Original subtitles

[Antoni Porowski] I'm Antoni Porowski.

-Hello. -[woman] Hello, friend.

[Antoni] And as a son of immigrants,

-I know that food... -Ooh!

...can tell you more about who you are...

Nothing makes me feel more Polish than this.

...and where you've come from...

-This is it. -...than you ever imagine.

So now, I'm leading six curious Hollywood stars...

-Are you excited for this? -Yeah.

[Antoni] ...on their very own journeys of a lifetime.

I've been waiting for this moment my entire life.

[both laugh]

[Antoni] I'll be delving into their family histories...

[gasps]

-Florence? -[Antoni] Yeah.

...and tracking down culinary clues...

Oh, my gosh, it's so good.

...to unlock the past.

[Issa Rae] It almost feels unreal to think that

I descend from a king.

[Antoni] And it all begins...

-Ha! -For you, Nonna.

-[Antoni] ...with just one... -Mmm.

-[laughter] -[Antoni] ...family recipe.

[kiss smacks] It's crispy.

Mmm!

[Antoni] This time, star of The Leftovers,

Beetlejuice 2, and Mulholland Drive,

-Justin Theroux... -Here we go.

-Whoa, whoa. -Oh, my God.

[Antoni] ...heads to Italy...

Happy chicken, happy eggs, happy me and happy you!

There you go! Whoo!

[Antoni] Where we cook and taste our way...

Wow.

[Antoni] ...to some surprising and powerful home truths.

Wait, he was born at 3 a.m. and delivered here at 9 a.m.

He was six hours old.

Wow.

I'm just strangely filled with gratitude that this person did this.

You definitely come from a family of survivors.

-[laughing] Yeah. -That we know for sure.

♪♪

Can I just say, Italy is beautiful.

[laughing]

You know, no one's probably ever said that before.

That's such an original thought.

[Antoni] I'm taking my old friend, Justin,

to one of Italy's most famous northern regions,

Emilia-Romagna,

because this is the land of his ancestors.

[Justin] Look at this. Lots of agriculture.

I was not expecting corn.

We're in kind of Italy's breadbasket.

[Antoni] This fertile territory is a culinary colossus.

Birthplace of Bolognese sauce, balsamic vinegar,

Parmigiano Reggiano, and countless pastas.

[Justin] I'm very appreciative that you let me drive.

[Antoni] You're so welcome.

The little moments where I can make you feel

like you're in control of this whole situation.

[laughing] I know. It's the only thing you've let me be in control of.

[Antoni] Justin believes his great-grandfather,

a key figure in his family history,

came from a part of Emilia-Romagna known as Piacenza.

And he wants to know more about his Italian heritage.

This is it.

-[Justin] Here we are. -Yep.

[Antoni] So I'm starting our journey

at a restaurant famous for the local cuisine...

[bell rings]

Look at this. Fantastic.

[Antoni] ...where we should be able to find

Justin's favorite family dish, tortellini in brodo,

a kind of stuffed pasta in a rich broth.

-[sighs] -Oh, this is tough, isn't it?

I know.

-Grazie. -[waitress] Prego.

So, what do you know about your family?

I know basically sort of the... the rough beats, you know.

And it's really... I know how it starts in New York.

-Mm-hmm. -My great-grandfather,

Alessandro Dittami, it's the classic sort of,

you know, one dollar in his pocket, Ellis Island.

And there was a tent village at Washington Square Park.

He basically sort of pitched a tent there,

where I believe he met my great-grandmother,

and they fell in love,

and then they got married shortly thereafter.

[Antoni] Justin never got the chance to meet

his Italian great-grandparents,

Alessandro and Angela Dittami.

But he was very close to their eldest daughter,

his nonna, Anne.

[Justin] My grandmother was a wonderful woman

who lived pretty simply.

You know, she was a very good cook.

She made incredible meatballs, which she was sort of famous for.

But her... sort of the recipe that she was most known for

was her tortellini in brodo pasta.

-Yum. -And it's a recipe that's been

sort of passed around.

-Have you ever made it? -Never.

She died at 103.

-Tortellini in brodo. -Tortellini in brodo

and crossword puzzles, apparently. [laughing]

That'll keep you going.

[laughing] That was what she did.

So, you know like a pretty good chunk of their history

-once they made it to the US. -Yeah.

