All language subtitles for Salt.Fat.Acid.Heat.S01E01.PROPER.1080p.WEB.X264-EDHD

[Samin Nosrat] Fat.

It's nothing short of a miracle.

Fat is flavor.

Fat is texture.

Fat adds its own unique flavor to a dish.

And it can amplify the other flavors
in a recipe.

Simply put...

Fat makes food delicious.

And one of the most important things
any cook can learn

is how to harness its magic.

[sizzling]

I've spent my entire life
in pursuit of flavor.

Starting at the legendary Chez Panisse,

I've been cooking, teaching,
and writing about food for 18 years.

You have to taste
what you're about to cook with.

You have to look at it, smell it,
touch it.

I've traveled the world...

[relaxed music playing,
camera shutter snapping]

...tasting everything.

And what I've discovered
is that the secret to good cooking

is hiding in plain sight.

Just four basic elements
can make or break a dish.

Salt.

Fat.

Acid.

And heat.

Commit to mastering them

and you can become not only a good cook,
but a great one.

[birds chirping]

["Primavera" by Daniele Benati playing]

♪ La prima volta che scopri la vita ♪

♪ Un bimbo sorride che gioia ti da ♪

♪ La primavera... ♪

[Samin] A few years
after I started cooking, I moved to Italy.

I wanted to learn more about,

and eat, all of my favorite dishes.

Right at the source.

♪ Primavera sorprendimi
Fai fiorire anche me ♪

[Samin] And as I cooked and ate my way
throughout the country,

one thing became clear:

from cheese to salami

ragù to gelato

Italians are masters at using fat
to make their food

absolutely, fantastically,

almost impossibly delicious.

And for me, the fat that defines
the flavor of Italian food

more than any other is olive oil.

[olive harvester whirring,
leaves rustling]

[Franco, in Italian]
This area is called Gaaci,

which means "protected lands."

The sea is right in front.

And the highest mountains
of all of Liguria are in the back.

This big mix of sea, mountain, and woods

gives us very delicate flavors,

but also very intense.

[Samin, in Italian]
I'm very interested in the idea

that the fat of a place

is in fact the beginning of its cuisine.

[Paolo, in Italian]
You can taste different flavors

that tell you about a different land.

Each oil in Italy manages to contain,
one by one, its own land's history.

[Franco] Taggiasca olives are grown
only in this part of Liguria.

Because the terrain is very difficult,
very steep.

There isn't any soil,
and right underneath it there's rock.

So Taggiasca is only a very small part
of all Italian olive oil.

But, since it's so sweet, so delicate,

it's somewhat considered
like champagne among wines.

[birds chirping]

When you cook,

it's very important to know
what kind of oil you're adding.

Oil should never cover up the flavor
of your dish,

but it should accompany and enhance it.

[harvester whirring,
Italian music playing]

[Samin] How old are these trees?

-[Paolo] About 200 or 250 years old.
-[Samin] Two hundred fifty years? Really?

[Paolo] We sew a net
inside the whole olive grove.

Starting our work at the top of the grove,

and then working our way down
and further down,

we're able to keep all the olives
on the nets.

Show her how it's done.

[Samin laughs]

[Samin] Don't we have any glasses?

How do we know when we're done?

[Paolo] When there aren't
any more olives on the tree.

[Samin] It's like going
to the hairdresser.

[Paolo] Exactly.

[Samin laughs]

[Samin] Wow! It's so heavy!

[both laugh]

[leaves rustling]

[Paolo] And at the end of the day,
we'll have a truckload of olives.

[rattling]

[clattering]

[Paolo] This is the mill
where we produce the oil.

The paste is ready,
so they'll unload it now.

[Samin] Extra virgin olive oil
is basically fresh-pressed juice

made without heat or chemicals.

[Paolo] A good olive oil
must have three parameters.

It's fruity, spicy, and bitter.

In your mouth you must feel
at least a bit of spiciness.

