Original subtitles

♪ ("La Donna è mobile" by giuseppe verdi) ♪

♪

Michael: Liguria, the italian riviera,

where colourful cliffside villages

give way to sparkling blue waters,

also home to the port city of genoa.

My ligurian antipasto

is chickpea flour flatbread topped with rosemary.

My primo is coin-shaped pasta with genoa-style pesto.

For my secondi: Salt-crusted snapper

and veal roll-ups stuffed with pork and pine nuts.

♪

(Man singing in italian)

Liguria is one of the smaller regions of italy.

And its coastline up on the northwest

hugs the mediterranean sea.

And the food of liguria

is all about fresh and slightly lighter fare,

like this tasty chickpea flour flatbread.

And this here is chickpea flour

that now is widely available

and is made from dried chickpeas.

And it has a slight nutty note to it

and a wonderful yellow hue.

And making the batter couldn't be any simpler.

A good farinata is lovely and crispy on the outside,

but soft, tender and creamy in the centre.

♪

That looks like a good consistency to me. let that sit.

Fresh rosemary.

♪

See how my batter has become really quite thick now?

And that's because all of that flour

has absorbed the extra water within it.

Season it up with a little salt.

And let's get it into a good, hot pan.

♪

Now the next few steps in the farinata

are probably the most important:

A really good, hot pan, all over hot.

That's why i have it in the oven.

A good glug of olive oil, get a good swirl around.

And in goes my batter.

(Sizzling)

And you can hear it sizzling already.

The cooking process has begun.

Next: my shallots, that are lovely, light, golden brown

and add wonderful little sweetness to it,

added crunch, crispy,

and then some beautiful, fresh, fragrant rosemary.

And rosemary is such a classic herb to be using on a farinata.

And back into the oven.

Now i wait for my farinata to crispen up around the edges

and became nice and golden all on top.

♪

And in no time at all, my farinata is ready.

Just loosen it up.

Look at that.

See how lovely and golden brown and crisp it is

around the outside?

And inside,

i'm hoping it's going to be soft, tender and creamy.

♪

Look at that.

Hard to believe a handful of ingredients

can turn out something

so beautiful, alluring and ever so inviting.

That is really good.

The inside is soft and supple and very, very moist.

And that flavour of the unmistakable chickpea

is right there.

For my primo, a very unique pasta speciality from liguria:

A pasta that is stamped. And they call it "corzetti".

♪

In liguria,

they make a very unique kind of pasta

that is stamped. And it's shaped like a coin.

And those stamps on the pasta are designed to capture

that lovely genovese-style pesto.

♪

And what brings it all together is a little white wine.

And as i've said before, when it comes to making pasta dough,

once you've done it a few times, you ask your yourself,

"what took so long for me to get into making my own pasta?"

♪

After that workout, into a bowl,

cover with a cloth. And it's done.

And letting my dough relax will give me some time

to literally pound out a delicious pesto sauce

for my corzetti.

♪

Now a couple of cheeses.

This pecorino will add a nice bite and a little salty hit.

♪

And this parmesan cheese, parmigiano-reggiano,

is going to add a wonderful richness,

a little nuttiness and a subtler flavour.

Pesto is ready.

And the business end of making corzetti is right here,

this beautiful wooden mould,

a stamp on one side, a stamp on the other.

Flip it over. and that cuts all the coins out for me.

♪ ("Anvil chorus" by giuseppe verdi) ♪

♪

To finish off my corzetti, it's even simpler:

A little butter in a pan, freshly-made pesto,

a little pasta water.

(Sizzling)

And that pasta water helps to add to the texture of my sauce,

keeps things at the perfect consistency.

And these corzetti would often be

the stamps of the family crests.

And every time i've eaten corzetti,

i've always said to myself,

"i must find someone who can make me a bonacini crest."

♪

And then just lay them

all over the bottom of the plate.

And it's best to work with a pesto off the heat

so that you don't overcook the cheese and it becomes stodgy.

And one more thing to do.

♪

And that's it.

It's that quick and easy to serve up a plate of corzetti.

And traditionally,

the sauce with this type of pasta is simple

because it's all about

the noodle and the dough.

♪

This is such a great primo.

And now for something really special for my secondo:

A whole fish baked in sea salt.

♪

The jewel of liguria has to be the glittering italian riviera,

as it hugs along the coastline of the mediterranean sea.

And if you're going to eat fresh fish there,

it had better be ritzy

and deliver on big, memorable wow factor,

like this snapper,

baked in a salt crust,

or "pesce in crosta di sale", as they like to say in liguria.

And this snapper is a fish

that has a nice, soft, white,

subtle, lean flavour to it.

