[Antoni Porowski] I'm Antoni Porowski.
-Hello.
-[woman] Hello, friend.
[Antoni] And as a son of immigrants,
-I know that food
-Ooh!
can tell you more about who you are
Nothing makes me feel
more Polish than this.
and where you've come from
-This is it.
-than you ever imagine.
So now, I'm leading
six curious Hollywood stars
-Are you excited for this?
-Yeah.
[Antoni] on their very own
journeys of a lifetime.
I've been waiting for
this moment my entire life.
[both laugh]
[Antoni] I'll be delving into
their family histories
[gasps]
-Florence?
-[Antoni] Yeah.
and tracking down culinary clues
Oh, my gosh, it's so good.
to unlock the past.
[Issa Rae] It almost feels
unreal to think that
I descend from a king.
[Antoni] And it all begins
-Ha!
-For you, Nonna.
-[Antoni] with just one
-Mmm.
-[laughter]
-[Antoni] family recipe.
[kiss smacks] It's crispy.
Mmm!
[Antoni] This time, star of The Leftovers,
Beetlejuice 2, and Mulholland Drive,
-Justin Theroux
-Here we go.
-Whoa, whoa.
-Oh, my God.
[Antoni] heads to Italy
Happy chicken, happy eggs,
happy me and happy you!
There you go! Whoo!
[Antoni] Where we cook
and taste our way
Wow.
[Antoni] to some surprising
and powerful home truths.
Wait, he was born at 3 a.m.
and delivered here at 9 a.m.
He was six hours old.
Wow.
I'm just strangely filled with gratitude
that this person did this.
You definitely come from
a family of survivors.
-[laughing] Yeah.
-That we know for sure.
♪♪
Can I just say, Italy is beautiful.
[laughing]
You know, no one's probably
ever said that before.
That's such an original thought.
[Antoni] I'm taking my old friend, Justin,
to one of Italy's most famous
northern regions,
Emilia-Romagna,
because this is the land of his ancestors.
[Justin] Look at this.
Lots of agriculture.
I was not expecting corn.
We're in kind of Italy's breadbasket.
[Antoni] This fertile territory
is a culinary colossus.
Birthplace of Bolognese sauce,
balsamic vinegar,
Parmigiano Reggiano, and countless pastas.
[Justin] I'm very appreciative
that you let me drive.
[Antoni] You're so welcome.
The little moments
where I can make you feel
like you're in control
of this whole situation.
[laughing] I know. It's the only thing
you've let me be in control of.
[Antoni] Justin believes
his great-grandfather,
a key figure in his family history,
came from a part of Emilia-Romagna
known as Piacenza.
And he wants to know more
about his Italian heritage.
This is it.
-[Justin] Here we are.
-Yep.
[Antoni] So I'm starting our journey
at a restaurant famous
for the local cuisine
[bell rings]
Look at this. Fantastic.
[Antoni] where we
should be able to find
Justin's favorite family dish,
tortellini in brodo,
a kind of stuffed pasta in a rich broth.
-[sighs]
-Oh, this is tough, isn't it?
I know.
-Grazie.
-[waitress] Prego.
So, what do you know about your family?
I know basically sort of the
the rough beats, you know.
And it's really I know
how it starts in New York.
-Mm-hmm.
-My great-grandfather,
Alessandro Dittami,
it's the classic sort of,
you know, one dollar
in his pocket, Ellis Island.
And there was a tent village
at Washington Square Park.
He basically sort of pitched a tent there,
where I believe he met
my great-grandmother,
and they fell in love,
and then they got married
shortly thereafter.
[Antoni] Justin never got
the chance to meet
his Italian great-grandparents,
Alessandro and Angela Dittami.
But he was very close
to their eldest daughter,
his nonna, Anne.
[Justin] My grandmother
was a wonderful woman
who lived pretty simply.
You know, she was a very good cook.
She made incredible meatballs,
which she was sort of famous for.
But her sort of the recipe
that she was most known for
was her tortellini in brodo pasta.
-Yum.
-And it's a recipe that's been
sort of passed around.
-Have you ever made it?
-Never.
She died at 103.
-Tortellini in brodo.
-Tortellini in brodo
and crossword puzzles,
apparently. [laughing]
That'll keep you going.
[laughing] That was what she did.
So, you know like a pretty
good chunk of their history
-once they made it to the US.
-Yeah.
But what about, like, in Italy?
In Italy, it gets really vague.
I think my great-grandfather
was illegitimate.