-[Samin] Uh-uh.
-Because if it's spicy, it's alive.

It's a flavor that remains in your mouth.

So if you drink and that's all,
it's not a good olive oil.

But if you drink and after a minute

you still feel the oily sensation
in the mouth, that's a good olive oil.

[Samin] Oh.

[Samin] It's so good.

The essential flavor of any dish
starts with the fat it's cooked in.

Entire cuisines are defined by their fats.

Think of southern cooking.

It relies heavily on bacon fat and lard.

And French cuisine is defined
by the rich taste of butter.

[TV host] If you're going
to make a great soufflé...

[Samin] Before I even turn on the stove,

I know that one of the most important
decisions I can make

is to choose the right cooking fat.

-[Samin, in Italian] Good morning!
-[Lidia, in Italian] Hi! Welcome!

[Samin] Thank you so much!

[bird chirping]

[Samin] Nice to meet you.

-[Lidia] It's my pleasure.
-Can I give you a big hug?

[Lidia] Of course.

-[Samin] Thank you.
-Thank you for being here.

This question, this request you've made,
it's really very interesting.

[Samin] What a beautiful place!

[Lidia] We used to live in the country,
then moved here...

-[Samin] It's so beautiful!
-...and haven't left since.

[Lidia] Here we are.

See, this is my father.

-The one with the straw hat.
-That one?

The others are townspeople,
who have worked

removing rocks for the train tunnels.

When the work was done, they made
a giant bowl of pasta for everyone.

Obviously, they celebrated
the end of the work.

-[Samin] Hi, Diego!
-Hi.

-[Lidia] Diego is our focaccia expert.
-[Samin] Wow!

[Diego] The breakfast of Ligurians.

Yes, and also of Samin.

With lots of oil.

Believe me, the secret is
it has to be a Ligurian oil.

[Lidia] It has to be Ligurian.

Focaccia was born to suppress
the hunger of dockworkers.

If they stopped to have a full lunch

there was no time left to finish
unloading the ships' containers.

So they'd have some focaccia,
a little white wine,

and then go on working all day.

-Okay. I'll leave you with Diego.
-Right. Thank you.

-Okay. Bye.
-Great.

[Diego] The ingredients are flour, yeast,

malt extract, oil.

[Samin] For me,
the oil here is the sweetest.

-[Diego] Lovable.
-Buttery.

Yes, lovable. Exactly.

It's a question of the olive's acidity.

I think the air, even. Because....

the air is salty. I don't know.

But the oil in Liguria

-I think it's really the best in Italy.
-I agree.

-Of course I'm biased, but...
-[Samin laughs]

We have oil rivalries here,
just like with wine.

[Samin laughs]

[Diego] The dough
should start to feel soft.

[Samin] How do you know
you've worked it long enough?

[Diego] When there are no bumps.
It's completely smooth.

[Samin] Okay.

Now you can add the salt.

[Diego] If you're going to flavor it,

at this point
you can add rosemary, sage...

-Olive paste.
-...olive.

If you crumble it up inside,
you can make rosemary focaccia.

But keep that to yourself.

-Don't tell anyone.
-[Samin laughs]

That goes for sage, too.

-Or any other aromatic herb you add.
-That's beautiful.

-[Diego] You rest it here...
-Uh-uh.

...for 15 minutes,
covered with a dish towel.

Now we transfer the dough
to a baking pan.

And now the secret to Ligurian focaccia.

You roll out the dough.

The perfume from the oil... Wow!

[Diego] And now see how smooth it is.

[Samin] Olive oil does
two important things for focaccia:

it lends a rich fruity flavor,

and it creates a tender crumb
and crisp crust.

Wow, how beautiful,
bathed in oil like this.

We take the oil...

and spread it out.

Let's start with the brine,

typical of the salty flavor
that goes into the focaccia's holes.

Salt, oil. We mix them.

-Which fingers?
-The first fingers: one, two, and three.

-[Diego] There you go.
-Oh!

