WEBVTT

00:00:03.659 --> 00:00:06.279
(Nicole) So, you've ridden
a gondola in Venice,

00:00:06.279 --> 00:00:08.390
eaten gelato in Florence,

00:00:08.390 --> 00:00:10.380
you think you've seen Italy;

00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:11.309
you haven't.

00:00:11.309 --> 00:00:15.215
No one earns that badge
until they've been to Naples.

00:00:17.670 --> 00:00:20.150
Naples is not for the faint of heart,

00:00:20.150 --> 00:00:21.130
it's crowded,

00:00:21.130 --> 00:00:22.060
chaotic,

00:00:22.060 --> 00:00:23.230
and tatted up.

00:00:23.230 --> 00:00:26.309
But man, does this place have soul.

00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:28.640
It's full of characters

00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:30.000
and around every corner

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:31.750
it's a diamond in the rough.

00:00:31.750 --> 00:00:33.470
That's what kept me coming back here

00:00:33.470 --> 00:00:34.920
for two decades.

00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:37.790
And just when I think
I've got a handle on her,

00:00:37.790 --> 00:00:38.860
she surprises me.

00:00:38.860 --> 00:00:40.739
So, this time, I've come with backup.

00:00:40.739 --> 00:00:41.599
Buongiorno.

00:00:41.599 --> 00:00:42.880
Buongiorno, Nicole.

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.080
(Nicole) I'm hitting
the historic quarter with Francesca,

00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:47.770
my woman on the inside.

00:00:47.770 --> 00:00:50.120
She's a local expert with Context,

00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:53.105
guiding urban explorers
who want to go deeper.

00:00:53.809 --> 00:00:56.561
In this area is where
I first fell in love with Naples

00:00:56.561 --> 00:00:59.000
because it is full of life, right?

00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:00.630
- (Francesca) Scooters!
- (Nicole) Yes!

00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:01.630
(laughter)

00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:04.090
- (Nicole) it's never boring!
- (Francesca) That's true!

00:01:04.274 --> 00:01:06.174
♪ (music) ♪

00:01:06.304 --> 00:01:07.750
(Nicole) I'm here on a mission.

00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:10.369
In our last episode,
I spent a day in Amalfi

00:01:10.369 --> 00:01:12.069
where I discovered how lemons

00:01:12.069 --> 00:01:14.970
are literally saving
the town from disaster.

00:01:14.970 --> 00:01:16.860
Now, I'm in the big city,

00:01:16.860 --> 00:01:21.150
to learn how lemons have inspired
Italian cooking and culture.

00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:22.610
♪ (music) ♪

00:01:22.610 --> 00:01:23.990
After the requisite coffee --

00:01:25.149 --> 00:01:27.140
We start at the beginning.

00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:36.310
(Nicole) Naples was first settled
by the ancient Greeks,

00:01:36.310 --> 00:01:38.530
this was the site of the Agora,

00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:40.200
and later the Roman Forum.

00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.410
Francesca shows me
two Corinthians columns,

00:01:43.410 --> 00:01:46.750
lone survivors of a first century temple,

00:01:46.750 --> 00:01:50.946
incorporated into de facade
of a 17th century church.

00:01:51.330 --> 00:01:53.840
This is what exciting about Naples,

00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.490
it's a haphazard layer-cake of stories;

00:01:56.490 --> 00:01:59.220
stories you can
walk right up to and touch,

00:01:59.220 --> 00:02:01.104
if you know what you're looking at.

00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:05.920
To outsiders, Naples can seem inscrutable,

00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.139
it's hard to know where
history ends and myth begins,

00:02:09.139 --> 00:02:11.931
where faith fuses with superstition.

00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.860
Just look at these
handmade nativity scenes,

00:02:14.860 --> 00:02:17.990
a quintessentially Neapolitan fixation.

00:02:17.990 --> 00:02:21.763
You got modern-day figures
witnessing the virgin birth,

00:02:21.763 --> 00:02:24.480
and there, amid the terracota produce

00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:25.480
I spot them --

00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:33.900
(Nicole) And those lemons 
would have come up from the coast.

00:02:37.010 --> 00:02:38.680
♪ (music) ♪

00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:41.710
(Nicole) All these fake lemons
make me crave the real thing,

00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:45.220
so we head over to Cafeteria Ippolito
where they have --

00:02:51.630 --> 00:02:53.930 line:1
(Nicole) Yes!