But what about, like, in Italy?

In Italy, it gets really vague.

I think my great-grandfather was illegitimate.

I had heard that he was possibly a tailor maybe,

but there's all kinds of myths. And then, obviously,

this is where my great-grandfather is from.

-Mm-hmm. -My great-grandmother,

what her provenance is, that I have no idea.

-Yeah. -And then,

my grandmother's tortellini in brodo,

I don't know the origin of the recipe,

whether it was something that was passed down

from her mother, or her father, or wherever.

I mean, there's a lot that I don't know.

But I want to.

[Antoni] With so much about Justin's great-grandparents unknown,

I've got a hunch that Grandma's special dish

can provide some clues.

Okay, so tortellini in brodo, your grandmother made this dish.

Her father emigrated from Piacenza.

Locanda Del Falco, where we are right now, like,

quintessential Piacenzan cuisine,

they truly cover it all.

So, I think we're in a really good place to start considering where it's from.

Fantastic.

I'm not seeing it.

They have tortelli, they have ravioli.

No tortellini. No tortellini.

I want tortellini in brodo. Let's go see the chef.

All right. [laughing]

-Ciao, chef! -Ciao.

-Ciao. -How are you?

-Antoni. So nice to meet you. -Pietro.

-Nice to meet you. -Justin.

-Nice to meet you, Pietro. -Pietro. Nice to meet you.

So, you're a true Piacenzan?

-Yes. -Okay.

We're exploring Justin's family history,

and he has roots in Piacenza.

Okay. So, you're Piacenzan?

And there's a dish that his grandmother made.

My grandmother used to make a tortellini in brodo.

-Okay. -But...

Wait, why, "Okay"?

It's not... you cannot really have

tortellini in brodo in Piacenza, you know.

-It's not like... -Never?

Never. You don't.

Oh, interesting.

[Antoni] That's crazy.

Every town has its own cuisine,

and Piacenza isn't known for tortellini,

which means Grandma's dish must have come from somewhere else.

Fortunately, Pietro's preparing another specialty

that Justin's forebears

certainly would have recognized.

This is a very ancient recipe that we're making right now.

These are guinea fowl rubbed in clay.

[Antoni] This is clay?

[Justin] I thought it was gingerbread.

-[laughter] -Wow.

And we use them to bake it

and to keep all the juices inside, basically.

[Antoni] It may not be tortellini, but check it out.

Chef Pietro stuffs the bird with figs,

salted pork belly, and butter, before it's cocooned...

an age-old technique for making meat moist.

Oh!

[Justin] Good God. Wow.

-[Antoni laughing] -[Justin] Oh, my God.

-[Justin] Oh, wow. -[Antoni] That's beautiful.

-Thank you so much. -[Pietro] You're welcome.

[Justin] Okay.

Oh my God, beautiful.

-[Justin laughing] -[Antoni] That's incredible.

Oh, my God.

[Antoni] Every mouthful is deeply savory, yet sweet.

It's so moist.

[Antoni] Time-honored techniques have yielded incredible results.

Well, this ruins guinea fowl

-moving forward. -I know.

Wow.

[Antoni] But this isn't the dish that brought us to Piacenza

in the first place.

So, no tortellini in Piacenza.

No.

Which casts a little doubt on the possibility

the tortellini recipe came from Piacenza at all.

Yeah. So, as we start this journey,

we're like, definitely flooded with questions

about your family.

But it leaves a lot to discover too, I think,

which is exciting in itself, you know?

Yeah.

[Antoni] It looks like we'll have to do some more digging

to find out where Grandma Anne got the tortellini recipe

in the first place.

What if we just explore

the women in your grandmother's life,

and see where that takes us?

I think she would love that.

-Yeah. -Yeah. Let's do it.

For you, nonna.

[Antoni] Justin doesn't know much about either his great-grandmother Angela,

or her mother before her.

But I've discovered they lived in Agazzano,

just a few miles from where we've had lunch.

So, I'm taking him to explore the food traditions

in this little corner of the region

to see what we can discover.

[Justin] Are we allowed to just pick an apple?

[Antoni] I feel like it's fine.

Here.

-It's delicious. -Mm.

Okay, a little bit of information for you.

Okay.

So, your Grandma Anne's grandmother,

so your great-great-grandmother...