-Don't worry about it.
-I made a mistake.

The important thing is to press.
Don't be afraid.

Okay. Now's the time for our brine,

the water and salt we made.

Just pour it over, don't be afraid.

[Samin] When we take it from the oven,
it will be obvious

which ones are my fingers
and which are yours.

We wait another 40 minutes.

Otherwise, the holes won't stay
in the focaccia.

-[Samin laughs]
-It develops this color while it cooks.

When we take it out of the oven,
we add more oil.

Oh, more? Okay!

-More oil.
-Always more oil.

[Diego] Pour all over it.

Always a good oil.

Ligurian focaccia is only
two centimeters high, tops.

Anything higher than that
and it's not really Ligurian.

[Samin] How light, how beautiful.

Crunchy on the bottom and soft inside.

The holes taste like salt.
You can taste it.

[Samin] Hmm.

[laughs] It's truly...

It's a focaccia that's very easy
to make at home for breakfast.

With a cafe latte, right?

[crunch]

And feel how crunchy the crust is.

Thanks.

Thank you with a handful of oil!

It's so good.

When I understood
that we were coming to Liguria,

I wanted to make pesto right away.

Because it's a beautiful lesson
about fat's importance.

We have cheese.

We have creamy pine nuts.

And we have this beautiful oil
from right here.

All three fats work together
to make this marvelous thing.

[Lidia] We're making pesto
the traditional way, using a mortar.

[Samin] Where do we begin?

The process always starts
with the pine nuts.

Let's start by grinding the pine nuts
on their own

so they come apart more easily.

Otherwise, everything would form a paste
too quickly.

How do you know when it's ready?

When it starts to form a kind of paste.

Not yet. I'll tell you when.

Very good.

Now we add the basil.

A little more,
and we add some coarse salt, a pinch.

I say a pinch of salt
because the cheese's flavors tend to--

[Samin] They're also salty.

At the end, we taste to see
what the flavor is like.

And if it's missing salt, we add a little.

The coarse salt helps
to break apart the leaves.

What a nice, sweet smell.

See how the natural oils are coming out
as we pound it?

So here, it's only a matter of patience.

No one makes it like this anymore.

[Samin] Do your kids make pesto
with the mortar, too?

[Lidia] No, I've never seen them do that.

We'll see, maybe they'll become passionate
about it after this.

Maybe they'll try to compete
with their mother.

[squishing]

Now it's starting to look good.

It's starting to give me satisfaction.

-[squishing]
-What a sound, right?

[Lidia] Mm.

So, let's prepare the cheese.

[Samin] Equal parts?

[Lidia] No. Two thirds of Parmesan
and one third of pecorino.

Here we are.

-Here's the Parmesan.
-[Samin] Parmesan and pecorino.

[Lidia] Now let me do this by eye,
without weighing.

I'm not in the habit of weighing anything.

So, we've reached the point for the oil.

[squishing]

You see the sauce starting to look right?

More like how a sauce for pasta
should look.

What a beautiful green color.

In America, we haven't really understood

-that oil is something fresh.
-Yes, fresh.

It has an expiration date.

It's not like wine.

One of my friends received
a bottle of olive oil for her wedding,

but 30 years ago.

And today,
she still uses it little by little.

She hasn't learned yet
that it's turned rancid.

She wasted it. It was a real waste.

-It's just gross.
-Now she can use it to turn the lamps on.

Right!

-[Lidia] See how soft it is?
-Beautiful.

[Samin] You can smell
all the different flavors.

The oil is like a medium for all of them.

[Lidia] Tell me how it tastes.

-So good.
-Great. Now...

-It's not missing anything.
-Perfect.

[indistinct dialogue]

[Lidia] We can add a drop of oil.

There. A handful of Parmesan.

Always very good.

[Samin laughs]

[crunch]

[Samin] Wow! [laughs] Delicious.

[horn honks in distance]

[Samin] Fat can also be a powerful source
of flavor from within food.