00:03:02.690 --> 00:03:05.090
- (Nicole) Yes, medicinal, right?
- (Francesca) Medicinal.

00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:08.960
I think we should have
a little bit of medicine then, shall we?

00:03:09.150 --> 00:03:10.320
I think we should.

00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:12.270
♪ (music) ♪

00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:14.050
(Nicole) Thank you!

00:03:14.170 --> 00:03:17.420
This looks like... a sugar bomb!

00:03:17.420 --> 00:03:18.890
(laughter)

00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:21.810
Layers of sponge cake
filled with lemon cream,

00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:23.810
covered with Chantilly cream.

00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:25.230
♪ (music) ♪

00:03:25.230 --> 00:03:28.880
Okay, so delizie al limone,
not really my thing,

00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:31.180
a little bit too sugary
and a little bit too creamy,

00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:34.685
but it was fun, it's lemons,
that's what we're doing here, right?

00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:37.560
Luckily, it's nearly lunchtime,

00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:39.209
we're headed to a friend's apartment

00:03:39.209 --> 00:03:42.330
where Francesca has arranged
for me to learn from a local chef

00:03:42.330 --> 00:03:44.930
a perfect Neapolitan summer dish,

00:03:44.930 --> 00:03:47.882
but of course,
we can't arrive empty-handed.

00:03:48.350 --> 00:03:52.133
This is a salumeria from 1864,
let's check it out!

00:03:54.420 --> 00:03:57.240
♪ (music) ♪

00:04:00.130 --> 00:04:01.809
(Nicole) Thank you!

00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:03.860
We got our cheese,

00:04:03.860 --> 00:04:04.920
our bread,

00:04:04.920 --> 00:04:05.833
and lemons.

00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:07.580
And this being Naples,

00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:10.240
we bought them all
from specialty purveyors,

00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:12.180
who have been doing this forever.

00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:15.079
It's time for spaghetti al limone!

00:04:15.079 --> 00:04:16.368
Let's go!

00:04:16.468 --> 00:04:19.738
♪ (music) ♪

00:04:21.538 --> 00:04:23.840
We arrived at a friend's
fabulous apartment

00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:25.320
to cook with Antonio,

00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:29.280
who's whipped up dishes
in top kitchens in Italy and England.

00:04:30.210 --> 00:04:31.066
Ciao!

00:04:31.136 --> 00:04:32.097
(laughter)

00:04:32.167 --> 00:04:35.007
♪ (music) ♪

00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:40.120
(Nicole) This is spaghetti al limone!

00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:43.880
A dish that Neapolitans crave
when summer hits

00:04:43.880 --> 00:04:45.780
and lemons are at their peak.

00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:46.960
To make it you'll need:

00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:48.390
(Antonio) Double cream,

00:04:48.390 --> 00:04:49.390
parmesan,

00:04:49.390 --> 00:04:50.720
dry red chili,

00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:51.550
garlic,

00:04:51.550 --> 00:04:52.610
butter,

00:04:52.610 --> 00:04:54.160
lemon from Sorrento,

00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:55.160
parsley,

00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:56.600
and obviously the linguine.

00:04:56.600 --> 00:04:57.440
Let's go!

00:04:57.440 --> 00:05:00.169
(Nicole) Okay, half zest,
half juice of the lemon.

00:05:00.169 --> 00:05:01.369
♪ (music) ♪

00:05:01.369 --> 00:05:02.149
(Nicole) More?

00:05:02.149 --> 00:05:04.789
- (Antonio) Go, go, go --
- (Nicole) You can't have too much lemon!

00:05:04.789 --> 00:05:07.190
(Antonio) Yeah, specially 
if they are from the Amalfi coast.

00:05:07.190 --> 00:05:08.950
(Nicole) And everything
right into the cream?

00:05:08.950 --> 00:05:09.970
(Antonio) Yeah.

00:05:09.970 --> 00:05:11.150
And the reason why we do that

00:05:11.150 --> 00:05:12.950
it's because we don't want
to cook the zest,

00:05:12.950 --> 00:05:14.990
because it's already bitter,

00:05:14.990 --> 00:05:17.190
if you cook it, it'll be even more bitter.

00:05:17.190 --> 00:05:18.190
Perfect.

