Amalfi: Poor Man's Food

Overview

The pair eat their way around the region of Campania, looking at how poverty in the area created Italy's best-loved cuisine and how 'poor-man's food' ended up making the same region rich. Gennaro takes Antonio to his home town Minori on the Amalfi coast where he has an emotional reunion with his many friends and family members and, after receiving a lesson from his Great Aunt on pasta making with an umbrella spoke, reminisces on the food of his childhood. Like many from the region his upbringing was tough; they lived off the land, made pasta from flour and water and were inventive with ingredients and leftovers. As Gennaro free-dives for lunch, storing his catch in his swimming trunks, it's clear where he gets his passion for food. In Naples, they discover how pizza was originally considered inedible by anyone but the starving until it was endorsed by a queen. And in Gragnano, a pasta millionaire explains how this cuisine then took over the world. The global popularity of this style of food means that much has changed since the Two Greedy Italians were boys and now the wealth of the Amalfi coast has given birth to a new style of food; one chef's signature dish - a reproduced tomato covered in real gold leaf. The chefs cook some great Italian 'cucina povera' dishes including a ragu alla Napoletana, linguine with prawns and mussels, and a very local lemon and ricotta tart.