Most of the flavor in meat is in its fat,

which means that a fatty cut of pork
tastes porkier than a lean one.

Italian butchers prefer to use animals
with lots of fat,

and that means one thing: more flavor.

Ah! Hi, piggies!

-We've brought them some candy.
-Oh!

-Let's give them some acorns.
-[Samin laughs]

[Samin] Me too, me too!

[Lorenzo] They really like these.

[Samin] It's like a dessert.

-[Lorenzo] Yes, yes, yes!
-[pigs munching]

[Lorenzo] Beautiful, shiny.
You see how they reflect the light?

You can tell that these are healthy pigs.

-You can't smell anything.
-Nothing.

[Samin] They seem pretty happy, no?

Yes, they're in paradise!

The Cinta Senese is a breed
of domesticated pig.

It has a very slow metabolism,
especially compared to more modern breeds.

If they don't get exercise,
they get really fat.

And they don't reproduce as much
as the others.

In the 70's,
new breeds started coming over

from northern Europe and America.

They were all very skinny,
so they had more piglets.

And then by the 80's,
there were only a few left.

[in English] In 1983,
when I was 20 years old,

I started to do...

-To bring back this breed.
-Yes, yes.

[Lorenzo, in Italian]
A lot of sommeliers hang around here,

people who look for the scent in things.

In our ham, they've smelled egg yolk,

they've smelled chocolate,

they've smelled walnuts,

they've smelled acorns, too.

How does that scent get there?

I don't know! Maybe it sets in the fat.

[pigs shrieking]

[Lorenzo] In ancient times,
all these woods belonged to my family.

But it seems that one of my ancestors
spent all the family money on women.

-[Samin laughs]
-[Lorenzo chuckles]

I don't know if that's a good
or bad thing...

[both laugh]

-[Samin] Okay.
-But it's what happened.

[Samin] For centuries,
it was common for rural Italian families

to raise two or three pigs each year.

Expert traveling butchers called norcini
would wander from town to town

slaughtering the pigs and turning them
into salumi.

They were so skillful
that they were considered mystics.

[Lorenzo] It's really stiff.

Lorenzo is the descendant
of a long line of norcini.

[Lorenzo] We put only the head on a basin.

-Just like with people--
-[Samin] This is a lot of meat.

Maybe almost 400 pounds?

-The prosciutto comes from the ham.
-Yes.

And then what's this, this beautiful fat
that's on the back--

This is the noble part of the fat.

-The noble part?
-Yes.

The noble fat. I love that.

In English, we have the saying,
"high on the hog."

So when you are wealthy
or you just got a big paycheck

it's the same, the idea of the noble fat

or the noble cuts of the highest parts
of the pig. Literally.

So, these parts here
are food for the rich people.

-What's this?
-The shoulder, the pancetta--

The pancetta, or the bacon.

The tenderloin here,
it's under all this fat.

[Lorenzo, in English]
So we start from the head.

[squishing]

[thump]

I'm already thinking about
the salami that coming later.

[Samin] So this is the shoulder
and this is the beautiful fat.

Now he's gonna break the middle part.

So this is all those tender cuts.

The belly,
which here they turn into pancetta

and we can turn into bacon.

Okay, stay away.

So we have the two ends,
the parts that have worked really hard

the front end and the back end.

Then the beautiful middle,
the high-on-the-hog part.

This is all the steaks and tender cuts.

[Lorenzo] What we have now
is a diamond in the rough.

We have to decide what kind of diamond
this should be.

I'll translate all of your poetry
while you work.

Okay.

But I have more poems.

Poetry helps here

because we're constantly surrounded
by the noise

of breaking joints.

[clack]

-[Samin laughs]
-That's what I was telling you.

[Samin] So, now we're gonna decide

do we want to turn this
into a beautiful piece of lardo

or do we leave that fat on this meat

and make it something
that we'll cook and eat for dinner?