-Mm-hmm? -...was a woman by the name

-of Ermenegilda. -Ermenegilda.

-Ermenegilda. -Mm-hmm.

And she was actually from, like, right this area.

-Wow. -And her family had a farm.

-Okay. -That's kinda what

we're gonna go explore right now.

[laughing] I have a feeling I'm gonna have a shovel,

and I'll be shoveling [bleep] in about ten minutes.

[laughing]

[Antoni] While Justin won't be needing a shovel...

-[chickens clucking] -...my friend is right.

He's about to get his hands dirty.

-Ciao! -Hi!

-Ciao. -You arrived just in time.

I was going to feed my hens.

You're gonna feed the hens with...

-Yes. -I thought you were making this

-for us! -No, this is for my hens.

[Antoni] Farm owner Grazia Invernizzi

rears chickens exactly how Ermenegilda and her family

would have done it over a century ago.

And that means their diet is very distinctive.

Let's go! Easy now, so...

[Justin] Whoa! Watch it, watch it, watch it.

[Antoni] Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet.

Oh, my God!

[Grazia] They really love watermelons.

-[laughing] -Who knew chickens

loved watermelon so much?

There you go.

[Antoni] Feasting on fruit and veg,

chickens produce eggs with a very special quality.

Does the watermelon affect the color of the eggs?

-The yolk become more orange. -More... yeah, yeah, yeah.

It gives a beautiful color and a beautiful taste.

[Antoni] This is the best watermelon

-I've ever had in my life. -Oh! [laughing]

[Antoni] I can only begin to imagine how good these eggs taste,

-if they're eating this. -[Grazia] Yes.

So, I just found out that my great-great-nonna

is from this area, and family were farmers.

Surely, she had chickens.

[Antoni] With every farmhouse having at least a few chickens,

laying what we've now established

must be the most delicious of eggs...

[Justin] Excuse me. Ooh, sorry. I'm so sorry.

[laughing]

[Antoni] ...it isn't surprising that they feature

heavily in the local cuisine.

And just down the road, they're used

in one of the most hallowed of recipes,

as Chef Fabio Delledonne has agreed to show us.

Okay, guys, please come in my kitchen.

With these amazing eggs...

-Yes. -Okay?

Happy chicken, happy eggs,

happy me, and happy you!

-There you go! Whoo! -[laughing]

-[Fabio] Okay. -[Justin] So, we start?

[Fabio] Yeah. Let's start with cracking eggs.

-Just three guys cracking eggs. -[Fabio laughing]

[Antoni] Chef Fabio is an expert in the ancient art of making sfoglia,

Emilia-Romagna's famous fresh pasta dough.

Okay, like, why would I use water if I can use eggs?

[Antoni] It's the basis for all pastas here,

and the only dough

Justin's great-great-grandmother Ermenegilda

would have known.

Look at that yolk.

-That one had a watermelon. -Yeah.

-A whole watermelon. -Yeah.

-That's crazy. -And your mom

-taught you how to make this? -Yeah.

Cooking is an act of love for your family.

[Antoni] And are you from Piacenza?

I'm from Piacenza, but my grandparents

were from Agazzano.

His great-great-grandmother...

My great-great-grandmother was on a farm in Agazzano.

-Oh, really? -Yeah.

He learned today. Near...

Do you see the similarity? We could be related.

-Yeah! -[laughing]

Okay.

Ah.

[Antoni] Although Ermenegilda would have rolled

her sfoglia by hand, the end product,

this super thin and stretchy dough,

would have been identical and perfect

for making one of Agazzano's signature pastas.

Now, we're gonna make tortelli.

-So, you can cut the dough. -[Justin] Okay.

Don't be afraid.

-Don't be afraid. -There we go.

-Wow! -Nice.

-[speaking Italian] -Cool!

-Okay, that way. -Okay.

[Antoni] Tortelli sounds suspiciously similar

to the dish we've been looking for.

Which begs the question...

Can you make a tortellini with this pasta?

Tortellini? We don't have tortellini.

-You don't have tortellini? -No.

I was about to get punched in the face.

Okay, yeah, yeah. You were about to...

-You was about to... -Yeah.

[Antoni] So, no tortellini in Agazzano.

Wow.

[Antoni] But this tortelli is certainly something

Justin's great-great-grandma could have made

with her eyes closed.

Oh, what are we making now?