I had heard that he was
possibly a tailor maybe,
but there's all kinds of myths.
And then, obviously,
this is where
my great-grandfather is from.
-Mm-hmm.
-My great-grandmother,
what her provenance is,
that I have no idea.
-Yeah.
-And then,
my grandmother's tortellini in brodo,
I don't know the origin of the recipe,
whether it was something
that was passed down
from her mother,
or her father, or wherever.
I mean, there's a lot that I don't know.
But I want to.
[Antoni] With so much about
Justin's great-grandparents unknown,
I've got a hunch that
Grandma's special dish
can provide some clues.
Okay, so tortellini in brodo,
your grandmother made this dish.
Her father emigrated from Piacenza.
Locanda Del Falco,
where we are right now, like,
quintessential Piacenzan cuisine,
they truly cover it all.
So, I think we're in a really good place
to start considering where it's from.
Fantastic.
I'm not seeing it.
They have tortelli, they have ravioli.
No tortellini. No tortellini.
I want tortellini in brodo.
Let's go see the chef.
All right. [laughing]
-Ciao, chef!
-Ciao.
-Ciao.
-How are you?
-Antoni. So nice to meet you.
-Pietro.
-Nice to meet you.
-Justin.
-Nice to meet you, Pietro.
-Pietro. Nice to meet you.
So, you're a true Piacenzan?
-Yes.
-Okay.
We're exploring Justin's family history,
and he has roots in Piacenza.
Okay. So, you're Piacenzan?
And there's a dish
that his grandmother made.
My grandmother used to make
a tortellini in brodo.
-Okay.
-But
Wait, why, "Okay"?
It's not you cannot really have
tortellini in brodo in Piacenza, you know.
-It's not like
-Never?
Never. You don't.
Oh, interesting.
[Antoni] That's crazy.
Every town has its own cuisine,
and Piacenza isn't known for tortellini,
which means Grandma's dish
must have come from somewhere else.
Fortunately, Pietro's
preparing another specialty
that Justin's forebears
certainly would have recognized.
This is a very ancient recipe
that we're making right now.
These are guinea fowl rubbed in clay.
[Antoni] This is clay?
[Justin] I thought it was gingerbread.
-[laughter]
-Wow.
And we use them to bake it
and to keep all
the juices inside, basically.
[Antoni] It may not be
tortellini, but check it out.
Chef Pietro stuffs the bird with figs,
salted pork belly, and butter,
before it's cocooned
an age-old technique
for making meat moist.
Oh!
[Justin] Good God. Wow.
-[Antoni laughing]
-[Justin] Oh, my God.
-[Justin] Oh, wow.
-[Antoni] That's beautiful.
-Thank you so much.
-[Pietro] You're welcome.
[Justin] Okay.
Oh my God, beautiful.
-[Justin laughing]
-[Antoni] That's incredible.
Oh, my God.
[Antoni] Every mouthful
is deeply savory, yet sweet.
It's so moist.
[Antoni] Time-honored techniques
have yielded incredible results.
Well, this ruins guinea fowl
-moving forward.
-I know.
Wow.
[Antoni] But this isn't the dish
that brought us to Piacenza
in the first place.
So, no tortellini in Piacenza.
No.
Which casts a little doubt
on the possibility
the tortellini recipe
came from Piacenza at all.
Yeah. So, as we start this journey,
we're like, definitely flooded
with questions
about your family.
But it leaves a lot
to discover too, I think,
which is exciting in itself, you know?
Yeah.
[Antoni] It looks like we'll
have to do some more digging
to find out where Grandma Anne
got the tortellini recipe
in the first place.
What if we just explore
the women in your grandmother's life,
and see where that takes us?
I think she would love that.
-Yeah.
-Yeah. Let's do it.
For you, nonna.
[Antoni] Justin doesn't know much
about either his great-grandmother Angela,
or her mother before her.
But I've discovered
they lived in Agazzano,
just a few miles from
where we've had lunch.
So, I'm taking him to explore
the food traditions
in this little corner of the region
to see what we can discover.
[Justin] Are we allowed
to just pick an apple?
[Antoni] I feel like it's fine.
Here.
-It's delicious.
-Mm.
Okay, a little bit of information for you.
Okay.
So, your Grandma Anne's grandmother,
so your great-great-grandmother
-Mm-hmm?
-was a woman by the name
-of Ermenegilda.
-Ermenegilda.
-Ermenegilda.
-Mm-hmm.
And she was actually from,
like, right this area.