This is a particularly fatty pig

and it would be a shame
to not turn that into lardo

that we can use for many months

so he made the decision
to go ahead and save this.

[thud]

-[Lorenzo] It's a good kind of meat.
-Yeah.

Simply well-treated and well-bred.

It's a happy animal.

Not so happy now, but... it was.

Was. Yeah.

[accordion Italian music playing]

[Samin] Twenty minutes have passed

and that big animal
has become these big parts.

All of these different kinds of fat
will become different things.

So really out of this whole animal,
there's no waste.

Everything has a use,
and it's really quite beautiful.

When you know what you're doing,
that there's a rule for everything.

So this, this, and this
become soppressata.

This is the guancia, the cheek.

And this becomes guanciale.

For making spaghetti.

Spaghetti carbonara.

Then we have the spalla,
the beautiful shoulder.

And then here's the beautiful
prized prosciut.

Again with this incredible amount of fat.

[Samin] Okay.

-A little more, please. [laughs]
-More?

Thank you.

So, this beautiful perfect piece of fat.

I'm sorry, Grandma.

It's like butter. It's so sweet.

Together, fat, salt, and time transform
this exceptional meat into prosciutto,

salami, and all of the other cured meats
that are a hallmark of Italian cuisine.

-[Samin] What is that?
-[Lorenzo] This is a finocchiona.

And this specifically
is called sbriciolona,

a big sausage that breaks apart.

[Lorenzo]
"Sbriciolarsi" means "to crumble".

This is a soppressata, made with the head.

Super salty, super chewy.

Very flavorful.

These are things
it'd never occur to you to eat.

If you just looked at that pig's head

there's fat, there's meat.

I don't even know what that is.

Maybe it was a jowl,
but when they've cooked,

it's a very soft texture.

Salami is made with cut-up meat.

The meat has to be ground up and flavored.

The prosciutto,
these are the most precious in a way,

because they take the most time
and they're made out of whole cuts.

[in Italian] Cheers.

These beautiful cured meats are the basis
for all sorts of amazing dishes.

But fat can be just as powerful
when used as a seasoning.

Added just before serving to enrich
the flavor or texture of a dish,

a few drops of toasted sesame oil
can transform a plain bowl of rice.

A dollop of sour cream will lend
silky richness to a baked potato.

But there's one ingredient I use more
than any other

to turn an ordinary dish
into something extraordinary...

[triumphant music plays, cows moo]

Red cow Parmesan.

-[Samin] That cow smell.
-Yeah.

[Samin] So who are these?
Who do we have here?

[Tania] So here we have the red cows.

-[Samin] The vacche rosse.
-Vacche rosse.

[Samin] Can you tell me a little about
the history of these cows?

[Tania] This is a very ancient breed

coming from the north of Europe

with the Barbaric invasions in 1200.

-So, a thousand years ago.
-Yes.

[Samin] Is the milk they produce special?

[Tania] Yes, it's very special.

[Samin] The milk from red cows
is sweeter and far richer in fat

than the milk from other cows.

That's what makes this
the queen of Parmesan.

Che bello. Wow.

So now what he's doing

is breaking up the curds and the whey.

The curds are these solid bits,
and the whey is the liquid.

[in Italian] You have to break
the milk apart delicately and uniformly.

That means there, there, there.

Slow and steady.

Because the milk must be respected.

[Samin] Just like Lorenzo's prosciutto,

the recipe for this cheese is simple.

It involves little more than salt, time,
and, of course, fat.

[Mauro, in Italian]
Now it settles on the bottom.

The paddle shapes the cheese
and detaches it from the wall.

-[Samin, in Italian] Can I pull it?
-Yes.

[Samin laughs]

Okay.

I'm trying to peel the cheese
off the bottom of the pot.

[Mauro] Okay. Good.

[Samin] Wow!

Wow, wow, wow.

[in Italian] It's like a ballet.

Ah!

-[Mauro] Now we tie it.
-[Samin] Uh-uh.

[Samin] So now we wait more.

