01x02 - Rome

[bunniefuu]

Well it's very exciting
to be back in Rome again.

At every turn there's something

of historical significance.

Look at that.

It's literally like you're
living inside a museum.

Even if you've
never been to Rome,

you've been to Rome.

Its stories have been told and
retold on stage and screen,

the city of toga's
and gladiators,

power and intrigue,
empire and ruin,

and of course La Dolce
Vita - the good life.

I'm Stanley Tucci.

I'm Italian on both sides and
I'm travelling across Italy

to discover how the food

in each of this
country's 20 regions

is as unique as the
people and their past...

The famous ancients of Rome
once ruled the world...

but I'm here to discover

how it's the food
of ordinary Romans

that has conquered our hearts.

But I'm going to warn you,

if you're on a low
carb diet beware...

you're going to see a lot
of pasta in this show.

I mean, like, a lot
of it. Like, a lot.

I'm sorry.

I've been visiting
Rome for decades.

Its beauty and history
still leave me breathless

but sometimes it's difficult
to find a good meal

if you don't know where to look.

Rome is situated in Lazio,

a region sometimes overlooked

in favour of its grander
gastronomic neighbors

like Tuscany and Umbria.

But Lazio has fed
Rome for centuries

and every part of the
sheep and pigs raised here

is put to use in
kitchens across the city

to make deeply flavorsome food.

To start my journey,

I'm catching up with
my old friend Claudia.

She's lived here virtually
her whole life...

- There you are.
- And her cardinal rule

for good food is, 'when in
Rome, eat as the Romans do.'

- Are you OK? Good.
- I'm good. You OK?

- I'm so happy to see you.
- It was a long time.

It was a long time.

Somehow almost 30
years has slipped by

since we first became friends

when we worked on a
movie here together.

I think that you came
first time for a...

Well, the very first
time was like '95.

No, I think '93, because it
was the Undercover Blues.

- I didn't know I was that old.
- I know, me neither.

Let's not mention
it. [LAUGHTER]

Claudia wants to take me for
a classic Roman pasta lunch

but with an hour to k*ll,

we decide to get a
coffee and reminisce.

Well the San Calisto
is a real institution.

That's where we went
a long time ago.

Yeah, yeah, we were there
every evening, you know.

Back in the '90s
we used to hang out

in a great café in Trastavere,

a grimy part of town, very much
on the wrong side of the river.

- Here we are.
- Yeah, and here we are.

And I was pleased to hear
it was still going strong.

- So you remember Marcello?
- Yes I do, I do.

Look what's there. The
picture you gave them in '93.

It's exactly in the same place.

I think nothing
changed in this place.

No it hasn't changed.

A little espresso
would be just enough

to whet our appetites
before we go to lunch...

or so I thought.

- I know, I know.
- What's that?

- That's...
- Who's joining us?

These are maritozzi,

Roman breakfast with a
2,000-year-old history.

You cannot resist one of these.

In the Middle Ages they were
one of the few sweet things

the church allowed you
to eat during Lent...

it doesn't seem
very saintly to me.

- [TUCCI] Is it like a brioche?
- Yeah, it's like a brioche.

- 'Cause it looks like a brioche.
- And it's even healthier

compared to this. This
is bomba con la crema.

It's fried. It's a sort
of donut with egg cream.

But Italians don't eat breakfast
like Americans eat breakfast

or the British eat breakfast
or the Dutch eat breakfast.

[TUCCI] Yeah, 'cause they
don't do eggs and bacon and...

- It's always something sweet.
- Yeah.

Nice to see you again.

As we staggered
off our breakfast

and headed through Trastevere,

I noticed that the area
was much busier and hipper

than years ago.

This was the poor quarters,

you see the buildings,
as nice as they are,

- are very small.
- Right.

And then of course,
as it happens

you know, the old quarters
got very trendy and everybody

- wanted to live here.
- Yeah and they become

- more gentrified and... Yeah.
- Yeah.

