retold on stage and screen. the city of togas and gladiators, power an intd intri 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. >> when you try it, it's crazy. >> but i'm going to warn you. if you're on a low carb diet, be ware. yoour 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 favor of its grander gastronomic neighbours 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 at the romans do. >> are you okay? >> i'm good. are you okay? i'm so happy to see you. >> it with us a long time. >> it was a long time. somehow, almost 30 years has slipped by since he became friends when we worked on a movie here together. >> i think that you came last time for -- >> well, the very first time was, like, '95. >> no, i think '93 -- >> oh, it was? >> yeah, it was the -- >> i didn't know i was that old. >> i know, me neither. let's not mention it. >> claudia wants to take me for a classic roman pasta lunch, but with an hour to kill, we decide to get a coffee and reminisce. 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 cafe in trastavere, a grimy part of town, very much on the wrong side of the river. here we are. and i was pleased to hear it's still going strong. >> so you remember marcello? >> yes i do, i do. >> look what's there. the picture you gave them in '93. it is 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. oh -- >> i know, i know. >> what's that? who is joining us? okay. 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. is it like a brioche? >> yeah, it's like a brioche. >> because 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. >> no, no. but italians don't eat breakfast like americans eat breakfast or the british eat breakfast or the dutch eat breakfast. >> no, no. >> yeah, because they don't do eggs and bacon and -- it's always something sweet. >> yeah. >> nice to see you again. ciao. 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 gentry if ied and -- 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. the restaurant is fully booked. >> but we don't care. >> yeah, we don't care. ciao. claudia. >> well, tell me some more about the pasta in rome. >> pasta in rome is like, you eat it every day. >> every day? >> i mean, you don't live without pasta. 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. 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 ain't chen 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 favorite, guanciale, fatty pork cheek. the guanciale are a base for a lot of different dishes in rome. we would normally use pancetta but the taste is totally different. >> pancetta, no, no. terrible. >> yes. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> it's very good. >> 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 place 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. with directv stream, i can get live tv and on demand together. watch: serena williams... wonder woman.... serena... wonder woman... serena... wonder woman... ♪ ♪ ace. advantage! you cannot be serious! ♪ ♪ get your tv together with the best of live and on demand. introducing directv stream. let's check out the hook audrey sent. ♪ i right these wrongs like rhymes ♪ ♪ o like me oh my ♪ ♪ land and sea, that's mine ♪ ♪ and pardon when i shine ♪ ♪ hands to the sky, all mine ♪ ♪ woah, woah no ceiling woah woah good feeling woah woah ♪ ♪ i might send it up ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ we believe everyone deserves to live better. and just being sustainable isn't enough. our future depends on regeneration. that's why we're working to not only protect our planet, but restore, renew, and replenish it. so we can all live better tomorrow. ♪ ♪ this holiday, let them shine like never before. ♪ ♪ ♪ this is how we shine. ♪ find the perfect gift at zales. the diamond store. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ deposit, plan and pay with easy tools from chase. simplicity feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. ♪ 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 back streets behind termini station and to ask for the don. 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, yeah. >> as a dj. >> but at the same time, i cook pasta. >> 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 this stuff. >> yeah. >> really fantastic. >> i was pretending for the audience that i didn't know, but -- >> 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 realized that italian food is popular food. roots food. the italian food is the resistance of the normal people, of 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. 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 war-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. >> yeah. in fact, pasta actually became a powerful symbol of the resistance against his fascist regime. armed with their guns and sheets of pasta, many of the partisans who stood up to mussolini lived in these very streets. >> and the great access railyards from which troops and supplies are poured into southern italy are blasted by -- >> during world war ii, this area bore the brunt of allied bombings that aimed to disrupt the nearby rail hub. tragically, over a thousand people were killed. this is in essence like a monument. >> yeah, you can see the effect of the war. >> 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 war. the owner's wife and all but one of their children died when their building was hit during the bombing. after the war, the local community raised funds for the surviving father and son to reopen the restaurant again. the boy started work here aged just 8 and amazingly -- he's still here today. >> the story of roman food, aldo pomudollo. >> aldo. beautiful. aldo now runs the restaurant alongside his daughter, rossana. people come from across the city and payapparently 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 war 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. >> are you ready? >> 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. visibly improves texture, tone, and pore size. america's #1 toner brand. thayers natural remedies. skincare since 1847. ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ there's my boy! all the delivery. no delivery fees. dashpass. ♪ pardon when i shine ♪ ♪ hands to the sky, all mine ♪ ♪ woah, woah no ceiling woah woah good feeling woah woah ♪ ♪ i might send it up ♪ in life there are people who, for one reason or another, inspire us. those influencers whom we've always followed, who teach us that who we are is our greatest inspiration, who are proud of where they come from and know exactly where they're going. people who inspire us to work for others—for our family and for our community. people just like you. at unilever, you inspire us to help drive change. ♪ darling, i, i can't get enough of your love babe♪ ♪girl, i don't know, i don't know,♪ ♪i don't know why i can't get♪ applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. ever wonder how san francisco became the greenest big city in america? just ask the employee owners of recology. we built the recycling system from the ground up, helping san francisco become the first city in the country to have a universal recycling and composting program for residents and businesses. but it all starts with you. let's keep making a differene together. ♪ i've headed five miles out of the city center 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. gentrification is moving in on this neighborhood and food is on the front line. >> the neighborhood was born during roman empire. centocelle is a roman name. c cento carceri is 100 jails in english. >> 100 jails? >> jails, yeah, exactly. >> there may never have actually been 100 jails here, but what this area does have is three new subway stations all within close proximity. >> these things change up the game, okay? >> yeah. >> a lot of people came here to try to invest a bit. >> yeah. 