[Mauro] With its weight, attached here,
it loses all its humidity.

[Samin] It's still soft.

-[Mauro] Okay.
-[Samin] So these are the twins.

You gotta check it.

Okay, now he's double-checking
to make sure we're doing it--

This one is bigger.

Okay. This is bigger.

How can you tell?

With my eyes!

[Samin] So this
is a thousand liters of milk.

Becomes two wheels of cheese.

And each one is 500 liters.

[metallic clank]

[swishing, dripping]

[Tania] The salatura, our salting room.

[Samin] Perfect!

[Tania] Lights!

[Samin] Wow!

[Tania] Newborn wheels
stay here about 22 days

so that they can absorb better the salt.

[Mauro] It's a great sign
when we see in the cheeses,

which are in these traditional
salt baths--

you can tell by the form, which is low.

-That's a good sign.
-[Samin] And why is that?

If the form is floating and tends to rise

it means there are air pockets inside.

[Mauro] So this one
is the driest, let's say.

[Samin] How many months old?

[Tania] Twenty-four months.

[soft thudding]

[Mauro] Hear that?

Now this form is very fresh.

-[Tania] This is very fresh.
-A very fresh one.

[Mauro] Hear the difference?

-Yeah.
-[thudding]

[Mauro] I do this test occasionally
as the form is aging

to make sure it's aging in the right way.

He does this test sometimes

and the official test is at 12 months.

You must hear this sound in your dreams.

[Tania] When you dream.

[Samin laughs]

[Samin] Okay, so you've brought me
everything for tasting.

So, we have the two years,
24 months at least,

-30 months...
-Yeah.

-...40 months.
-Yes.

Okay, can you tell me a little bit
about how to taste?

What am I tasting for?

You have to start from the youngest age.

-So you have to begin with 24.
-Okay.

[Tania] When you taste the first aging,
you taste the milk.

Okay.

-It's sweet.
-Yes.

-It's rich in flavor.
-[Tania] Yeah.

It's so good. It's so good.

-It's bringing tears to my eyes.
-Thank you.

It's so good.

I don't know how it could get better,
but let's try.

And this wheel is about 36 months.

You are starting to feel in your mouth
the crystals of tyrosine.

Yes, the tyrosine,

-which is an amino acid.
-Yes.

You can hear it crunching,
you crunch on it.

And so the 40 month,

it's like a fireworks parade
of all these tyrosine crystals.

This is dessert.
This is what you eat for dessert.

This is a candy of Parmesan.

-Pure flavor.
-Right.

-It's still sweet.
-It's so sweet.

It just hits every taste bud
in your mouth.

It's salty, sweet.

There's a little bit of bitter,
a nice bitterness.

There's umami, which is the crystals,
the beautiful flavor.

I think I'm just going to live here now.

Just eat cheese and butter

-until I die.
-Yeah.

-And ricotta.
-[Tania chuckles]

[Samin] Fat determines flavor.

But it also creates
five distinct textures:

creamy, flaky, crisp, tender, and light.

Combining a variety of textures
in one dish

can make a meal much more delightful

and surprising.

[no audible dialogue]

[relaxed instrumental music playing,
bell tolling]

[bike spinning]

-[Samin] Hi, good morning.
-[vendor] Good morning.

-[Samin] The artichokes are beautiful.
-[Emanuela] The artichokes.

They make you fall in love, really.

[vendor] You can eat these raw.

[Samin] Peel it first.
I've never done this before. [laughs]

It's almost like eating chocolate.

[man] The best cheese
in the world is here.

[Samin] Here?

-It's here.
-But have you tasted them all?

-I've tasted everything.
-Okay.

[Samin] I came to Tuscany
12 years ago, 13 years ago,

and I really miss
all of the fresh pecorino.

That one.

Because we don't have them in America.

-This one.
-Yes. Can I taste some?

-Of course!
-Okay, thanks!

How many months old is this one?

One month old.

One month?