The city may be changing,

but one thing that's as constant

as the ancient landmarks

is how much people in
Rome love their pasta.

Four star dishes in particular

have become an
emblem of the city

and Claudia is taking
me to find out more

at a place she says is
the Pantheon of pasta...

[TUCCI] The restaurant
is fully booked...

- But we don't care. [LAUGHS]
- Yeah, we don't care.

Well tell me some more
about pasta in Rome.

Pasta in Rome is like,
you eat it every day.

I mean you don't
live without pasta.

Every day?

And everybody has its own recipe

and of course it's the
best ever, you know,

and yours is nothing
compared to mine.

Right, it's true. It does
become very territorial

- doesn't it?
- Yeah.

Romans revere what they
call The Four Pastas.

[TUCCI] Nice to see you,
thank you for having me.

Simple but iconic dishes of
staggering deliciousness.

They are creamy Cacio e Pepe,

made with mainly sheep's
cheese and pepper.

The ancient Gricia,
which has added pork.

Its luxurious cousin Carbonara,

which is elevated
with egg yolks.

And finally, our lunch
today, Amatriciana,

made with tomatoes...

and this Roman favourite,
Guanciale, fatty pork cheek.

[TUCCI] The Guanciale are a base

for a lot of different
dishes in Rome.

We would normally use pancetta

but the taste is
totally different.

- Terrible. Terrible.
- No.

- No, no, terrible.
- Yes.

[TUCCI] Thank you.

[TUCCI] Thank you so much.

- It's very good.
- [TUCCI] [SPEAKS ITALIAN]

Pasta's delicious. Delicious.

The sauce is actually
quite light, which is nice,

and the guanciale
are really delicate.

Yeah, yeah it is.

No, no. I kept some space
in my stomach for this.

Ah. Because we
didn't eat the...

- My god.
- No.

Across this city,
every single day,

Romans eat pasta that
has ancient bonds

to their surrounding
countryside.

Now it's hard to imagine,
but this iconic food

was once at risk of
being banned in Italy...

Sitting at the big, warm,
carbohydrate-loaded heart

of Italian cuisine is pasta.

And fittingly for
the nation's capital,

Rome is obsessed with the stuff.

I've been promised the
best carbonara in the city

and I've been told to come

to the working-class backstreets

behind Termini Station

and to ask for the Don.

[TUCCI] Tell me what you do.

I'm passionate
about popular food

and for a long
time I made a show

where I play vinyl
music disc and that's...

- Like a DJ? As a DJ.
- As a DJ, yeah.

But at the same time...

Daniele di Michele is a
chef, historian and DJ

who cooks Italian food
while he spins records.

His stage name is Don Pasta.

Oh I have seen some
of the stuff...

- Yeah, yeah. It's crazy.
- Oh it's really fantastic.

I was pretending for the
audience that I didn't know,

- but why lie?
- It's a joke.

It's really great.

Don Pasta has promised me

the greatest dish of Spaghetti
Carbonara I've ever tasted,

and on the way he tells me

why pasta matters
so much to him.

I realised that Italian
food is popular food,

roots food.

Italian food is the resistance
of the normal people

or the working-class
people that eat well

because the working-class people

create the roots
of Italian food.

Yes.

Today we may think
of a bowl of pasta

as the ultimate comfort food

but there's a distinctly
uncomfortable history

of Italians fighting
oppression through pasta.

In the early 1930s,
Mussolini and his fascists

imposed import bans on
various foreign goods.

This lead to food shortages,

malnutrition and a lack of wheat

which raised the prospect of
Italian tables with no pasta.

[SPEAKS ITALIAN]

In typical style, rather
than lifting the import bans,

Mussolini tried to convince
Italians that eating pasta

would make them weak, lazy
and even sexually impotent

and that a high protein diet

would make them more productive

and w*r-like.

The campaign was
clearly not a success.

When the fascism arrived

a big part of Italy
is with Mussolini...