00:05:18.190 --> 00:05:19.190
Nice smell.

00:05:19.190 --> 00:05:23.740
(Nicole) Smell this, come on, so good!

00:05:23.870 --> 00:05:26.010
♪ (music) ♪

00:05:26.090 --> 00:05:29.876
(Nicole) Next, we chop garlic,
chili and parsley.

00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.050
A lot of people,
at least where I come from,

00:05:32.050 --> 00:05:38.070
think of Italian food as tomato sauce
and olive oil, not butter and cream.

00:05:38.070 --> 00:05:41.260
(Antonio) We already have
the lemons, which are bitter,

00:05:41.260 --> 00:05:44.820
so the olive oil, especially
the extra virgin olive oil is bitter,

00:05:44.820 --> 00:05:46.490
so you don't want to have too much --

00:05:46.490 --> 00:05:48.257
- (Nicole) Too much bitterness.
- (Antonio) Exactly.

00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:52.199
(Nicole) Antonio melts de butter
with the parsley, garlic and chili.

00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:55.780
(Antonio) This is basically
a very, very simple dish

00:05:55.780 --> 00:05:58.970
and everyone can do that,
but you need the right ingredients.

00:05:58.970 --> 00:06:00.940
(Nicole) Good quality ingredients.

00:06:00.940 --> 00:06:01.940
(Antonio) Absolutely.

00:06:01.940 --> 00:06:06.060
(Nicole) And patience,
that's the hardest ingredient to find.

00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:07.970
(Antonio) You always need patience.

00:06:08.830 --> 00:06:11.806
(Nicole) We add the lemon creme
until it's just warm through.

00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:16.860
(Antonio) Now, the king
I say in Italy - parmesan.

00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:22.049
Okay, the pasta is boiling...
that's, the water is boiling

00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:26.470
and we're going to open the pasta
in the Italian way --

00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:28.020
(Nicole) Whoaaaa!

00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:30.290
♪ (music) ♪ 
(laughter)

00:06:30.380 --> 00:06:33.540
(Nicole) Antonio says it should come out
slightly undercooked but,

00:06:33.540 --> 00:06:35.170
how does he know when that is?

00:06:35.170 --> 00:06:39.150
(Antonio) I'm going to just touch it,
then I know... I know it's the right time.

00:06:39.150 --> 00:06:40.420
(Nicole) The pasta whisperer --

00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:41.290
(laughter)

00:06:41.290 --> 00:06:43.795
(Antonio) It will actually 
tell me, "I'm ready" --

00:06:45.010 --> 00:06:47.340
(Nicole) I'm going to listen
and see if it tells me that --

00:06:47.340 --> 00:06:48.600
(laughter)

00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:50.857
(Nicole) It doesn't, 
but eight minutes later,

00:06:50.857 --> 00:06:53.620
it tells Antonio it's ready for the sauce.

00:06:54.550 --> 00:06:57.550
He tosses the pasta as only
a professional chef could.

00:06:57.550 --> 00:07:00.340
I'd have spaghetti down
my blouse doing that.

00:07:00.340 --> 00:07:04.070
A couple of pinches of salt
and he ladles some hot pasta water

00:07:04.070 --> 00:07:06.460
until the linguine is fully cooked.

00:07:06.460 --> 00:07:09.170
More parmesan and more lemon zest.

00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:12.063
(Antonio) That will give you
the smell, you know.

00:07:12.363 --> 00:07:14.370
- (Nicole) To the table?
- (Antonio) To the table.

00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:16.590
♪ (music) ♪

00:07:18.225 --> 00:07:20.785
We used linguine instead of spaghetti
which has more surface area

00:07:20.785 --> 00:07:21.827
for the sauce to cling to.

00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:24.606
There we go --

00:07:27.310 --> 00:07:31.019
(Nicole) After a long walk,
we're finally feeding you.

00:07:31.110 --> 00:07:33.027
(laughter)

00:07:33.270 --> 00:07:34.320
(Francesca) Buon appetito!

00:07:34.320 --> 00:07:35.450
(Antonio and Nicole) Buon appetito!

00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:37.740
♪ (music) ♪

00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:44.050
To Naples' new friends and limone!

00:07:44.140 --> 00:07:45.820
(laughter)

00:07:45.909 --> 00:07:48.390
♪ (music) ♪