pasta and beans.
So, we have rosemary, sage, bay leaves.
Uffa.
We dry them, we roast them
and then we mix them inside the dough.
-In the pasta? -Exactly.
[Stanley] The restaurant is owned by a butcher dynasty
and is still meat forward.
How is it here, in Verona?
Was it difficult for this restaurant?
Because you do things differently,
you do new things.
So, when I arrived in Verona,
a lot of people had told me that Verona was a difficult city,
because it's very linked to traditions,
a lot of tourists come here to eat traditional dishes.
We had to do it in such a way
that people would trust us.
Whoever came here would eat well.
We managed to win them over,
like you'd say in Italian.
These are black-eyed peas.
This is the base of our ragù
to which we will add both the black-eyed peas and the tripe.
-But is the tripe boiled already? -I boiled the tripe already.
Yes, it was boiled already
because the tripe arrives fresh.
We clean it,
we cook it in water and vinegar to remove all the impurities...
The quality is in its texture, its uniqueness on your tongue,
it contrasts with the pasta and beans, with the bean soup,
which is creamier.
I like that the different textures can be felt.
Yeah, a little, yeah, a little bite.
Those layers of texture and flavor continue to be developed
by the addition of a bean cream.
A mix of beans soaked, boiled in water, and blended.
I really want the flavor of the bean,
the creaminess of the bean.
Also, because I always try to recreate...
sweet and sour, umami,
I'm going to add the Spanish sauce.
-What is it? -It is basically a beef stock,
enriched with some prosciutto.
We add tomato concentrate,
we let it all reduce
and it results in this kind of sauce,
that's very concentrated.
Whoa!
Good, right?
Yeah, that's good. That's good.
So, we add a bit of it here,
to add flavor.
Do you want to taste it in the meantime?
Yes.
Thank you.
-Good? -So good.
-No, so good. -Thank you, thanks.
With tripe...
-Genius. -Thank you.
-No, for real. For real.
Thank you.
[whirring]
Let's plate it.
[Stanley] Oh, that smells so good.
Ragù on top,
made of beans and tripe.
-I want to do it like this. -Precisely, I plate it like this,
so when you get the dish you can play with it.
[fork clanks]
I love it.
I like tripe
and pasta with beans,
and together it is perfect.
Oh, man! This is a dish that I've had
ever since I was a kid, pasta fagioli.
There's so many different ways of making it.
I think this is just one of the most interesting ways I...
I've ever tasted it, and it's incredible.
Do you really like it?
-It's so good! -OK.
Aren't you sad that you're not eating it right now?
I'm moving to Verona!
Chiara is a very brave chef.
Updating classics handed down through generations
can be risky.
But there's one recipe from Verona which nobody would dare to update.
♪♪
[Stanley] Calm today, 1,500 years ago
this city was on the frontline of a brutal war.
The Battle of Verona left its mark here
and added an unexpected ingredient to its menus.
Something loved by residents today,
including a newcomer to the region.
I was very fortunate to meet my fiancé
because he has a very lovely mum
who taught me the traditional Veronan dishes.
[Stanley] Tracy Eboigbodin, who moved here from Nigeria,
is an award-winning chef.
-I, I love the flavor. -Yeah.
And many dishes reminds me of what I was used to back in Nigeria.
-Really? -Yes, because they made
-a lot of stews. -Yeah.
-And they eat a lot of cornmeal. -Right.
-Like, they've got polenta. -Polenta. Yeah.
Now I cook Nigerian food for my in-laws.
-For your in-laws? Yeah? -Yes, of course.
-Do they like it? -Yes, of course they do.
Because I said, I'm eating your food
so you have to taste my food, so I cooked something.
My mother-in-law came to me and,
and she was very worried and she said
"Oh, I don't know if you've ever eat snails, here we eat snails."
And I said, oh, man, I can't wait,
I just took out my phone, and I showed her
the snails I was used to eating in Nigeria
-and she say... -Really?
Oh, I think that evening
I gained a lot of respect and trust.
Perfect, you came to the right place.
-Of course I think so. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Yeah, that's good.
[Stanley] One of Tracy's mother-in-law's favorite recipes
is Pastissada de Caval,
a slow-cooked stew
made with the city's much loved horse meat.
-Hi, Carlo. -Welcome.
-Hi, Carlo. -So, what can I give you?
I guess you want to make the pastissada, right?
Yes, precisely, like you guessed.
[Stanley] Carlo Alberto is one of many horse butchers in Verona.
The consumption of horsemeat comes from a historical event.
Verona was a Crusades' battlefield in the past.
So the Veronese people got permission to eat horse meat,
because, starved by the war,
and with the dead animals lying on the battlefield,
they got the opportunity of cooking the meat.
