Editor’s Note: You can watch season two of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” now on CNNgo and Discovery+.
Stanley Tucci traveled around Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines. In season two, he explored Sardinia, Calabria, Puglia and Liguria.
“I’ve traveled through this peninsula searching for a definition of a country that is at once welcoming and resistant, beautiful and dark, ancient and young,” Tucci said in the season finale.
“Pieces of the country we all know as Italy are to be found in the hills, fields, homes, mountains, castles, ruins and medieval streets, but my search has led me to realize that Italy as a single, pure entity is to be found only at the table.”
Now, season two of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” has ended, so we rounded up the best moments.
Here’s a look back at the most watched videos from this fall season.
Pasta breaking all the rules
When Italian chef Celso Laforgia dropped raw pasta into a pan with no water, Stanley Tucci was shocked. Spaghetti all’assassina, or assassin’s pasta has a cultlike following in Bari, Italy.
Baking mishaps
Pane carasau is a thin crispy bread dating back to over a 1000 BC. This versatile bread is a staple in Sardinia. But as Tucci watches the bread making process, he witnesses a series of funny mishaps.
World’s best lobster
Alghero is world famous for its lobster. It’s so good Queen Elizabeth II herself requested it for her wedding reception.
Wife material
Fregola, a couscous-like dish, is a central element in Sardinian cuisine. In ancient times if you didn’t know fregola, you weren’t wife material.
Tasting olive oil
The Puglia region of Italy is famous for its fragrant olive oil. Tucci visited a Puglian olive farm and learned the proper technique for tasting.
The most elaborate salad
This showstopping salad from Liguria is packed with the most expensive seafood. When it hit the table, Tucci was in awe of the presentation.
Sausage in dessert
While in Calabria, Stanley Tucci tried nduja, a spicy Italian sausage, in crème brûlée.
Newly invented cheese
In Puglia, Stanley Tucci meets a cheesemaker who did something no one in this region had done before: create an Apulian blue cheese. He developed 66 types of blue cheese.
Tucci’s family classic
For the Tucci family, a feast is not complete without zeppole, a deep-fried beignet-like doughnut. Click here for the recipe.
The best pesto
Liguria is the region we have to thank for pesto. And no one knows pesto better than chef Roberto Panizza, whose known as the “King of Pesto”. To see this recipe and other top recipes from this season, click here.