- Yeah.
- But 30-40%

is against Mussolini.

In fact pasta actually
became a powerful symbol

of the resistance against
his fascist regime.

Armed with their g*ns
and sheets of pasta

many of the Partisans
who stood up to Mussolini

lived in these very streets.

[ARCHIVE] And the
great access railyards

from which troops and supplies
are poured into Southern Italy

are blasted...

[TUCCI] During World w*r Two,

this area bore the
brunt of Allied bombings

that aimed to disrupt
the nearby rail hub.

Tragically, over a thousand
people were k*lled.

This is in essence
like a monument.

Yeah, you can see the
effect of the w*r.

Yeah.

People died, the families died,

and all this area is bombed.

This particular square

was home to a hugely
popular local trattoria

before the w*r.

The owner's wife and all but
one of their children died

when their building was
hit during the bombing.

After the w*r, the local
community raised funds

for the surviving father and son

to reopen the restaurant again.

The boy started work
here aged just eight

and amazingly he's
still here today.

The story of Roman
food, Aldo Pomudollo.

[TUCCI] Aldo...

Beautiful.

Aldo now runs the restaurant
alongside his daughter Rossana.

People come from
across the city,

and apparently further afield,

to enjoy the comfort
of Aldo's family food.

So tell me about carbonara.
Carbonara is a Roman dish

but we don't know when
it was invented, right?

One story I'd always heard

is that carbonara came about

when the American soldiers
in Rome during the w*r

started missing their bacon
and eggs from back home

and wanted them
added to spaghetti.

Aldo, however, has
his own theory.

It seems some things are
destined to remain Roman myths.

What everyone can agree on

is that the carbonara
here is incredible.

You have basically
four ingredients -

pasta, eggs, the guanciale,
and cheese. That's it.

But when I try it at home
it's never this good.

My mother does that too.

You could just die now.

When I taste pasta like this,

I understand why it remains
so important to this city.

Rome may be the seat
of power and religion

but it's overwhelmingly
a working class town.

This is simple food that has
been elevated over centuries

by people making the best

of what little
they had available.

They are rightly proud
that their humble food

has come to define Italy
to the entire world.

I've headed five miles
out of the city centre

using the newly
extended Metro line.

Romans have a reputation
for resisting change

and the arrival of
the subway in 2014

has shaken up old poor
neighborhoods of the city,

nowhere more so than Centocelle.

I'm meeting Massimiliano

who's the editor of Italy's
most prestigious food journal

to find out what's going on.

G*ntrification is moving
in on this neighborhood

and food is on the front line.

[MASSIMILIANO] The
neighbourhood was born

during the Roman Empire.

Centocelle is a Roman name,

cento carceri is '100
jails' in English.

- 100 jails?
- Jails, yeah, exactly.

There may never have actually
been one hundred jails here,

but what this area does have
is three new subway stations

all within close proximity.

[MASSIMILIANO] These things
change up the game, OK?

A lot of people came here
to try to invest a bit.

- Is this where we're going?
- Yeah, it's here.

Let's go in and
see what he's got.

Centocelle has long
had a rough reputation.

That's changing fast though

and one place that's seen
by some as ground zero

for the transformation of
the neighbourhood is a deli.

Vincenzo opened this place
well before the Metro arrived.

He wanted to rehabilitate the
surrounding Lazio region's

mediocre reputation for food

and bring the best
of the countryside

back for his neighbors
to enjoy at fair prices.

- Can I taste some?
- Ah, si! [LAUGHS]

Pecorino cheese is
made from sheep's milk

and Rome is famous for it.

Historically the animals
were raised all around Lazio

as a cheaper alternative
to cattle and crops.

Vincenzo goes a step
further than most sellers

and searches in
some unlikely places

for cheese that also
helps his community.

- What does that mean?
- [MASSIMILIANO] In a jail.

- In a jail. Jail. Jail.
- In a jail.

Oh OK.

