culture is not static. national identity is not static. it s ever evolving as is the heart of this wonderful city. come with your eyes wide open and revisit these places enthusiastically because change is exciting. i can t wait to see what paris becomes next. tucci: i have driven in italy quite a bit. but i did say to one guy when i was doing a movie, i said, it s very interesting, people don t really stop at stop lights that much. and he goes, no, no, no. the stop light is just a suggestion. there s nowhere on earth quite like tuscany. the land is idyllic, the art is divine and the food is out of
art, my mom was studying something just as beautiful, the local cuisine. one of these because it s so big? no, a little more. little more. it didn t know how to cook when we got married. didn t even know how to boil water. while she was here, my mother was also inspired by the spirit of the renaissance and set out to discover the art of italian cooking. when we lived in florence when everyone was in school, i would learn to make different recipes. i loved it. my mother soon found the key that unlocks so much of italian cooking. a simple combination of carrots, celery, and onions. fried up together, it s called the soffritto . joan: looking good, what do you think, stan? tucci: yeah, it s good. joan: throw the tomato in? it s the base of countless italian dishes, including today s offering. a tucci family favorite called salsa maria rosa . tucci: now, put some water in it. joan: put some water in it, yeah. it s a delicious vegetable sauce and we named it after a beloved ne
oh, my god. these are ingredients rooted in both the poor fishing community and in livorno s immigrant past. it s a part of tuscany s history on a plate. and fabio s not finished. in true tuscan tradition, creativity is everything and nothing goes to waste, so he whips up a whole second course with the leftover sauce. you have all the flavors of the sea, otherwise what would you do with that beautiful sauce he had left? it only makes sense. it s the best, best thing in the world. [speaks italian] cheers. i feel lucky that my parents followed their hearts and moved us across the world for a year
panzanella was what the farmers would eat. and now it s turned into this very sophisticated tucci: foam. foam. you see, the past being rediscovered. tucci: it s a little renaissance in a bowl. daniella: there s a little renaissance in it and a lot of the future. [crowd chatting] [bustling crowds] after tasting this new version of panzanella, we made some enquiries and found the chef who created it. nerina martinelli and her team are just about to open nugolo, a brand-new restaurant that reimagines tuscany s rural food in the heart of the city. nerina: the idea around the menu and the dishes that we do is to take traditional dishes,
cooking. so you have different types. for different dishes. the best are zolfini. these type of beans are solid but you don t need to put in the water before cooking. oh really? and they taste so. you don t have to soak them beforehand? no, that s the difference. it means the florentines eat the beans. the bean eaters. yeah, because we are using so many different oh no, now you re going to mix them all up. [laughs] the cooking is really, very poor, simple cooking. that s true. i read that during the renaissance the wealthier people would have meat. whereas the poorer people basically just had beans, some kind of soup and some bread and that was it. i have to say, we use what we have. it says something about the character of the tuscany people. we have tuscan bread without salt.