Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Sign language

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

Documentaries

Factual: Food & Drink

Factual: Travel

Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the country’s regional cuisines.

Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines.

Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines. Tucci comes prepared with a bottomless appetite for it all, showing us how the diversity of Italian cooking offers a gateway through which you can glimpse Italy’s history and culture.

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

Simulcast of BBC Two Wales in high definition

BBC Two Wales HD

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Adam Hawkins

Eve Kay

Stanley Tucci

Amy Entelis

Lyle Gamm

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy: Series 1: Sicily

Sicily

Series 1

BBC Two - Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, Series 1, Sicily

Stanley Tucci visits Italy’s southernmost region.

Stanley Tucci visits Italy’s southernmost region, Sicily. He eats timballo with a princess, explores delicious ways to prepare sardines and is invited to a dinner blending foods from across the world.

Sicily is the Mediterranean’s largest island and is known as God’s Kitchen because of its rich volcanic soil. But it’s also said to be home to the gates of Hell. Impoverished for centuries, conquered by just about everybody and haunted by its Mafia connections, Sicilians have learned to make do with what they have. 
 
Michelin-starred chef Tony Lo Coco shows Stanley his signature dish, spaghetti alla bottarga. Stanley then heads to southern Sicily and meets artisanal winemaker Arianna Occhipinti to try the grapes grown in the region’s unique soils.

Next, Stanley dines with Princess Stefania di Raffadali in Palermo. Her chef Maria is an expert in timballo, a lavish baked pie made of pasta or rice with different fillings. 
 
Stanley travels to Italy’s southernmost point, Lampedusa, 173 miles south of Sicily and the first stop for many refugees from Africa. Here, he meets sardine fisherman Beppe Billeci and his wife Rina. They cook him sardines in salsa verde and sarde a beccafico. It’s the perfect embodiment of rustic food, making the best of local produce.
 
Ending his Sicilian journey, theatre actors Emanuela and Mimmo invite Stanley to dinner along with recent migrants, their foster son Mustafa and their friend Joy. The meal is a blend of food and spices from around the world, plantain fried in coconut oil, chicken cooked in curry and ginger and rice with peas and shrimps.
 
A RAW Production for CNN Original Series.

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy: Series 1

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

Series 1

Sicily

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

About BBC Two