-Wow.
-And her family had a farm.
-Okay.
-That's kinda what
we're gonna go explore right now.
[laughing] I have a feeling
I'm gonna have a shovel,
and I'll be shoveling [bleep]
in about ten minutes.
[laughing]
[Antoni] While Justin
won't be needing a shovel
-[chickens clucking]
-my friend is right.
He's about to get his hands dirty.
-Ciao!
-Hi!
-Ciao.
-You arrived just in time.
I was going to feed my hens.
You're gonna feed the hens with
-Yes.
-I thought you were making this
-for us!
-No, this is for my hens.
[Antoni] Farm owner Grazia Invernizzi
rears chickens exactly how
Ermenegilda and her family
would have done it over a century ago.
And that means their diet
is very distinctive.
Let's go! Easy now, so
[Justin] Whoa!
Watch it, watch it, watch it.
[Antoni] Not yet, not yet,
not yet, not yet.
Oh, my God!
[Grazia] They really love watermelons.
-[laughing]
-Who knew chickens
loved watermelon so much?
There you go.
[Antoni] Feasting on fruit and veg,
chickens produce eggs
with a very special quality.
Does the watermelon affect
the color of the eggs?
-The yolk become more orange.
-More yeah, yeah, yeah.
It gives a beautiful color
and a beautiful taste.
[Antoni] This is the best watermelon
-I've ever had in my life.
-Oh! [laughing]
[Antoni] I can only begin to imagine
how good these eggs taste,
-if they're eating this.
-[Grazia] Yes.
So, I just found out
that my great-great-nonna
is from this area,
and family were farmers.
Surely, she had chickens.
[Antoni] With every farmhouse
having at least a few chickens,
laying what we've now established
must be the most delicious of eggs
[Justin] Excuse me.
Ooh, sorry. I'm so sorry.
[laughing]
[Antoni] it isn't surprising
that they feature
heavily in the local cuisine.
And just down the road, they're used
in one of the most hallowed of recipes,
as Chef Fabio Delledonne
has agreed to show us.
Okay, guys, please come in my kitchen.
With these amazing eggs
-Yes.
-Okay?
Happy chicken, happy eggs,
happy me, and happy you!
-There you go! Whoo!
-[laughing]
-[Fabio] Okay.
-[Justin] So, we start?
[Fabio] Yeah.
Let's start with cracking eggs.
-Just three guys cracking eggs.
-[Fabio laughing]
[Antoni] Chef Fabio is an expert
in the ancient art of making sfoglia,
Emilia-Romagna's famous fresh pasta dough.
Okay, like, why would I use
water if I can use eggs?
[Antoni] It's the basis
for all pastas here,
and the only dough
Justin's great-great-grandmother
Ermenegilda
would have known.
Look at that yolk.
-That one had a watermelon.
-Yeah.
-A whole watermelon.
-Yeah.
-That's crazy.
-And your mom
-taught you how to make this?
-Yeah.
Cooking is an act of love for your family.
[Antoni] And are you from Piacenza?
I'm from Piacenza, but my grandparents
were from Agazzano.
His great-great-grandmother
My great-great-grandmother
was on a farm in Agazzano.
-Oh, really?
-Yeah.
He learned today. Near
Do you see the similarity?
We could be related.
-Yeah!
-[laughing]
Okay.
Ah.
[Antoni] Although Ermenegilda
would have rolled
her sfoglia by hand, the end product,
this super thin and stretchy dough,
would have been identical and perfect
for making one of Agazzano's
signature pastas.
Now, we're gonna make tortelli.
-So, you can cut the dough.
-[Justin] Okay.
Don't be afraid.
-Don't be afraid.
-There we go.
-Wow!
-Nice.
-[speaking Italian]
-Cool!
-Okay, that way.
-Okay.
[Antoni] Tortelli sounds
suspiciously similar
to the dish we've been looking for.
Which begs the question
Can you make a tortellini with this pasta?
Tortellini? We don't have tortellini.
-You don't have tortellini?
-No.
I was about to get punched in the face.
Okay, yeah, yeah. You were about to
-You was about to
-Yeah.
[Antoni] So, no tortellini in Agazzano.
Wow.
[Antoni] But this tortelli
is certainly something
Justin's great-great-grandma
could have made
with her eyes closed.
Oh, what are we making now?
So, this is for
-Oh, okay. Yeah.
-Oh.
So, you fill.
The filling must be not too much.
-Let me try. I wanna try.