So, this is for...

-Oh, okay. Yeah. -Oh.

So, you fill.

The filling must be not too much.

-Let me try. I wanna try. -Yeah, sure.

[Justin speaking Italian]

[Fabio] Wow, okay.

[Antoni] You never try a different herb,

a different type of cheese? You always stick to tradition?

You can't.

-[Justin laughing] -Got it.

-With tortelli... -It's not an option!

You can't, it's impossible.

[laughter]

[Antoni] Clearly sticking to this region's centuries-old

culinary customs is a serious matter.

And now...

Fold it up.

-And you have the first tail. -Tail, uh-huh, okay.

And then, you fold it as doing a braid.

-Okay. -I have to do it faster.

-'Cause it's so hard. -It's tricky

to do it too slowly. Wow!

-Good? -It's your first tortelli.

-It's amazing. -My first tortelli.

-Yeah. -[Justin] I wanna please Fabio.

-Is this okay, Fabio? -[laughing]

Yeah. [laughing]

Just pick it.

-Fresh. -Fresh.

Do you put a timer usually, or you just look?

-Oh no, just... -Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I'm getting excited.

[Antoni] Justin's nonna's dish may not have come from Ermenegilda...

Oh, man.

[Antoni] ...but what she would have cooked looks delicious.

-Wow. -That's beautiful.

-Butter and sage. -Oh, my God.

Taste your work.

-We have to do it together. -Work.

-I'm grabbing two at once. -I'm grabbing one.

-[laughing] -That's absurd.

-Man. -Made with love.

I know.

I don't mean to be dramatic,

this is one of the most beautiful things

I've ever tasted.

Like, it makes me emotional, it's so good.

I think we're brothers from another mother.

Okay, yeah.

Definitely gotta be at least cousins.

With tortelli, we are connected forever.

-We're connected. -Yeah. [laughing]

-You're gonna make me cry. -[laughter]

Beautiful. That's so good.

-[Fabio] Thank you, guys. -[Justin] Thank you.

[Antoni] I'm gonna go write my memoir, because now I can die happy.

[Antoni] With such strength of feeling about tradition here,

it's no wonder people feel connected through food.

And it's clear that for Justin, our time in Agazzano

has sparked a connection to his nonna's family

that's taken him by surprise.

[Justin] It's a weird thing, 'cause obviously,

there's so much time and distance

between the present and that time.

But there is a little bit of like, "Oh my God,"

and maybe I'm sort of sensing a little bit of the DNA,

not just in a way of like, "Boy, do I love Italian food?"

-Yeah. -But yeah, I think,

you know, it's just... I don't know, it's fascinating.

Well, there are more pieces to the puzzle.

Hopefully we'll be able to answer some of them.

♪♪

[Antoni] So far, we haven't found Justin's beloved family dish.

But researching Justin's great-great-grandmother,

I've made a discovery about another relative

he knows nothing about...

her husband.

So, we're making a detour to find out more.

So, your great-great-grandmother Ermenegilda,

married a man by the name of Francesco,

-your great-great-grandfather. -Mm-hmm.

So, today, we're gonna focus on his story.

Does that sound mysterious enough for you?

That sounds extremely mysterious.

Yeah. [laughing]

[Antoni] Justin doesn't know it yet,

but we're heading to Francesco's birthplace.

So, we're going into the mountains?

-Into the mountains. -Yeah.

Look at this. Oh my God, it's beautiful.

[Antoni] Rising to heights of over 9,000 feet,

the rugged Apennine Mountains

might be only a few miles away from where were

in Emilia-Romagna's fertile flatlands.

And yet, it's another world.

Our destination is so remote it's not on most maps.

In fact, there's not even a road to it.

Luckily, I've arranged some alternative transport.

It's all about the immersive experience

of truly feeling like a local.

[Antoni] Courtesy of farmer Eugenio.

This is steep.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa. -We take a left here.

Oh, God.

[bleep]! [bleep]!

-[Antoni] We're here. -[laughter]

[Antoni] Grazie, grazie!

Hidden somewhere amongst these old abandoned farmhouses,

there's a very specific spot I'd like Justin to see.

-[Justin] Wow. -Okay, so we're looking

for an entrance to a house,

and the steps that are leading up to it.

So, I see there's an entrance right over there.

Yeah. Steps are either that side or that side.