Add the perfume flavours

of oregano and rosemary,

just to amp it up a touch,

along with a little cracked pepper and garlic.

And those flavours will have nowhere to go

other than percolate their way

through this delicious whole fish.

Now i hear you saying,

"how do i turn all of this salt

into a hard crust?"

That's simple.

Egg whites.

♪

I'm separating the egg yolks.

Now to turn these egg whites into stiff peaks:

A little bit of muscle.

♪

(Sighing)

Good, stiff peaks.

I had to work at it though.

Now to add a little more flavour: zest of lemon.

♪

And now all this lovely salt

gets bound together and moistened by the egg white.

♪

A little salt base for the fish to sit on.

♪

And then completely cover the fish...

From head to tail.

And the idea of cooking a whole fish in a salt crust like this,

you're enclosing it in its own little salt oven.

I think that should do it.

And this style of cooking fish in a salt crust

is centuries old.

♪

You know, this is a really great dish

if you want to impress someone

because it is impressive the way it comes out of the oven.

Just look at that.

Now for the moment of truth,

to crack it open

and see how the fish is doing inside.

I'm hoping to get this cracked open

in as few pieces as possible.

There it is.

Look at that, beautifully cooked in a salt crust.

And the fish doesn't require any additional salt

because some of that salt has percolated through the flesh.

I like to run my knife down the back, around by the gills.

And that fillet will come off that easy.

Little squeeze of lemon...

And a drizzle of olive oil.

And the aroma from those herbs right now is quite amazing.

It looks moist.

So tender, delicate, but perfectly seasoned.

It is such a great way to prepare a whole fish.

And for my second secondo,

how about veal stuffed with pork, raisins, pine nuts

and a little cheese?

♪

Today is all about liguria. And they do love their fish.

But when they decide to eat meat, they do it right,

like this stuffed veal scaloppini called "tomaxelle".

And the perfect cut of veal

is this thin, tender scaloppini

that, when stuffed and rolled, becomes a delicious dish.

I've got my stuffing partially underway

and just need to add the wonderful flavours

of a little marjoram

and the savoury notes of some sage.

♪

Just adding this to my pork that has already been fried up

with sweet, little raisins and delicious, crunchy pine nuts.

So, ground breadcrumbs takes care of the binding.

But on their own, it would be just too dry.

So, i want to a little counterpoint to that,

by way of an egg.

♪

And a little milk to plump up those breadcrumbs,

to keep them nice and moist.

Now my stuffing's ready for a little cheese.

♪

Give it a good mix through,

and the all-important seasoning.

Now, the best way to stuff a scaloppini

is to have the longest side of the scaloppini

running away from you.

And you don't want to be too shy with the filling. and then roll.

♪

Making sure you have enough of the veal scaloppini overlapping

so you can then skewer using a toothpick on the underside.

Now that is a handsome

rolled and stuffed veal scaloppini.

♪

(Sizzling)

Into a good, hot pan with a little oil and butter,

to become lightly golden brown.

♪

Once the veal scaloppini

have taken on a wonderful golden brown colour

from sizzling in this pan of oil and butter,

it's time to lift them out and let them rest for a while,

leaving all kinds of goodies in the bottom of the pan

because all of this gets turned into sauce.

Just a light dusting of flour to help bring that sauce together.

(Sizzling)

Good, dry white wine.

(Sizzling)

And a good handful of raisins...

And meat broth,

and then it's all about simmering and reducing.

And as that's happening, those raisins begin to plump up.

The sauce reduces and intensifies in flavour

and becomes slightly thickened.

♪

Oh, yeah, lots of great flavour.

Back in with a scaloppini...

For one last gentle simmer

and a little basting of this lovely, little sauce here.

Now to plate: really easy.

I've been lucky enough to keep most of the stuffing inside.

And all this sauce,

with the raisins and pine nuts and all things tasty.

I got to do it, little parmigiano.

(Speaking italian)

I'm pretty pleased with the way my stuffed veal has turned out.

I can't wait to try it.

And the consistency of the sauce: spot on.

Look at that, cooked beautifully,

lots of good stuffing in there.

That veal is so beautifully cooked,

a hit of sweet from the raisins

and the wonderful nuttiness from the pine nuts.

This really is a wonderful expression

of a veal dish from liguria.

We started with a creamy chickpea flatbread

as my antipasto.

For my primo:

Pasta coins drenched in a fresh genovese pesto,

a secondo of snapper baked in a thick, crusty salt,

and these veal roll-ups

stuffed with a sweet and savoury stuffing.

These truly are some of my favourite recipes of liguria,

an entire meal.

Buon appetito.

(Gi ging ging i ging in ging in it ging in ital ging in italia n)

♪