I'd also like to try one that
has been aged for a really long time.

Oh, my God. So good.

Thank you, sir, how nice.

Beautiful work.

And this porchetta.

Want to eat some porchetta for breakfast?

Yes.

[Samin, in Italian] We'll have a sandwich.

How long does it take to cook?

For a pig this size,
it takes about six hours.

Six hours?

You use garlic, salt, pepper--

-Fennel, no?
-Fennel.

Sage and rosemary?

-Only fennel.
-Okay.

They each have their own flavor
so you don't mix them all together.

Tuscan cuisine is Tuscan cuisine.

Okay, let's have a taste.

When you get the crispy skin
and then the tender center, it's so good.

Traditional Tuscan bread has no salt.

Because the porchetta is very fatty,
very salty.

So they're kind of the perfect match
for each other.

[in Italian] Really, really good.

Look. Nice and...
Nice and fatty, huh? [laughs]

Food doesn't have to be complicated
to be delicious.

Over the centuries,

Italians have perfected the art
of using fat

to transform the simplest ingredients
into a great meal.

[bird chirping]

I have to tell you the story.

I don't know if you remember
about the first time that we met.

You were visiting Chez Panisse.
You were chopping vegetables.

You were just using your knife
and cutting it up

-into whatever pieces--
-A mountain of--

A mountain of onions, yes.

And Chez Panisse were very strict
about doing everything the French way.

So it was all about perfectly cutting
everything into little squares.

And you were standing there at the end
of the kitchen just chopping like this.

I just assumed you were like a volunteer
or something.

Only later did I realize
that you were actually

the Saint of Sofrito.

La Santa del Sofrito.

This really lies at the base
of Tuscan cooking.

This incredible thing that disappears,
it turns into almost, um...

a paste at the base of the food
that disappears and creates flavor.

But the amazing thing about this ragù

is we're layering
many different kinds of fat into it.

So we start with the olive oil
in the sofrito,

pork that has fat in it, beef fat...

beef fat...

and the milk.

[laughing, sniffling]

-You're laughing and crying--
-Laughing and crying.

That's pretty much the story of my life.
[cringes, laughs]

This is one of those important things

that I think home cooks always forget,
is how important it is to preheat the pan.

You have to heat the pan
before you heat the oil,

and you taught me that it takes
a lot of olive oil to make sofrito.

The fat that you choose
sets the dish off on a path.

If you cook the sofrito in butter,
it's not sofrito.

And when you hear the sizzle,
you can add it all.

[sizzling]

You'll keep cooking-- this probably
takes almost 45 minutes, right?

For the vegetables and the beef?

-Yes, it takes, like, 45.
-For everything.

[sizzling]

[swishing]

[sizzling]

Before I came to you,
my job at Chez Panisse

was to make the pasta every day.

And they taught me this crazy method

that involved
so many different calculations.

It was so complicated,
with all these different kinds of flours

and different measurements of eggs
and egg yolks.

And then when I came to you,
you taught me the simplest way.

It's just flour and eggs
to make handmade pasta, right?

-Yes.
-And the eggs give the richness

the incredible fat.

And you used more eggs
than I had ever seen.

This is why in Italy
we call it "pasta all'uovo."

Pasta all'uovo, yes!

Flour and eggs,
and a little water in case...

-you need it.
-To bring it together.

Exactly. And to give
a little bit of flexibility.

This flour here, I learned from you,
is so special,

here you call it grano tenero
and grano duro.

-Soft flour and hard flour.
-Exactly.

And so the hard flour
gives it a little bit of extra, um,

-texture, right? Chewiness?
-That's...

What I always explain
to people who come here:

in Italy, we love pasta al dente.

All right.

Six full eggs plus two yolks.

-For extra richness, for extra fat.
-Yes.

Start to whisk it with the fork.

Add a little bit more flour.

Softy, softly.

[soft whisking]

-[Benedetta] It's like music.
-[Samin] It is just like music.

[Benedetta] Okay.