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 neighborhood is a deli. vincenzo. ciao. 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. >> right, right. >> can i taste some? >> ah, si! >> 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? >> in a jail. >> in a jail. jail, jail. >> oh. okay. only in italy would an ancient cheese recipe be saved by prisoners. >> really? right. right. yeah. that's delicious. 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 sub born resistance to change. i guess it's what's kept this city standing for centuries. but massimiliano wants to show me another cafe in this area, one of many that have opened in recent years. i wasn't fully prepared for what we found. it's hard to imagine, but a few months ago, this place was a thriving cafe and bookshop c called la peccora elettrica. the electric sheep. on the night of april 25th, 2019, ales sandra's cafe was fire bombed. 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 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 cafe, including anti-fascist talks, suspicious has fallen on the far right. but others here blame local criminals protecting their old turf or even anti-gentrification campaigners. but is this happening in other parts of rome, too? >> no. >> 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. ♪ happy so happy ♪ ♪ let's hit the open road ♪ ♪ camp without a tent ♪ ♪ talk without a phone ♪ ♪ kick off your boots ♪ ♪ cook something new ♪ ♪ the meeting just started ♪ careful you're on mute. ♪ catch a snuggle bug ♪ ♪ warm-up your buns ♪ ♪ bring your friend dave and the only song he knows ♪ ♪ host a movie night ♪ ♪ get your zen on ♪ ♪ nice to feel at home ♪ ♪ everywhere you go ♪ at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. whether it's ensuring food arrives as fresh as when it departs... keeping crews connected as they help build communities... or providing patients the care they need, even at home. we are the leader in 5g and a partner who delivers exceptional customer support and facebook advertising, on us. network. support. value. no trade-offs. unconventional thinking, it's better for business. (baby crying) if you love them enough to suck the snot out of their nose at 4:00 a.m., then surely you'll check nhtsa.gov/therightseat to make sure they're in the right car seat. it's another day. and anything could happen. it could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. or it could be the day there's a cyberthreat. only comcast business' secure network solutions give you the power of sd-wan and advanced security integrated on our activecore platform so you can control your network from anywhere, anytime. it's network management redefined. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. comcast business powering possibilities. ever wonder how san francisco became the greenest big city in america? just ask the employee owners of recology. we built the recycling system from the ground up, helping san francisco become the first city in the country to have a universal recycling and composting program for residents and businesses. but it all starts with you. let's keep making a differene 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. >> right. >> 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. and where is this -- >> 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. >> you got the veal pavilion here. >> oh. vitellara. >> skinning happened there. >> right. >> the pellanda. it's an organized place with so many pavilions. >> right. >> 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 flavors 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. >> 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 inthats. stanley. >> she's going to make a frittata for us. >> right. >> and it's topped with chicken inthats. >> so everything we focus on here in your restaurant is offal. >> yes. >> yes, good. one egg per person. okay. >> yes. yeah. throughout the day. have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner. yeah. >> i like it in a sandwich. >> 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. whoa, yes. so, the stomach, the heart and the liver. >> yes. >> in rome, you find frittata and chicken organs but separately. >> but separately. >> and she's combined them. >> yeah. >> it's ready. >> oh, wow. >> smell it. >> oh, yeah. that's nice. >> rich. don't forget about this bread. >> oh, wow, yeah. nice and hot, too. >> so good, yeah. that's great! >> thank you. >> that is -- 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 favors and combining them in a way that's new, but not, like, revolutionary or extra contemporary, they just make sense in the kwee see 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? oh, yeah. so, if we break down what the offal are, you have heart, liver, lungs, stomach -- >> brain. >> brain. sweetbreads -- >> intestines. snout. things on the face. the whole head, really, if you think about it. >> yeah. >> if pasta is the first pillar of roman food, the astonishing use of offal is definitely the second. somehow, poor romans turned these unpromising cuts into sheer culinary poetry. >> oh, yeah. >> all right. >> i love oxtail. >> i'm so into it. so tasty. >> that's really good. >> and this is definitely a more carnivorous city than a fish city, 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. >> yeah. >> so, this is that honeycomb tripe with the pockets. lots of nice 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 tenderizes it and cleans it and then it's cooked in tomato sauce with pecorino and mint. >> pecorino and mint? >> yeah. in rome, this is really the only way you find tripe, in fact the dish is called trippa alla romana. >> yeah. >> 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 flavors. 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. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ ♪ look for the bare necessities ♪ ♪ the simple bare necessities ♪ ♪ forget about your worries and your strife ♪ ♪ the bare necessities of life will come to you ♪ all the delivery, no delivery fees. dashpass. 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karen? come here. >> right. >> okay. this is karen who works with us, one of the producers. she's from rome. so you tell us what you think, karen. >> okay. >> no pressure, no pressure. he's not nervous at all. he doesn't care about our opinion. >> va bene? >> it's divine, yes. it's so good. it's perfectly creamy. it's not too intense, it's not overloaded with flavor. >> yeah. >> the perfect amount of pepper. >> yeah. >> it really respects, you know, how it would be cooked in a family. >> there's always a secret. >> 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.