That side, yeah. You take one, I take the other.

Okay.

Mine's a wall. What do you have?

I have steps. I mean, I found stones that used to be steps.

Oh yeah.

[Justin] Yeah, these were the steps, and that was the front door.

-[Antoni] Okay. -All right.

So, I have some information for you.

Okay.

First thing I'm gonna show you.

This is an original document.

-Yes, it is in Italian. -Mm-hmm.

The handwriting's so beautiful that I can't even read it.

How about I show you the translation?

-Oh, that's so much better. -[laughter]

How dare you?

Okay, "Municipality of Bardi.

Report of the case of a recently born baby who was abandoned."

Oh. "The 4th of June of the year 1849.

"Domenica Carlotti, 58 years old,

"wife of Paolo Rossi, came here

"and declared that this morning around 4 a.m.,

"she found a naked baby inside a wicker basket

"on her farmhouse steps,

who only wore a poor quality bonnet on his head."

-Wow. It's just... -I know, that part hit me.

I know.

"After checking the baby,

"I acknowledged that he is a male.

"There was no sign left to recognize his origins.

I received the baby and..."

I'm kinda getting... legitimately.

"I received the baby and delivered him

"to the foundling house of Piacenza.

And he was named Francesco Bonifacio."

-Whoa, that's intense. -Right?

Oh.

-So, he was abandoned here. -Yeah.

-At this exact spot. -Yeah.

-Literally, on those steps. -Whoa.

Do we know about the woman whose house this is, or...

[Antoni] So, what we do know is that

-the woman who lived here... -Mm-hmm.

...and then basically brought him into care,

-she was a farmer. -Oh, my God.

-Oh, that's so sweet. -I know.

I'm actually strangely filled with gratitude

-that this person did this. -Yeah.

I mean, it's the first thing that sort of hits me.

It is strange to look at this and realize that had this woman

not taken in Francesco, I would not be standing here.

-Oh, 100%. -Yeah.

That's so strange.

[Antoni] Five generations ago, eking out an existence

in these unforgiving mountains, was so tough,

that Francesco's mother likely gave him up

because she simply didn't have enough food to feed him.

Winter here was the hardest season to survive.

[overlapping chatter]

But one regional specialty helped the locals make it through.

What do we have here?

Wow, okay.

This cured pork lasts for months...

meaning poor families could slaughter a single pig,

and live off it till spring.

Mm.

-What's the dog's name? -Ralph.

[Antoni] Ralph! Does Ralph like Coppa?

[Antoni] Delicious as it is,

Eugenio hasn't just brought us here for the food.

Her family found the baby.

-Wow. -[laughing]

-That's crazy. -That's wild.

Like, wow. I just... all my hairs went up.

[laughter]

-That's so special. -Yeah.

Well, will you tell her that I'm very grateful

to her family for finding my great-great-grandfather.

-I think I caught some of that. -[Antoni] I did too!

[laughter]

[Antoni] Investigating Francesco

hasn't brought us closer to finding Justin's family recipe.

But the revelations have deepened his connection

to his roots.

And there are more yet to come.

♪♪

[Antoni] Justin and I are heading east,

because I've discovered something about his great-grandfather Alessandro,

the only ancestor Justin knew anything about

when we arrived here, that he needs to know.

So, you know how at the beginning of this journey,

you thought that Alessandro was from Piacenza?

-Yeah. -Well, it turns out

-he was actually from Ferrara. -Wow.

[Antoni] Alessandro's naturalization document

clearly shows his birthplace as Ferrara, not Piacenza.

But his profession, tailor, chimes with the family lore.

I suspect that a deep dive into Alessandro's bit of Emilia-Romagna

will provide some valuable leads in our search

for the family recipe.

Ferrara stands near the mouth of Italy's longest river, the Po.

And this mighty waterway has dramatically shaped

the history of the city and its people.

Which is why I've arranged a trip for us

with resident river authority Massimiliano Costa.

So, I'm told that to understand Ferrara,

you have to understand the Po.

-Is that true? -Yes. Yes, it's true.

Because for centuries, the Po was the main trade route

in the entire Po Valley,

and if you could manage the Po,

you were owning the Po Valley,

because everything had to pass through the Po.

So, Ferrara, historically, was very involved in trade?

Yes, because it was the gate of the Po River.