-Yeah, sure.
[Justin speaking Italian]
[Fabio] Wow, okay.
[Antoni] You never try a different herb,
a different type of cheese?
You always stick to tradition?
You can't.
-[Justin laughing]
-Got it.
-With tortelli
-It's not an option!
You can't, it's impossible.
[laughter]
[Antoni] Clearly sticking to
this region's centuries-old
culinary customs is a serious matter.
And now
Fold it up.
-And you have the first tail.
-Tail, uh-huh, okay.
And then, you fold it as doing a braid.
-Okay.
-I have to do it faster.
-'Cause it's so hard.
-It's tricky
to do it too slowly. Wow!
-Good?
-It's your first tortelli.
-It's amazing.
-My first tortelli.
-Yeah.
-[Justin] I wanna please Fabio.
-Is this okay, Fabio?
-[laughing]
Yeah. [laughing]
Just pick it.
-Fresh.
-Fresh.
Do you put a timer usually,
or you just look?
-Oh no, just
-Yeah, yeah.
Oh, I'm getting excited.
[Antoni] Justin's nonna's dish
may not have come from Ermenegilda
Oh, man.
[Antoni] but what she would
have cooked looks delicious.
-Wow.
-That's beautiful.
-Butter and sage.
-Oh, my God.
Taste your work.
-We have to do it together.
-Work.
-I'm grabbing two at once.
-I'm grabbing one.
-[laughing]
-That's absurd.
-Man.
-Made with love.
I know.
I don't mean to be dramatic,
this is one of the most beautiful things
I've ever tasted.
Like, it makes me emotional, it's so good.
I think we're brothers
from another mother.
Okay, yeah.
Definitely gotta be at least cousins.
With tortelli, we are connected forever.
-We're connected.
-Yeah. [laughing]
-You're gonna make me cry.
-[laughter]
Beautiful. That's so good.
-[Fabio] Thank you, guys.
-[Justin] Thank you.
[Antoni] I'm gonna go write my memoir,
because now I can die happy.
[Antoni] With such strength of
feeling about tradition here,
it's no wonder people
feel connected through food.
And it's clear that for Justin,
our time in Agazzano
has sparked a connection
to his nonna's family
that's taken him by surprise.
[Justin] It's a weird thing,
'cause obviously,
there's so much time and distance
between the present and that time.
But there is a little bit
of like, "Oh my God,"
and maybe I'm sort of sensing
a little bit of the DNA,
not just in a way of like,
"Boy, do I love Italian food?"
-Yeah.
-But yeah, I think,
you know, it's just
I don't know, it's fascinating.
Well, there are more pieces to the puzzle.
Hopefully we'll be able
to answer some of them.
♪♪
[Antoni] So far, we haven't found
Justin's beloved family dish.
But researching Justin's
great-great-grandmother,
I've made a discovery
about another relative
he knows nothing about
her husband.
So, we're making a detour
to find out more.
So, your great-great-grandmother
Ermenegilda,
married a man by the name of Francesco,
-your great-great-grandfather.
-Mm-hmm.
So, today, we're gonna focus on his story.
Does that sound mysterious enough for you?
That sounds extremely mysterious.
Yeah. [laughing]
[Antoni] Justin doesn't know it yet,
but we're heading
to Francesco's birthplace.
So, we're going into the mountains?
-Into the mountains.
-Yeah.
Look at this. Oh my God, it's beautiful.
[Antoni] Rising to heights
of over 9,000 feet,
the rugged Apennine Mountains
might be only a few miles away
from where were
in Emilia-Romagna's fertile flatlands.
And yet, it's another world.
Our destination is so remote
it's not on most maps.
In fact, there's not even a road to it.
Luckily, I've arranged
some alternative transport.
It's all about the immersive experience
of truly feeling like a local.
[Antoni] Courtesy of farmer Eugenio.
This is steep.
-Whoa, whoa, whoa.
-We take a left here.
Oh, God.
[bleep]! [bleep]!
-[Antoni] We're here.
-[laughter]
[Antoni] Grazie, grazie!
Hidden somewhere amongst these
old abandoned farmhouses,
there's a very specific spot
I'd like Justin to see.
-[Justin] Wow.
-Okay, so we're looking
for an entrance to a house,
and the steps that are leading up to it.
So, I see there's an entrance
right over there.
Yeah. Steps are either
that side or that side.
That side, yeah.
You take one, I take the other.
Okay.
Mine's a wall. What do you have?