Only in Italy would an
ancient cheese recipe

be saved by prisoners.

Right, yeah.

Yeah, that's delicious. Mmm.

As well as sheep's milk cheese,

pork finds its way into almost
every dish I've had in Rome.

Historically, pigs were
raised all around the city

because they need less
space than other animals.

To me, Vincenzo is
doing something amazing.

Now people come here
from around the city

to this once overlooked suburb.

But over the past few years,

another 50 to 60 food places
have opened up nearby.

Romans are renowned for their
stubborn resistance to change.

I guess it's what's kept this
city standing for centuries.

But Massimiliano wants to show
me another café in the area,

one of many that have
opened in recent years.

I wasn't fully prepared
for what we found.

Oh my lord

It's hard to imagine,
but a few months ago

this place was a thriving
café and bookshop

called La Peccora Elettrica
- The Electric Sheep.

On the night of
April 25th, 2019,

Alessandra's café
was firebombed.

She set about
rebuilding her business

but shockingly, the night
before she was due to reopen,

the attackers struck again.

Three local businesses

have now been attacked like
this here in Centocelle,

including a pizza place
and this jazz bar.

The police still haven't
found who's responsible.

Because Alessandra hosted
community events at the café,

including anti-fascist talks,

suspicion has fallen
on the far right.

But others here
blame local criminals

protecting their old turf

or even anti-G*ntrification
campaigners.

But is this happening in
other parts of Rome too?

When change happens,
Romans resist,

but whoever did this has made
it dangerous to sell food.

It seems brutal to attack

restaurants and
cafes in this city

that is united in its
love of eating together.

Tucked in a curve
of the River Tiber

is Testaccio, once known
as the belly of Rome,

home to the old slaughterhouses

that supplied 19th and 20th
Century Romans with meat.

So tell me about this place.

This is the Ex Mattatoio,
the retired slaughterhouse...

and for about a hundred
years, until the 1970s,

it's where most large Roman
animals were slaughtered

basically from lambs all
the way up through steer.

This four square mile site

will be redeveloped
into a cultural area.

But for now, signs of its
former life are everywhere.

You can still see the tracks
that the carcasses move on.

Oh yeah, for the
carcasses, yeah.

Katie Parla is a
renowned food writer

who swapped New Jersey for
Rome almost 20 years ago.

[KATIE] You got the
veal pavilion here...

Oh. Vitellara.

Skinning happened there.

- Right.
- The Pellanda.

[KATIE] It's an organised
place with so many pavilions.

- Covering a vast area.
- Right.

And really influencing
the types of foods

that would be eaten just across
the street at the trattorias

of the late 19th and
early 20th Century.

In butchery, the animal is
quartered and those cuts

went straight to the upper
and middle-class kitchens

everything that's left over,

the blood, brains
and intestines,

was called the quinto
quarto - the fifth quarter -

and those were left to the poor.

Some workers were even paid
in offal instead of money,

so they had little choice
but to make the best of it.

One restaurant keeping these
historic flavours alive

and taking them into
the 21st Century

is Santo Palato.

If you know how to cook offal,
you can turn the poorest guts

into the richest of dishes...

[KATIE] We're hungry right?

- Starving.
- Follow me.

I haven't eaten in like an hour.

And Katie wants me to meet Sara,

a young chef with a
growing reputation

for doing amazing
things with innards.

- [SARA] Bonjourno.
- [TUCCI] Stanley.

[KATIE] She's gonna
make a frittata for us

and it's topped with
chicken innards.

So everything we focus on here
in your restaurant is offal.

- Yes.
- Yes, good.

- One egg per person. OK. Yep.
- Yes.

- Throughout the day.
- Oh yeah.

Have it for breakfast,
lunch, dinner. Yeah.

- I like it in a sandwich.
- [TUCCI] Yes in a sandwich.

That's what I used to take
when I was a kid to school.

Yeah. I'm very down with that.

Chef Sara gave up medical school

to pursue her dream of
opening a restaurant.