When you were entering the Po, it was very important.

[Antoni] Up until the late 16th century,

the Po ran through Ferrara,

bringing exotic goods, immense wealth,

and who knows, maybe even the sort of fine silks

Alessandro used to talk about.

By Alessandro's day, it had fallen on hard times

after the river changed course,

cutting the city off from the trade routes

that once brought it such riches.

But the Po has brought a more enduring wealth

that lurks below its glistening depths.

[Justin] If you had given me an entire week

to try and guess what I would be doing this morning...

it would actually be about a month

before I finally came up with wading with you

through three feet of water... [laughing]

-Well. -...to do something.

I've been waiting for this moment my entire life.

[laughter]

I can't believe I had to wait this long.

[laughing]

All right, so we're actually gonna meet some clam fishers.

Okay.

[Antoni] Clam harvesting has always existed in the Po Delta,

but during Alessandro's time, the practice developed

as hungry Ferraresi looked to the river

to provide cheap, nutrient-dense food.

[grunting] Ciao!

Ciao!

Wow! [laughing]

-Ciao! -Ciao!

[Antoni] Clams!

-Vongola. -Vongola. Ah, vongola.

[Antoni] Simona and her partner Germano

make their living dredging the Po's shellfish bounty

from the river's rich sediments,

a job that in Alessandro's day would have been done by hand,

but now is a little more mechanized.

I gotta get one of these in the gym.

-Yeah! -This is fantastic.

It's a real core workout.

[Antoni] Justin's landed the starring role operating the dredger.

While I do the real grunt work.

[laughing]

[Antoni] Food of the poor, they might have once been.

Today, clams are one of the gastronomic pearls of Ferrara.

And Simona and Germano have invited us back

to taste them for ourselves.

Ciao, ciao.

Welcome, my friends.

[Antoni] Oh my gosh.

Don Ceci.

Ciao.

Oh!

It only took a few minutes

before I figured out how to do it.

[Antoni] These clams are prized for their briny, meaty flavor,

and Simona wants to show us how they've always been eaten.

-You understand? -Si, si.

Aglio, si, garlic.

This is how you eat every day?

-Clams. Clams is fantastic. -Wow.

Thank you.

[Antoni] By Alessandro's time, the Po may have changed course,

altering the fortunes of the Ferraresi,

but its culinary bounty is a legacy

that endures even today.

[Antoni] Wow.

[laughing]

Grazie.

Si, hot.

-Oh my gosh. -Oh, my God.

[Simona laughing]

Everything is better with love.

[Antoni] It seems that every meal in Emilia-Romagna

has a story behind it.

[Antoni] And now that we have a taste

of how the Po shaped Ferrara, we are heading there,

because I've got some dramatic home truths

to share about Alessandro's origins.

♪♪

[Antoni] We've reached Ferrara,

hot on the trail of what more we can find out

about Justin's mysterious great-grandfather, Alessandro.

Here, there are some key bits of the family lore

we need to investigate,

because my hunch is the more we know about him,

the closer we'll be to finding Justin's family's tortellini in brodo.

So, I feel like when we started this journey,

you had like this deep connection with Alessandro.

Mm. What we know,

or what the family lore is,

is that he was born illegitimate.

-Uh-huh. -He went on to become a tailor.

Then, when he got to the United States,

he ended up eventually opening up a tailoring shop.

-I think he worked in silks. -Okay.

You know, apparently, he made beautiful suits.

All right, it's my turn to give you a bit of information.

Okay.

This church, in the 1800s,

was actually a foundling hospital.

-Whoa. -And Alessandro

was brought here when he was a day old.

-Whoa. -Yeah.

So, he was an orphan.

-Whoa. -Yeah.

That's intense.

[Antoni] So, Justin's great-grandfather Alessandro

is the second abandoned baby boy in his family tree.

All right, so this is Alessandro's original foundling document.

"The year was 1880.

"Arrival, 17th of June, from Ferrara.

"Foundling Alessandro Luigi Dittami of male sex.

"Born in the council of Ferrara church

on day 17th June 1880 at 3 a.m."

So, wait, he was born at 3 a.m. and delivered here at 9 a.m.

He was six hours old.

Wow.

"With the following clothes.

"Four pieces of linen, two cotton bands

with three shirts, and a knitted bonnet."