I have steps. I mean, I found stones
that used to be steps.
Oh yeah.
[Justin] Yeah, these were the steps,
and that was the front door.
-[Antoni] Okay.
-All right.
So, I have some information for you.
Okay.
First thing I'm gonna show you.
This is an original document.
-Yes, it is in Italian.
-Mm-hmm.
The handwriting's so beautiful
that I can't even read it.
How about I show you the translation?
-Oh, that's so much better.
-[laughter]
How dare you?
Okay, "Municipality of Bardi.
Report of the case of a recently
born baby who was abandoned."
Oh. "The 4th of June of the year 1849.
"Domenica Carlotti, 58 years old,
"wife of Paolo Rossi, came here
"and declared that
this morning around 4 a.m.,
"she found a naked baby
inside a wicker basket
"on her farmhouse steps,
who only wore a poor quality
bonnet on his head."
-Wow. It's just
-I know, that part hit me.
I know.
"After checking the baby,
"I acknowledged that he is a male.
"There was no sign left
to recognize his origins.
I received the baby and"
I'm kinda getting legitimately.
"I received the baby and delivered him
"to the foundling house of Piacenza.
And he was named Francesco Bonifacio."
-Whoa, that's intense.
-Right?
Oh.
-So, he was abandoned here.
-Yeah.
-At this exact spot.
-Yeah.
-Literally, on those steps.
-Whoa.
Do we know about the woman
whose house this is, or
[Antoni] So, what we do know is that
-the woman who lived here
-Mm-hmm.
and then basically
brought him into care,
-she was a farmer.
-Oh, my God.
-Oh, that's so sweet.
-I know.
I'm actually strangely
filled with gratitude
-that this person did this.
-Yeah.
I mean, it's the first thing
that sort of hits me.
It is strange to look at this
and realize that had this woman
not taken in Francesco,
I would not be standing here.
-Oh, 100%.
-Yeah.
That's so strange.
[Antoni] Five generations ago,
eking out an existence
in these unforgiving
mountains, was so tough,
that Francesco's mother likely gave him up
because she simply didn't have
enough food to feed him.
Winter here was the hardest
season to survive.
[overlapping chatter]
But one regional specialty
helped the locals make it through.
What do we have here?
Wow, okay.
This cured pork lasts for months
meaning poor families
could slaughter a single pig,
and live off it till spring.
Mm.
-What's the dog's name?
-Ralph.
[Antoni] Ralph! Does Ralph like Coppa?
[Antoni] Delicious as it is,
Eugenio hasn't just
brought us here for the food.
Her family found the baby.
-Wow.
-[laughing]
-That's crazy.
-That's wild.
Like, wow. I just all my hairs went up.
[laughter]
-That's so special.
-Yeah.
Well, will you tell her
that I'm very grateful
to her family for finding
my great-great-grandfather.
-I think I caught some of that.
-[Antoni] I did too!
[laughter]
[Antoni] Investigating Francesco
hasn't brought us closer to
finding Justin's family recipe.
But the revelations have
deepened his connection
to his roots.
And there are more yet to come.
♪♪
[Antoni] Justin and I are heading east,
because I've discovered something
about his great-grandfather Alessandro,
the only ancestor
Justin knew anything about
when we arrived here,
that he needs to know.
So, you know how at
the beginning of this journey,
you thought that Alessandro
was from Piacenza?
-Yeah.
-Well, it turns out
-he was actually from Ferrara.
-Wow.
[Antoni] Alessandro's
naturalization document
clearly shows his birthplace
as Ferrara, not Piacenza.
But his profession, tailor,
chimes with the family lore.
I suspect that a deep dive
into Alessandro's bit of Emilia-Romagna
will provide some
valuable leads in our search
for the family recipe.
Ferrara stands near the mouth
of Italy's longest river, the Po.
And this mighty waterway
has dramatically shaped
the history of the city and its people.
Which is why I've arranged a trip for us
with resident river authority
Massimiliano Costa.
So, I'm told that to understand Ferrara,
you have to understand the Po.
-Is that true?
-Yes. Yes, it's true.
Because for centuries,
the Po was the main trade route
in the entire Po Valley,
and if you could manage the Po,
you were owning the Po Valley,
because everything
had to pass through the Po.
So, Ferrara, historically,
was very involved in trade?
Yes, because it was the gate
of the Po River.
When you were entering the Po,
it was very important.
[Antoni] Up until the late 16th century,
the Po ran through Ferrara,
bringing exotic goods, immense wealth,
and who knows, maybe even
the sort of fine silks
Alessandro used to talk about.
