hello, i m in puglia, which is the heel of can you see me through the olive branches? they re hard to avoid in puglia, a region that s home to 60 million olive trees. that s one olive tree for every italian in italy. this region is italy at its most elemental simple fresh cuisine that s grown and produced here. fragrant olive oil, beautiful vegetables, cheeses renowned the world over. hello. hello. one focaccia. and durum wheat for pasta and bread. look at that. i m stanley tucci. i m fascinated by my italian heritage, so i m traveling across italy to discover how the food in each of this country s 20 regions is as unique as the people and their past. you really want it to be like that? need to be like this. despite being such a fertile region, puglia is also one of italy s poorest. it was nicknamed the shame of italy. located in the south, a place the italians call il mezzogiorno, or high noon, because of the intensity of the midday sun, poverty a
through the olive branches? they re hard to avoid in puglia, a region that s home to 60 million olive trees. that s one olive tree for every italian in italy. this region is italy at its most elemental simple fresh cuisine that s grown and produced here. fragrant olive oil, beautiful vegetables, cheeses renowned the world over. hello. hello. one focaccia. and durum wheat for pasta and bread. grazie. look at that. i m stanley tucci. i m fascinated by my italian heritage, so i m traveling across italy to discover how the food in each of this country s 20 regions is as unique as the people and their past. you really want it to be like that? need to be like this. despite being such a fertile region, puglia is also one of italy s poorest. it was nicknamed the shame of italy. located in the south, a place the italians call il mezzogiorno, or high noon, because of the intensity of the midday sun, poverty and hardship are very much a recent memory in this part o
Next seeding, any straw left over after harvest used to be cleared by burning it off. however, there were always kernels left on the ground which were not picked up properly. yeah. so the poor people would collect these. and with this product? they made a poor kind of flour. because it was burned, it didn t have much protein. but you could make bread with it. very simple bread, dark bread. dark bread? yeah. the stigma of having to resort to such extremes would linger for decades. and this was something to be ashamed of? shame, poverty, but it was also about survival. my dad had always eaten burned wheat, and now when i give him white bread, he is very happy. but pietro is on a mission to revive these simple flavors. morning, nicola. and his friend, nicola la grasta has developed a modern technique for recreating it.
and his friend, nicola la grasta has developed a modern technique for recreating it. the grain that s completely burned gets discarded. we only use what is toasted. right, toasted, not burned. so half of it goes. toasting the grain is a delicate yet labor-intensive process. this is heavy. it s heavy. but it produces a dark flower, which can be used for making bread, as well as the puglian snack taralli, a kind of cross between a cracker and a breadstick. taralli made with burned wheat. they have a strange color. they re really good. you can smell it. they re really good. the flour is used to make dark pasta, which pietro prepares for his restaurant antichi sapori, or ancient