-Which is a lot more than... -Totally.

-...my great-great grandfather. -Absolutely.

When Francesco was brought to the house that we visited,

he literally had a bonnet, and he was naked in a basket.

But Alessandro was a child who was prepared.

Wow.

[Antoni] To help explain what all of this means,

I've arranged for historian Nick Terpstra

to meet us here in this former foundling home.

I can see that he's abandoned within hours of being born.

And that usually indicates that the child is illegitimate.

-Mm. -And this is the thing

about these homes.

They're charitable homes, but they're also a way

that, if I can put this nicely, wealthy men...

can carry on extramarital liaisons...

and not have to worry about the outcome.

It allows them to know that they're gonna be taken care of,

and in a sense, "It's off my hands."

-No. -Wow.

[Antoni] So, we have a pretty good idea why Alessandro may have been given up.

But what about the other details passed down through Justin's family?

We've also heard that he was a tailor,

and that he was very good at working with silk.

It's interesting, 'cause silk

is one of the biggest industries in Italy at that time.

But the thing about that is a lot of these orphanages

were set up by silk merchants, both to care for those children,

but also then to provide a labor force

that would allow them to get some of their own work done.

-[Justin] Child labor. -So, it was child labor.

-Right. -Yeah.

And one of the saddest things,

is that by the time you get to the 19th century,

there's a food culture at the level of the poor

of having really largely corn as polenta.

And the problem is, if you don't mix it

with other things, it can cause dietary problems, right?

So, conditions within the orphanages were horrendous.

And there was such malnutrition,

the death rates for those children

who stayed in the orphanage were phenomenal.

So, to survive in the institution, he is one lucky kid.

[Antoni] Thankfully, Alessandro would eventually move on

from his harsh, humble beginnings.

And to celebrate his great-grandfather's survival,

and Italy's transformation since the 19th century,

I'm taking Justin for a very special lunch.

-Ciao, Giovanni. -Hi, guys, welcome!

-Hello. -Welcome to Piaceri Di Lucrezia.

-Nice to meet you. -Justin.

-Antoni, Antoni. -Okay.

Giovanni, nice to meet you.

So, I see there's a beautiful garden.

-Let's go. -That's okay?

-All right. -Okay, perfetto, grazie.

Grazie.

[Antoni] Chef Giovanni Ragazzi is rehabilitating

the once-vilified polenta as a gourmet food.

And his signature dish is a crispy polenta lasagna.

Layered with bechamel and pork,

it's light years away from what they would have served

in Alessandro's orphanage.

-Hi, guys. -Hello!

-Enjoy. -Oh, whoa.

[Antoni] Grazie, Ragazzi.

-Enjoy. -Thank you so much.

Mm.

Whoa, it's so good.

Mm.

[Antoni] It's a nice sentiment, taking something like polenta,

how it can kinda like change over time

and kinda evolve and get reinvented, you know?

I mean, you obviously think of Italy with just the most amazing food.

You don't think of it as a completely impoverished country.

Right.

Have you had time to process the information overload

-from our lesson with Nick? -Yeah, that was fascinating.

It definitely gives me an appreciation

and a perspective for what he endured, you know?

And also just, not for nothing, sort of that repeated...

in both his case and in Francesca's case,

that those are two boys who got left, you know,

and what that must have done to their psyche, you know.

It's given me an enormous amount of sympathy for them.

That must have been very painful, you know?

-For sure. -And so...

Look, you've definitely come from a family of survivors.

-[laughing] Yeah. -That we know, for sure.

Mm-hmm.

By the way, I definitely have not forgotten

-tortellini in brodo yet. -[laughing] Yeah.

-I know that's how we started. -I still don't know where it is.

I promise we will get to that.

But, that's for another day, and that day is tomorrow.

Okay.

♪♪

[Antoni] Justin and I are heading south of Ferrara

and its foundling home, because I've discovered

that's exactly what his great-grandfather Alessandro

did three generations ago.

I feel like it's finally time I tell you

-where the hell we're going. -I would appreciate that.

So, we're actually very close to Cento.

-Really? -Which is where Alessandro

actually spent most of his early life.

-Oh, my God. -He was with a foster family

up until his 20s.

The significance of that is that they were only

responsible for him legally until he was 18.

So, the fact that he stayed with them till his 20s,

he was probably really happy with them.