[TUCCI] Woah, yes.

[TUCCI] So the stomach,
the heart and the liver.

[SARA] Yes.

In Rome you find frittata and
chicken organs, but separately.

- [TUCCI] But separately.
- [KATIE] Yeah,

and she has combined them.

[KATIE] It's ready.

[TUCCI] Oh wow.

- [KATIE] Smell it. Wow, rich.
- [TUCCI] Oh yeah that's nice.

Don't forget about this bread.

- Oh wow, yeah, nice and hot too.
- [KATIE] So good. Yeah.

Mmm. That's great.

Thank you. [LAUGHS]

- Great.
- This is really special.

And I think it's a
really good demonstration

of what Sara does really well

which is taking Roman classic
flavours and combining them...

- Yeah. Yeah.
- In a way that's new

but not like revolutionary
or extra contemporary

they just make sense
in the cuisine today.

Sara gets her scalpel
into some beef heart

and we take a seat
in the dining room.

What's that?

Really, this is a really
unusual texture too isn't it?

Alright so if we break
down what the offal are

we have heart, liver,
lungs, stomach...

- Brain.
- Brain,

- sweetbreads...
- intestines...

- intestines...
- snout.

- Snout?
- Cartilaginous things

- on the face?
- Oh yeah.

The whole head really,
if you think about it.

The whole head. Yeah.

If pasta is the first
pillar of Roman food

the astonishing use of offal
is definitely the second.

Somehow poor Romans turn
these unpromising cuts

into sheer culinary poetry.

Yeah.

- [TUCCI] Dude, I love oxtail.
- [KATIE] I'm so into it.

- [KATIE] So tasty.
- That's really good.

And this is definitely a more
carnivorous city than it is

- a fish eating city.
- Without question, yeah.

-Even though we're 15
miles from the sea...

- I know.
- That was really really far

in pre-1970s standards

before ice and refrigeration
became more common.

[TUCCI] Yeah.

[KATIE] So this is
that honeycomb tripe

with all those really
beautiful pockets.

[KATIE] Lots of nice
stomach geometry going on.

I've never heard it described
as stomach geometry.

It makes it sound much,
much more palatable.

- That is really good.
- It's boiled multiple times

often with vinegar, that
tenderises it and cleans it,

and then it's cooked
in tomato sauce

with pecorino and mint.

- So in Rome...
- Pecorino and mint?

Yeah. In Rome this is really
the only way you find tripe,

in fact the dish is called
"Trippa alla Romana'

and go to another place,
Florence included,

and the tripe is
prepared differently.

Stewed stomach may not
sound appealing, I know,

but believe me, these are
really tasty flavours.

The Roman poor didn't
have much to work with,

but against the
odds, they wound up

making some of the very
best food in the city.

What can I say? Thanks a
lot. Thank you so much Katie.

Thank you, thank you.

We're here in Rome

and it's the most
wonderful time of the year.

No, it's not Christmas,

it's artichoke season.

Right now, markets
across the city

are humming with
the sound of people

hacking away at Rome's
favourite vegetable.

So show me the artichokes.

As I've been finding
out, with Roman food,

you sometimes have
to dig a little

to get to the good stuff.

So this is for
the Carciofi Ro...

- Alla Romana.
- Alla Romana.

Or alla Giudia

Once trimmed, they
can be deep fried

to make one of my all-time
favourite Roman foods.

Carciofi alla Giudia -
Jewish fried artichokes.

You know my grandmother and
my mother would make these.

Ask anyone here and
they'll tell you

that this weird
looking vegetable

is a definitive Roman food...

- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.

- Bye-bye.
- Ciao, ciao, ciao.

But what I love is that under
those rough outer leaves

it contains an entire history.

A story of how
society's outcasts

can change the habits
of an entire city.

These picturesque ruins

once contained the misery
of Rome's Jewish ghetto.