Horsemeat is rich in iron,
so if you're a bit anemic
it will help you get your color back,
and you look prettier afterwards.
Tell me what your father did.
My dad used to breed fast, heavy draft horses.
So, horsemeat is a family tradition.
My dad was passionate about horses.
And horses were like children to him,
so my dad used to say,
"I like horses better when they're alive."
But, since it was a family business,
we had to eat the animals' meat,
because it would feed us.
Should I be generous so you can eat it the next day too?
-Yes, of course, yeah. -But what does "pastissada" mean?
Uh, pastissada means slowly cooked.
-It's like stew, slowly. -Oh, okay. Okay.
And so the meat's going to be...
-Just falls apart. -Exactly.
Thanks.
-Thank you, Stanley. -It was a pleasure.
Thanks, my pleasure.
Thanks, thanks.
As you can see, there are a few ingredients for this recipe.
In fact, normally, it takes like three days to prepare it,
because the first day you gotta do the onions, carrots
and everything, the wine.
-[Stanley] Yeah. -You got to cook it for an hour,
you put it in the fridge for a day, then the next day,
you cook it for two hours, you put it in the fridge.
-Really? -Yes. [laughs]
[Stanley] Luckily, this stove-top version doesn't take quite as long to prepare.
'Cause it's an ancient recipe, isn't it?
-[Tracey] Yeah, exactly. -And you're just
-roughly chopping stuff. -Yes, roughly
because everything's going to melt.
After seven days of cooking, yeah.
You can't find any-- any carrots in there.
Here, we have this tradition of,
you know, eating something different on Sunday.
Sunday is time to eat Pastissada.
Sì. It's interesting how many cultures around the world
-do exactly the same thing. -Are mostly the same.
-Yeah, -Back in Nigeria,
every Sunday we go to this church,
we put on our best clothes.
-Yeah. -It's a, it's a day
of feast, you know, you need to celebrate.
So it's the same thing I've found here.
Every Sunday, every family comes together,
and they drink the best wine.
-Right. -And you dress fine,
just to go to your mum to eat.
Right. It's nice, though. It's very Italian and, yeah.
Yeah, it's very Italian.
One of the most important things I've found here
it's, you know, this...
this strong bond between families.
-Family, it's everything. -Yeah.
Now I'm going to add my meat.
Pour on the wine.
-Okay. -Just, like, a glass,
glass and a half.
I wonder what it tasted like, you know,
when they first took those dead horses,
do you know what I mean, that were killed in battle.
That's why they used a lot of spices.
Yeah. To cover up the...
Because spice to cover up everything.
-We add the cinnamon. -[Stanley] Cloves?
[Tracey] Just like four of those.
And that's it because this is very strong.
Oh, I love this.
You know, I love the sound of, you know, the food as well.
-Chik-chik-chik-chik-chik... -Yeah.
-It's a sort of music. -[both laugh]
It is, it is!
Tracy's fiancé, Samuele, and his family are ready for lunch.
There you go.
[Stanley] Oh, my God.
Horsemeat stew.
Lovely smell.
[Tracey] First, for the guest.
-Really? -Yes. Of course.
A bit of polenta.
Yeah.
Pastissada.
-Here you go. -Thank you.
You're welcome.
Then the ladies.
[Stanley] So what was the first recipe
that she taught you?
The first recipe was gnocchi.
-It was gnocchi. -Gnocchi.
-Gnocchi. Homemade. -Yes.
[Stanley] So gnocchi was first?
[Tracey] Yes. The gnocchi was first.
But like every Italian mother, grandmother,
they have, uh...
Secrets.
-Oh. Secrets. -Right?
-Segreti. -Mm-hmm.
Has she given you all the secrets?
Yes, because she knows I, I know how to keep secrets,
-you know, so, I... -[all laugh]
-She learned the tricks. -The secrets.
-[Stanley] Yeah? -Yeah, she knows, yes...
-[Stanley] She trusts you. -[Tracey] Yes, exactly.
[Stanley] Oh, I have to try this.
Oh, man, I love it. That is delicious.
-This is beautiful. -Yes.
Who would make it? Mum, grandma?
-All of them? -Always.
-Now it's on Tracy to continue it. -Right.
Thanks.
How is she?
No, she's good.
She has learnt well. She pays attention,
Uh-huh.
Very... good.
-Does it come naturally for her? -Yes, yes. She does it naturally.
She's becoming better than the mother-in-law.
-Oooooh! -Yeah.
Well...
[Stanley] Tracy is the beneficiary
of a rich culinary inheritance.
But despite appearances,
this region isn't stuck in the past.
True, it clings fiercely to all that it does well,
but it's also open to progress and innovation.
In Veneto, you can enjoy the tastes of the past
while glimpsing what the future might hold.
♪♪