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
Any simple ingredients it happens to touch. and then you can put this oil in all this food. friselle being the perfect example. take a dry rusk of bread, throw on a few fresh tomatoes, a healthy glug of your finest puglian olive oil. a bit of salt. here is some oregano. and there you have it, dry bread magically brought back to life. what could taste out of date tastes out of this world. that is really good oil. people can say, oh, our oil this or oh, our oil that. that actually is really good. thanks to the efforts of families like agostino s to save their beloved trees, puglians have gone from refusing to accept there was a problem to refusing to accept defeat. thank you.
Then you can smell it. i didn t know it could be so complicated. we take this very seriously. then we have to taste it. okay. but there is a specific way to do it. i won t do it. what are you doing? in this way, the oil will aerate. yeah, it will aerate. aerate. yeah. wait. how do you do it? you put your tongue up. and then you yeah, but that s delicious, though. the reverence for the trees and what they produce here is akin to that felt towards community elders. with such mystical qualities, no wonder the oil is seen as key to unlocking the sublime flavors of any simple ingredients it happens to touch. and then you can put this oil in all this food. friselle being the perfect example. take a dry rusk of bread, throw on a few fresh tomatoes, a