[Uplifting percussive music]
Puglia, or "Apulia" as it's sometimes called, is the heel of the boot of Italy....
A long slender region surrounded by nearly 500 miles of coastline,
and two seas: the Ionian and the Adriatic.
The region stretches from the Gargano Peninsula —
the spur of the boot in the north, all the way down around the Salento,
the tip end that points the way to Greece,
the eastern Mediterranean and Africa,
and then around and up the Ionian coast.
In this long narrow region, visitors will find an exciting combination.
The bustle of some of the oldest cities in all of Italy,
as well as the peace and tranquility of remote uplands.
The razzle-dazzle of popular resorts,
and the sophistication of metropolitan capitals.
And visitors looking for good food and great wine
will find in Puglia — a veritable paradise.
For American cooks and food lovers, this is one of Italy's undiscovered food frontiers.
An ancient land of lush and fruity extra-virgin olive oil,
magnificent country-style breads and great cheeses.
And an unbeatable array of garden fresh vegetables and fruits,
like nowhere else on the Italian peninsula.
Indeed, Puglia provides the rest of Italy and much of Europe
with such a wide range of fruits and vegetables, both wild and cultivated,
that the region is justifiably called the California of Italy.
[Man speaking] They are really, really nice. And this tree.... There is a long story.
Oh, that is the best that you can get.
[Woman speaking] Let me try it. [Man speaking] Uh, yeah, it's like a jam.
[Narrator] Artichokes, pungent wild greens....
[Chef speaking] This is a wild garlic.
[Narrator] Table grapes, citrus, strawberries, asparagus....
Creamy fleshed potatoes, plump red onions and garlic....
Fava beans and other legumes, both fresh and dried....
eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, fennel....
Even wild Cardoncelli Mushrooms.... And of course,
the ubiquitous tomato in dozens of varieties.
Not to mention, wonderful wine grapes made from heritage varietals
that are little known outside the region.
Domenico "Mino" Maggi owns this beautiful Trulli Hotel in Locorotondo, not far from Bari.
[Nancy speaking] Ciao, Mino! [Chef Maggi speaking] Hi, Nancy, hi!
[Nancy] So nice to see you! Thank you! [Chef Maggi] Welcome! Welcome to our Trulli.
[Nancy] Thank you very much. [Chef Maggi] Welcome to Puglia.
[Nancy] It's wonderful to be here, it's wonderful to be back here in this beautiful climate.
[Narrator] This is where Chef Maggi grew up and learned traditional Pugliese dishes from his mother,
before he went off to school to become a certified chef.
[Chef Maggi] Yes, I always say that I am very lucky, yeah, because I was born here when there was no electricity.
[Nancy] Now why were you lucky to be born without electricity?
[Chef Maggi] Because — can you imagine, what does it mean to live seven years without electricity?
[Chef Maggi] Means that I lived the way people have been living for centuries. [Nancy] Yes, exactly.
[Chef Maggi] So, we're — you know — people, all my parents, everyone, was still cooking just on the fire.
So, the end — all the food was preserved naturally,
and so everything was all grown,
and so this is something that now, you know — is something that I don't think will ever come back.
[Narrator] Today, he works as a cooking teacher in Bari,
training young chefs, and he roves the world as, more or less,
official ambassador for Puglia's foods, wines, and culinary traditions.
[Chef Maggi] Yes, yes, there were farmers. We are the — what we grow our own wheat, we grow all the legumes....
[Chef Maggi] ....all the vegetables, all the fruit, so.... Everything was in season. [Nancy] Yeah.
So, everything was home grown, homemade....
[Nancy] Homemade wine, I imagine.... [Chef Maggi] Homemade wine, of course....
And all the flour and the semolina, all these kinds of things....
....that time, we were ashamed, because — you know — that eating wholemeal meant....
And legumes and vegetables and all these kind of things....
....you know, not eating a lot of meat meant....
[Chef Maggi] ....that only the poor people.... [Nancy] Cocina Povera.
[Chef Maggi] Cocina Povera. But then, you know, then we were ashamed of this food.