[Samin] Everybody thinks
making pasta is so difficult.

-It's not difficult.
-[Benedetta] No.

[Samin] It's just about going slowly

and using the senses.

-It's escaping. [laughs]
-No, no.

-[Benedetta] It's chemistry.
-It is.

Starch and gluten have to get together

with the fat that is the egg yolk.

And it's starting to sort of...

resist the touch.

And this resistance to my thumb
is gonna be mirrored when I eat it

to the resistance in my mouth,
the chewiness of the pasta.

Sometimes for a lasagna,
I make it only with a soft flour,

because I want really silky, soft noodle.

But this we're going to eat with ragù,

which is a really dense and meaty sauce.

So we want something to stand up to it.

[birds chirping]

[wood crackling]

So, let's see what it's like
after resting.

-Wow. It has changed so much.
-[Benedetta laughs]

It's-- The flour has absorbed
all of the egg.

It's just much, much more pliable.

So we're going to use the soft flour

just to help us keep the pasta
from sticking.

Basically, you want to work it evenly
in all directions.

[Benedetta] Yes.

So I'm using my body weight.

It's coming from my legs
and my... haunches,

where I have all my power.

But as this pasta

grows thinner,

the action changes
and this is one of those incredible things

that I never understood
until I had to do it by hand.

In order to get the work done
without breaking your body,

a kind of beautiful efficiency
has always had to evolve.

If you are forced to make pasta
for 20 people,

you won't make it through the day

because you also have to make
ten other courses

and there's all this work to do.

So, women have really invented
these amazing maneuvers

to preserve energy.

[flour gently rustling]

-[rustling]
-[Benedetta] This is a...

There is a sort of noise that you... Hmm?

[rustling]

[rustling]

[Samin, in Italian]
Wow. What a beautiful job.

[Benedetta] It's almost transparent.

[Benedetta humming]

[Samin] Flour here.

I like to make wet pasta,
but I don't want it ever to stick.

So I just use obscene amounts of this.

That's it.

-And this way they don't all stick.
-Bravo, Samin!

Bravo.

[both laugh]

I've just made something quite imperfectly

that there have been people making
for thousands of years before me.

[sizzling, instrumental music playing]

[music resolves]

[fire crackling]

-Ciao, Samin. How are you?
-Hi, Lorenzo!

-Wow! [laughs]
-I have something for you.

-[Lorenzo] Eh?
-What is--

-[Lorenzo screams]
-[Samin laughs]

Hi. What have you brought?

-The porchetta.
-Poor little piglet.

Oh, it's beautiful!

[Samin] Okay, show me all the salumi.

And does this capocollo come from

-the neck?
-Yes.

[Samin] What's the percentage of fat here?

It's a pretty high percentage.

-Around 45%.
-Indeed!

Beautiful.
That's why it's so good. [laughs]

-Is there liver in here, too?
-Yes, we put the liver in.

-We have to use everything.
-Yes.

-See, it's cooked nicely inside.
-Mm-hmm.

This is the part here
that's really full of fat.

The prosciutto side has less fat.

-That's for those who want to diet.
-[Samin laughs]

["Quando Penso Al Tuo Sorriso"
by Daniele Benati playing]

♪ Quando penso al tuo sorriso ♪

[all cheering and clapping]

[Samin] We have some fried artichokes,

this beautiful sage is from our garden.

-[Samin] They're so good.
-Buonissimo.

[indistinct dialogue]

♪ Quando penso al paradiso ♪

♪ Vedo solo l'oochi tuoi ♪

[indistinct dialogue]

[guests clapping]

[Emanuela, in Italian] And now, a toast.

Thank you, Samin! Cheers to you.

-Grazie!
-Thank you so much!

[Samin, in Italian] I'm the one
to thank you guys. Lorenzo--

-[glasses clink]
-Thanks, Lorenzo.

-Thanks, Patricia.
-Oh, Patricia...

[dialogue fades out, outro music playing]