A Taste of Italy on YouTube??
Yes, YouTube....
Who would have believed that YouTube would have had such a great video series? It is called Into the Heart of Italy. Three celebrities - Rocco DiSpirito, Marisa Tomei, and Dan Cortese - visit Italy to learn the "secrets" of Italian cuisine. The series was created by Bertolli, a company that specializes in making authentic Italian pasta that we can buy at the grocery store to cook at home. They now have frozen meals you can buy that are examples of authentic Italian cuisine. The series is divided up into different segments, each featuring something you will learn about Italian cooking - and you can learn it vicariously through this video series.
*** I am not endorsing Bertolli, nor do I profit from sharing the information that the company made available on YouTube. I am simply sharing a video series I truly enjoyed and appreciated.
Segment 1 - The Secret of the Perfect Pinch - filmed in Lucca, the heart of Tuscany. You will learn how to identify the ages of different cheeses, as well as the origin of the milk used to create the cheese - cow, goat, or sheep. You will also see how farfalle (bow-tie) pasta is made with "the perfect pinch."
Segment 2 - The Secrets of the Fungaioli - In this segment, you will see how mushroom-keepers - fungaioli - know how to find and collect the best mushrooms in Italy. They grow naturally in the mountains of Pistoia. The mushrooms are then taken to a resatuarant, Aoristo, where they are used in an authentic pasta dish prepared by Massimo - the chef at Aoristo, as well as the "finders" of the mushrooms.
Segment 3 - Here you will how the BEST eggs in Italy are retrieved to make lasagne. The best eggs are those laid by free-range chickens fed with a mixture of goat's milk and grain.
Segment 4 - Carnavale - a very lively celebration and parade...leads you to a port on the Mediterranean Sea to net shrimp for a garlic-shrimp and pasta dish. The dish is prepared at a very famous seafood restaurant, directed by an up and coming young chef. Preparing shrimp once it is caught is not a job I would volunteer for. I liked seeing whole cherry tomatoes in the pasta - YUM!!
Segment 5 - The Secrets of the Cantina. Here you will visit Mantalcino (pronounced "mon-tall-chino") - one of the largest wineries in Italy - and how to pair different foods with specific kinds of wine. Marsala wine is used to make Chicken Marsala at Baccon Di'Sino Ristorante.
Segment 6 - The last segment - The Secret of the Butteri - In the town of Panzano, "The Meat Man," Dario Cecchini (pronounced "che-key-knee"), shares how the buttero, or what we think of in the U.S. as a cowboy (butteri is more than one cowboy), manage the free-range cows that provide the beef for
Antica Macellaria Cecchini, Dario's butcher shop. The spirit of Italian cuisine and appreciation for simple, locally grown and raised ingredients make all the difference when you cook great food.
I really enjoyed this YouTube video series and hated see that it ended with Segment 6. I hope you get a chance to watch it and see how Italian cuisine has influenced so much of the world.
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