By Alessandro's day,
it had fallen on hard times
after the river changed course,
cutting the city off from the trade routes
that once brought it such riches.
But the Po has brought
a more enduring wealth
that lurks below its glistening depths.
[Justin] If you had
given me an entire week
to try and guess what I would
be doing this morning
it would actually be about a month
before I finally came up
with wading with you
through three feet of water [laughing]
-Well.
-to do something.
I've been waiting for
this moment my entire life.
[laughter]
I can't believe I had to wait this long.
[laughing]
All right, so we're actually
gonna meet some clam fishers.
Okay.
[Antoni] Clam harvesting has
always existed in the Po Delta,
but during Alessandro's time,
the practice developed
as hungry Ferraresi looked to the river
to provide cheap, nutrient-dense food.
[grunting] Ciao!
Ciao!
Wow! [laughing]
-Ciao!
-Ciao!
[Antoni] Clams!
-Vongola.
-Vongola. Ah, vongola.
[Antoni] Simona and her partner Germano
make their living dredging
the Po's shellfish bounty
from the river's rich sediments,
a job that in Alessandro's day
would have been done by hand,
but now is a little more mechanized.
I gotta get one of these in the gym.
-Yeah!
-This is fantastic.
It's a real core workout.
[Antoni] Justin's landed the starring role
operating the dredger.
While I do the real grunt work.
[laughing]
[Antoni] Food of the poor,
they might have once been.
Today, clams are one of
the gastronomic pearls of Ferrara.
And Simona and Germano
have invited us back
to taste them for ourselves.
Ciao, ciao.
Welcome, my friends.
[Antoni] Oh my gosh.
Don Ceci.
Ciao.
Oh!
It only took a few minutes
before I figured out how to do it.
[Antoni] These clams are prized
for their briny, meaty flavor,
and Simona wants to show us
how they've always been eaten.
-You understand?
-Si, si.
Aglio, si, garlic.
This is how you eat every day?
-Clams. Clams is fantastic.
-Wow.
Thank you.
[Antoni] By Alessandro's time,
the Po may have changed course,
altering the fortunes of the Ferraresi,
but its culinary bounty is a legacy
that endures even today.
[Antoni] Wow.
[laughing]
Grazie.
Si, hot.
-Oh my gosh.
-Oh, my God.
[Simona laughing]
Everything is better with love.
[Antoni] It seems that
every meal in Emilia-Romagna
has a story behind it.
[Antoni] And now that we have a taste
of how the Po shaped Ferrara,
we are heading there,
because I've got some dramatic home truths
to share about Alessandro's origins.
♪♪
[Antoni] We've reached Ferrara,
hot on the trail of what
more we can find out
about Justin's mysterious
great-grandfather, Alessandro.
Here, there are some
key bits of the family lore
we need to investigate,
because my hunch is the more
we know about him,
the closer we'll be to finding
Justin's family's tortellini in brodo.
So, I feel like when
we started this journey,
you had like this deep
connection with Alessandro.
Mm. What we know,
or what the family lore is,
is that he was born illegitimate.
-Uh-huh.
-He went on to become a tailor.
Then, when he got to the United States,
he ended up eventually
opening up a tailoring shop.
-I think he worked in silks.
-Okay.
You know, apparently,
he made beautiful suits.
All right, it's my turn to give
you a bit of information.
Okay.
This church, in the 1800s,
was actually a foundling hospital.
-Whoa.
-And Alessandro
was brought here when he was a day old.
-Whoa.
-Yeah.
So, he was an orphan.
-Whoa.
-Yeah.
That's intense.
[Antoni] So, Justin's
great-grandfather Alessandro
is the second abandoned
baby boy in his family tree.
All right, so this is Alessandro's
original foundling document.
"The year was 1880.
"Arrival, 17th of June, from Ferrara.
"Foundling Alessandro Luigi
Dittami of male sex.
"Born in the council of Ferrara church
on day 17th June 1880 at 3 a.m."
So, wait, he was born at 3 a.m.
and delivered here at 9 a.m.
He was six hours old.
Wow.
"With the following clothes.
"Four pieces of linen, two cotton bands
with three shirts, and a knitted bonnet."
-Which is a lot more than
-Totally.
-my great-great grandfather.
-Absolutely.
When Francesco was brought
to the house that we visited,
he literally had a bonnet,
and he was naked in a basket.