So, he really did find his family,

-which is kinda touching. -Oh, that's sweet.

[Antoni] Close to the cities of Bologna and Modena,

the comuna of Cento has a certain coveted recipe

that's traditionally made for big family get-togethers

like today's mid-August summer festival, Ferragosto.

And we've been invited by our host, Ricardo,

to help out.

Oh, hi, guys. Hi. Hi.

-Antoni, hi. -How are you?

-This is Justin. -This is my family.

My mum, Hannah. That's Franco.

-That's for you. -Thank you.

[Antoni] If Ricardo's family seem excited,

it's because the dish they're preparing really is something special.

-Oh, my God. -You know?

-[Hannah laughing] -I've heard about it.

-Maybe? -[laughter]

[Antoni] Finally, we've tracked down where Justin's family recipe comes from.

I remember seeing that in the drawer of my grandmother.

-Really? -That exact same tool, yeah.

[Antoni] Cento, where Alessandro grew up with his foster parents.

So, I've been looking for this everywhere.

We looked for it in Piacenza, we looked for it in...

-[Justin] Wow. -[Ricardo] I think so.

-[Justin] That's crazy. -[Antoni] Can we help?

-Or can we... yeah? -Sure, sure.

Is it? How hard can it be?

[Antoni] Working, of course, with sfoglia dough,

the first tortellini task is to cut perfectly sized squares.

[Antoni] Whoa.

You need to go straight on with the sprunella.

I know. Oh, straight on this way?

Okay, now it's good. [laughing]

Okay.

[Antoni] To fill each tortellini,

there's a mouthwatering mix of local salami and cheese.

-Oh, my God. -[Ricardo laughing]

Oh my God, so some mortadella. Mortadella.

[Antoni] And finally, each pasta parcel

must be pinched and twisted into shape.

[laughter]

Okay, grazie.

[speaking Italian]

It's just a little bit fat.

-A little fat. -Just a little... [laughing]

Come on, guys, it's time to cook tortellini.

-Okay. -[Justin] Let's go.

Get this into the kitchen.

[Antoni] Finally, we have several plates

of perfectly formed pasta.

But tortellini is only half tonight's meal.

The brodo is a rich beef and chicken broth

that's been simmered, seasoned,

and left to stand for two whole days.

And Ricardo's entire family are ready to enjoy this dish together.

[people chattering]

-Okay, guys. -Oh, wow.

[Ricardo] We are ready for the tortellini.

-Oh, my God. -[speaking Italian]

-Oh! -Oh, my God.

I made that one, you made that one.

-I know. -Yeah.

The ones I made, you can see the ones

that are falling apart.

-Si. -Oh, wow.

[Antoni] How is it?

It's so delicate.

Oh!

The broth is outstanding.

-It's unreal. -It's almost like a mousse

-inside the tortellini too. -Yeah.

The thing that's totally similar to my grandmother's

is that it tastes like,

two very separate tastes of the broth and the tortellini.

-Yeah. -It's when they come together

with the Parmesan, it's so delicious.

You can travel everywhere, but this kind of tortellini,

you can try only here.

If we want it, we have to come back.

So, guys...

[all toasting]

[Antoni] So, this has been a journey.

This has been a really great journey.

Literally ate our way through Emilia-Romagna.

-Thank God you're Italian. -I know.

Do you feel more Italian after this?

I definitely feel like I identify more with the region,

the food, the people I've met along the way.

You know, to see those families that are working together,

living together, cooking together,

it's really in the DNA to sort of make these meals together.

-Oh, yeah. -And to make them as a family.

And then also pass them down.

I also cannot believe that the one recipe

brought us right to the region that we are in right now...

-Yeah. -...which is exactly where

-my great-grandfather is from. -Right.

You know, I mean, it is like... it's like following

-a fingerprint, you know? -Right.

And the fact that that was the recipe

that I can't help but think was the one that he brought,

and that my grandmother learned, and that my grandmother made,

-which now I have. -Yeah.

It's like, it is the DNA of the Dittamis.

[Antoni] It seems the very dish Alessandro took with him

when he left his foster parents

has steered us back to an equally warm embrace.

It's been fun. It's been great.

Thank you. Oh.

-I love you. -I love you too.

Or I should say, thank you, graze mille, grazie.

-[laughing] -Te amo.

♪♪