(Nicole) So, you've ridden a gondola in Venice,
eaten gelato in Florence,
you think you've seen Italy;
you haven't.
No one earns that badge until they've been to Naples.
Naples is not for the faint of heart,
it's crowded,
chaotic,
and tatted up.
But man, does this place have soul.
It's full of characters
and around every corner
it's a diamond in the rough.
That's what kept me coming back here
for two decades.
And just when I think I've got a handle on her,
she surprises me.
So, this time, I've come with backup.
Buongiorno.
Buongiorno, Nicole.
(Nicole) I'm hitting the historic quarter with Francesca,
my woman on the inside.
She's a local expert with Context,
guiding urban explorers who want to go deeper.
In this area is where I first fell in love with Naples
because it is full of life, right?
- (Francesca) Scooters! - (Nicole) Yes!
(laughter)
- (Nicole) it's never boring! - (Francesca) That's true!
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) I'm here on a mission.
In our last episode, I spent a day in Amalfi
where I discovered how lemons
are literally saving the town from disaster.
Now, I'm in the big city,
to learn how lemons have inspired Italian cooking and culture.
♪ (music) ♪
After the requisite coffee --
We start at the beginning.
(Nicole) Naples was first settled by the ancient Greeks,
this was the site of the Agora,
and later the Roman Forum.
Francesca shows me two Corinthians columns,
lone survivors of a first century temple,
incorporated into de facade of a 17th century church.
This is what exciting about Naples,
it's a haphazard layer-cake of stories;
stories you can walk right up to and touch,
if you know what you're looking at.
To outsiders, Naples can seem inscrutable,
it's hard to know where history ends and myth begins,
where faith fuses with superstition.
Just look at these handmade nativity scenes,
a quintessentially Neapolitan fixation.
You got modern-day figures witnessing the virgin birth,
and there, amid the terracota produce
I spot them --
(Nicole) And those lemons would have come up from the coast.
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) All these fake lemons make me crave the real thing,
so we head over to Cafeteria Ippolito where they have --
(Nicole) Yes!
- (Nicole) Yes, medicinal, right? - (Francesca) Medicinal.
I think we should have a little bit of medicine then, shall we?
I think we should.
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) Thank you!
This looks like... a sugar bomb!
(laughter)
Layers of sponge cake filled with lemon cream,
covered with Chantilly cream.
♪ (music) ♪
Okay, so delizie al limone, not really my thing,
a little bit too sugary and a little bit too creamy,
but it was fun, it's lemons, that's what we're doing here, right?
Luckily, it's nearly lunchtime,
we're headed to a friend's apartment
where Francesca has arranged for me to learn from a local chef
a perfect Neapolitan summer dish,
but of course, we can't arrive empty-handed.
This is a salumeria from 1864, let's check it out!
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) Thank you!
We got our cheese,
our bread,
and lemons.
And this being Naples,
we bought them all from specialty purveyors,
who have been doing this forever.
It's time for spaghetti al limone!
Let's go!
♪ (music) ♪
We arrived at a friend's fabulous apartment
to cook with Antonio,
who's whipped up dishes in top kitchens in Italy and England.
Ciao!
(laughter)
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) This is spaghetti al limone!
A dish that Neapolitans crave when summer hits
and lemons are at their peak.
To make it you'll need:
(Antonio) Double cream,
parmesan,
dry red chili,
garlic,
butter,
lemon from Sorrento,
parsley,
and obviously the linguine.
Let's go!
(Nicole) Okay, half zest, half juice of the lemon.
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) More?
- (Antonio) Go, go, go -- - (Nicole) You can't have too much lemon!
(Antonio) Yeah, specially if they are from the Amalfi coast.
(Nicole) And everything right into the cream?
(Antonio) Yeah.
And the reason why we do that
it's because we don't want to cook the zest,
because it's already bitter,
if you cook it, it'll be even more bitter.
Perfect.
Nice smell.
(Nicole) Smell this, come on, so good!
♪ (music) ♪
(Nicole) Next, we chop garlic, chili and parsley.
A lot of people, at least where I come from,
think of Italian food as tomato sauce and olive oil, not butter and cream.
(Antonio) We already have the lemons, which are bitter,
so the olive oil, especially the extra virgin olive oil is bitter,
so you don't want to have too much --
- (Nicole) Too much bitterness. - (Antonio) Exactly.
(Nicole) Antonio melts de butter with the parsley, garlic and chili.
(Antonio) This is basically a very, very simple dish
and everyone can do that, but you need the right ingredients.
(Nicole) Good quality ingredients.
(Antonio) Absolutely.
(Nicole) And patience, that's the hardest ingredient to find.
(Antonio) You always need patience.
(Nicole) We add the lemon creme until it's just warm through.
(Antonio) Now, the king I say in Italy - parmesan.
Okay, the pasta is boiling... that's, the water is boiling
and we're going to open the pasta in the Italian way --
(Nicole) Whoaaaa!
♪ (music) ♪ (laughter)
(Nicole) Antonio says it should come out slightly undercooked but,
how does he know when that is?
(Antonio) I'm going to just touch it, then I know... I know it's the right time.
(Nicole) The pasta whisperer --
(laughter)
(Antonio) It will actually tell me, "I'm ready" --
(Nicole) I'm going to listen and see if it tells me that --
(laughter)
(Nicole) It doesn't, but eight minutes later,
it tells Antonio it's ready for the sauce.
He tosses the pasta as only a professional chef could.
I'd have spaghetti down my blouse doing that.
A couple of pinches of salt and he ladles some hot pasta water
until the linguine is fully cooked.
More parmesan and more lemon zest.
(Antonio) That will give you the smell, you know.
- (Nicole) To the table? - (Antonio) To the table.
♪ (music) ♪
We used linguine instead of spaghetti which has more surface area
for the sauce to cling to.
There we go --
(Nicole) After a long walk, we're finally feeding you.
(laughter)
(Francesca) Buon appetito!
(Antonio and Nicole) Buon appetito!
♪ (music) ♪
To Naples' new friends and limone!
(laughter)
♪ (music) ♪