From the 1500s onwards,

the city's entire
Jewish community

was locked in this walled area,

only allowed to leave to do
menial jobs in the daytime

before being locked in at night.

Italia Tagliacozzo is in her 80s

and has lived here
her whole life.

When the Nazis seized
Rome in October 1943,

the ghetto was a sitting target

and it's 1,204 residents were
sent to the gas chambers.

Italia was one of just
a handful who escaped

when her uncle hid
her outside the city.

For the few who survived,

food became a vital
link back to their past.

The Jews of Rome had lived
in poverty for centuries

and were forced to rely on
the cheapest of ingredients.

Using typical Roman
inventiveness,

the Jews transformed
unloved ingredients

like anchovies,
eggplants and artichokes

into dishes that the entire city

would eventually
take to its heart.

Alongside pasta and offal, the
influence of Jewish cooking

is the third pillar of
Roman cuisine today.

Italia set up a restaurant

serving the best Jewish
food in the ghetto.

In this kitchen, Italia
and her crack team

raise the humble artichoke
into food for the ages.

- Georgio.
- Georgio.

OK, so this is that

that was done yesterday -

cooked in the oil

and then refrigerated.

Alright so he's
spreading out the leaves.

So cooked, pre-cooked

Look at how beautiful that is.

That's the best one I've
had. That is delicious.

It's so addictive.
It's like eating candy.

You just can't stop,
it's so crispy.

That people love. Yeah.

This dish tells a story.

It has survived the
darkest of times

and links us to a past
that was almost wiped out.

To me it's a type of historical
monument in Italian cooking,

now beloved by everyone,

and proudly embraced
by the entire city.

It's my last night in Rome.

During my time here, I've
learned that, above all else,

food in Italy is about who
you are and where you're from.

But where does that leave
you if you're an outsider?

I've come to Bistro 64,

a restaurant that has won a
Michelin star for serving up

some of the best Italian
food in the city.

The surprising thing is

that the chef is
an out-of-towner...

and no he's not from Naples,

or even Milan,

he's from Japan.

- Stanley.
- Kotaro.

- Nice to meet you.
- Pleasure. Nice to meet you too.

Kotaro Noda was lured
here 20 years ago

by his obsession with the
flavours of Italian cuisine.

Noda's food has won
praise for its creativity

but tonight he's making
the simplest Roman classic.

It's one of the
famous Four Pastas,

cacio e pepe,

literally 'cheese and pepper.'

There are just three
main ingredients

but it takes great skill

to make this Roman
favourite perfect.

Of course, another
Italian kitchen secret.

Could take a while.

I know you may be thinking
this is ludicrously simple food

but believe me,
it's extraordinary

and don't just take
my word for it.

Where's Karen? Karen? Come here.

Right.

- OK.
- OK. OK.

This is Karen who works with us,

one of the producers.
She's from Rome.

- So you tell us what you think.
- OK. OK. No pressure.

No. No pressure, no pressure.
He's not nervous at all.

[NODA] I'm not nervous.

[TUCCI] He doesn't
care about our opinion.

- [NODA] Va bene?
- It's divine. Yes, it's so good.

It's perfectly creamy.

It's not too intense, it's
not overloaded with flavour.

- Yeah.
- It's the perfect

- amount of pepper...
- Yeah.

And it really
respects, you know,

how it would be
cooked in a family.

There's always a secret.

There's always a secret, that's
true. There's always a secret.

When it comes to food,

Romans know what they like
and like what they know.

Beyond his masterful
take on the classics

Noda's menu is full of
incredible innovations,

from sweetbreads with heart

to purple potato cream
with plum gelato.

I was curious how the city
had taken to his creations.

The downside of Rome being
so steeped in history

is that sometimes great
things are resisted

because they're new and not
what people are used to.

Missing food this
good is a real shame.

I'm sorry.

But here's the thing -

the one thing Romans can't
resist is a good meal

and I'm hopeful that soon

Noda's food will be
another culinary landmark

in this eternal city.