We were all these products, yeah. But now we discovered that....
those are the right products for the most healthier — the healthiest diet.
Today, in this corner, I will try to....
....to show to you some of the most important dishes of the traditional kitchen from Puglia.
So the first recipe today, our saying is [....] One of the most important one.
The ingredients are mussels, then we have potatoes....
Then we have Arborio rice — is perfect.
And then, of course, another very important ingredient is our cheese....
Canestrato — and this is the milk that the cheese I was saying, made from cow and sheep milk.
So, I start with the cold water.
You'll have to be quite generous also with the onions.
Then we get some garlic.
And I say how would we crush garlic — just smash on it.
We get our parsley....
....which has been of course already cleaned and washed.
In this recipe — the rustic, the typical... So, we don't need a very fine....
....the parsley to be very fine. Some fresh tomatoes.
And then we start slicing our main ingredients which are the potatoes.
Those are the yellow, yellow paste potato.
So, we do the same thing, slice the zucchini.
When they must be use the knife, like this way, the secret is always to keep the knife close to your fingers.
All the ingredients gets, can you say, all nice together.
All the flavors goes in it, and so it's great.
So we put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil underneath.
We get all our condiments and we make our first lay potatoes.
Also the colors. Look what a beautiful colors — I love.
And then here, we start, already using this Canestrato, as I was saying.... or pecorino.
We place all our mussels, facing up, because they are going to be, like, a container for our rice.
And then again some extra-virgin olive oil.
And now comes the rice.
So, we distribute the rice, not a very thick layer,
because otherwise, when it goes in the oven to cook,
if we put too much rice, it will be too — it can become too dry — and it is not very succulent.
We finish it off with another layer of these vegetables that we have here.
Now, what we can do is, to finish it off....
we can use bread and cheese and mix together,
and this is going to make a nice crust on top.
And, of course, extra virgin olive oil.
And our [...] It's ready to go in the oven.
Hundred eighty degrees for one hour.
And then again, I think the most important thing, is that we would sit all together, at least once a day,
all the family was sitting together around the table,
and you know enjoying the food, talking....
[Chef Maggi] And because there was socializing, yeah... So..... [Nancy] Socializing....
[Nancy] It's kind of reinforcing the family by sitting around the table.
I think that it's actually, for me, that's one of the most important characteristics of what we call "the Mediterranean Diet."
[Nancy] Not so much what you eat, as the way in which you eat. [Chef Maggi] Exactly.
And this is what it — makes you feel, can I say — live longer.
[Nancy] Yes, exactly. [Chef Maggi] Then I always say, mind you, that is the extra virgin olive oil.
[Nancy] Yes. [Chef Maggi] The secret.
Because I, you know, my parents — the only thing they ever, can say, used as a condiment...
it was extra virgin olive oil.
[Nancy] Yeah, I see this over and over again in Puglia. You say, "okay so what do you put on that vegetable?"
"Well, a little salt, a little pepper, and of course, some extra virgin olive oil."
[Nancy] And then the extra virgin olive oil is poured.... [Chef Maggi] Always quite generous, quite generous.
[Chef Maggi] And especially with the Fave e Cicoria with the legumes. [Nancy] Oh yeah. That's very kind of the national dish of Puglia, isn't it?
[Chef Maggi] Yeah yeah yeah.
[Narrator] This dish — Fave e Cicoria — dried fava beans cooked to a purée
and served with steamed wild chicory and a variety of condiments
is one of the great iconic dishes of Puglia.
Humble as it is, and based in the peasant farmhouse kitchen,
it's an astonishingly delicious and delicate meal....
A sort of all in one dish with a healthy balance of proteins from beans
and all the vitamins and minerals and the chicory and other vegetables
plus a hefty amount of olive oil to garnish it at the end.
And, of course, it's completely vegetarian for those people who are looking for that.
[Chef Maggi] And this is Fave e Cicoria [...]
When I was small, everything was cooked on fire. My mother —
I remember when we bought the first gas burner. And, eh.....
And one gas cylinder, it would last nearly a year,
because you know she would use just in an emergency, you know?
And otherwise, everything was done on fire.