But Alessandro was a child
who was prepared.
Wow.
[Antoni] To help explain
what all of this means,
I've arranged for historian Nick Terpstra
to meet us here in this
former foundling home.
I can see that he's abandoned
within hours of being born.
And that usually indicates
that the child is illegitimate.
-Mm.
-And this is the thing
about these homes.
They're charitable homes,
but they're also a way
that, if I can put this nicely,
wealthy men
can carry on extramarital liaisons
and not have to worry about the outcome.
It allows them to know that
they're gonna be taken care of,
and in a sense, "It's off my hands."
-No.
-Wow.
[Antoni] So, we have a pretty good idea
why Alessandro may have been given up.
But what about the other details
passed down through Justin's family?
We've also heard that he was a tailor,
and that he was very good
at working with silk.
It's interesting, 'cause silk
is one of the biggest industries
in Italy at that time.
But the thing about that
is a lot of these orphanages
were set up by silk merchants,
both to care for those children,
but also then to provide a labor force
that would allow them to get
some of their own work done.
-[Justin] Child labor.
-So, it was child labor.
-Right.
-Yeah.
And one of the saddest things,
is that by the time you get
to the 19th century,
there's a food culture
at the level of the poor
of having really largely corn as polenta.
And the problem is, if you don't mix it
with other things, it can cause
dietary problems, right?
So, conditions within
the orphanages were horrendous.
And there was such malnutrition,
the death rates for those children
who stayed in the orphanage
were phenomenal.
So, to survive in the institution,
he is one lucky kid.
[Antoni] Thankfully, Alessandro
would eventually move on
from his harsh, humble beginnings.
And to celebrate his
great-grandfather's survival,
and Italy's transformation
since the 19th century,
I'm taking Justin
for a very special lunch.
-Ciao, Giovanni.
-Hi, guys, welcome!
-Hello.
-Welcome to Piaceri Di Lucrezia.
-Nice to meet you.
-Justin.
-Antoni, Antoni.
-Okay.
Giovanni, nice to meet you.
So, I see there's a beautiful garden.
-Let's go.
-That's okay?
-All right.
-Okay, perfetto, grazie.
Grazie.
[Antoni] Chef Giovanni Ragazzi
is rehabilitating
the once-vilified polenta
as a gourmet food.
And his signature dish
is a crispy polenta lasagna.
Layered with bechamel and pork,
it's light years away from
what they would have served
in Alessandro's orphanage.
-Hi, guys.
-Hello!
-Enjoy.
-Oh, whoa.
[Antoni] Grazie, Ragazzi.
-Enjoy.
-Thank you so much.
Mm.
Whoa, it's so good.
Mm.
[Antoni] It's a nice sentiment,
taking something like polenta,
how it can kinda like change over time
and kinda evolve
and get reinvented, you know?
I mean, you obviously think of Italy
with just the most amazing food.
You don't think of it
as a completely impoverished country.
Right.
Have you had time to process
the information overload
-from our lesson with Nick?
-Yeah, that was fascinating.
It definitely gives me an appreciation
and a perspective for what
he endured, you know?
And also just, not for nothing,
sort of that repeated
in both his case and in Francesca's case,
that those are two boys
who got left, you know,
and what that must have done
to their psyche, you know.
It's given me an enormous
amount of sympathy for them.
That must have been
very painful, you know?
-For sure.
-And so
Look, you've definitely come
from a family of survivors.
-[laughing] Yeah.
-That we know, for sure.
Mm-hmm.
By the way,
I definitely have not forgotten
-tortellini in brodo yet.
-[laughing] Yeah.
-I know that's how we started.
-I still don't know where it is.
I promise we will get to that.
But, that's for another day,
and that day is tomorrow.
Okay.
♪♪
[Antoni] Justin and I
are heading south of Ferrara
and its foundling home,
because I've discovered
that's exactly what his
great-grandfather Alessandro
did three generations ago.
I feel like it's finally time I tell you
-where the hell we're going.
-I would appreciate that.
So, we're actually very close to Cento.
-Really?
-Which is where Alessandro
actually spent most of his early life.
-Oh, my God.
-He was with a foster family
up until his 20s.
The significance of that
is that they were only
responsible for him legally
until he was 18.
So, the fact that he stayed
with them till his 20s,
he was probably really happy with them.
So, he really did find his family,
-which is kinda touching.
-Oh, that's sweet.
[Antoni] Close to the cities
of Bologna and Modena,
the comuna of Cento
has a certain coveted recipe
that's traditionally made
for big family get-togethers
like today's mid-August
summer festival, Ferragosto.
And we've been invited
by our host, Ricardo,
to help out.
Oh, hi, guys. Hi. Hi.
-Antoni, hi.
-How are you?
-This is Justin.
-This is my family.
My mum, Hannah. That's Franco.
-That's for you.
-Thank you.
[Antoni] If Ricardo's family seem excited,
it's because the dish they're preparing
really is something special.
-Oh, my God.
-You know?
-[Hannah laughing]
-I've heard about it.
-Maybe?
-[laughter]
[Antoni] Finally, we've tracked down
where Justin's family recipe comes from.
I remember seeing that in
the drawer of my grandmother.
-Really?
-That exact same tool, yeah.
[Antoni] Cento, where Alessandro grew up
with his foster parents.
So, I've been looking for this everywhere.
We looked for it in Piacenza,
we looked for it in
-[Justin] Wow.
-[Ricardo] I think so.
-[Justin] That's crazy.
-[Antoni] Can we help?
-Or can we yeah?
-Sure, sure.
Is it? How hard can it be?
[Antoni] Working, of course,
with sfoglia dough,
the first tortellini task is
to cut perfectly sized squares.
[Antoni] Whoa.
You need to go straight on
with the sprunella.
I know. Oh, straight on this way?
Okay, now it's good. [laughing]
Okay.
[Antoni] To fill each tortellini,
there's a mouthwatering mix
of local salami and cheese.
-Oh, my God.
-[Ricardo laughing]
Oh my God, so some mortadella.
Mortadella.
[Antoni] And finally, each pasta parcel
must be pinched and twisted into shape.
[laughter]
Okay, grazie.
[speaking Italian]
It's just a little bit fat.
-A little fat.
-Just a little [laughing]
Come on, guys,
it's time to cook tortellini.
-Okay.
-[Justin] Let's go.
Get this into the kitchen.
[Antoni] Finally, we have several plates
of perfectly formed pasta.
But tortellini is only
half tonight's meal.
The brodo is a rich beef and chicken broth
that's been simmered, seasoned,
and left to stand for two whole days.
And Ricardo's entire family
are ready to enjoy this dish together.
[people chattering]
-Okay, guys.
-Oh, wow.
[Ricardo] We are ready for the tortellini.
-Oh, my God.
-[speaking Italian]
-Oh!
-Oh, my God.
I made that one, you made that one.
-I know.
-Yeah.
The ones I made, you can see the ones
that are falling apart.
-Si.
-Oh, wow.
[Antoni] How is it?
It's so delicate.
Oh!
The broth is outstanding.
-It's unreal.
-It's almost like a mousse
-inside the tortellini too.
-Yeah.
The thing that's totally
similar to my grandmother's
is that it tastes like,
two very separate tastes
of the broth and the tortellini.
-Yeah.
-It's when they come together
with the Parmesan, it's so delicious.
You can travel everywhere,
but this kind of tortellini,
you can try only here.
If we want it, we have to come back.
So, guys
[all toasting]
[Antoni] So, this has been a journey.
This has been a really great journey.
Literally ate our way through
Emilia-Romagna.
-Thank God you're Italian.
-I know.
Do you feel more Italian after this?
I definitely feel like
I identify more with the region,
the food, the people
I've met along the way.
You know, to see those families
that are working together,
living together, cooking together,
it's really in the DNA
to sort of make these meals together.
-Oh, yeah.
-And to make them as a family.
And then also pass them down.
I also cannot believe that the one recipe
brought us right to the region
that we are in right now
-Yeah.
-which is exactly where
-my great-grandfather is from.
-Right.
You know, I mean,
it is like it's like following
-a fingerprint, you know?
-Right.
And the fact that that was the recipe
that I can't help but think
was the one that he brought,
and that my grandmother learned,
and that my grandmother made,
-which now I have.
-Yeah.
It's like, it is the DNA of the Dittamis.
[Antoni] It seems the very dish
Alessandro took with him
when he left his foster parents
has steered us back
to an equally warm embrace.
It's been fun. It's been great.
Thank you. Oh.
-I love you.
-I love you too.
Or I should say, thank you,
graze mille, grazie.
-[laughing]
-Te amo.
♪♪
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01x03 - Justin Theroux's Italian Quest
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Porowski takes famous guests on an international journey into their pasts through food in each episode.
Porowski takes famous guests on an international journey into their pasts through food in each episode.