By Janelle Davis and Foren Clark, CNN
It’s hard to get enough of delicious Italian food.
Season two of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” has viewers salivating again at the food made by chefs across the country. Some home cooks have even tried to mimic those dishes at home.
Just in case your attempts aren’t quite right yet, CNN has collected recipes from the chefs behind some of the most mouthwatering dishes from season two.
Here are five of the recipes that many viewers are eager to recreate at home.
The recipes are listed in US and metric measurements and have been adapted for home use by the restaurant or chef.
A pitch black Venetian classic
Black Ink Risotto With Squid
(Risotto al Nero di Seppia)
Recipe courtesy of Giovanni “Gianni” Scappin
Venice is a magical, mysterious, romantic place – but let’s talk about the elephant in the room: it has a reputation for bad food.
Chef Giovanni “Gianni” Scappin, a native of the city, was excited to prove the stereotype wrong. To showcase the best of the city’s canals and surrounding lagoon, he created the Venetian classic Black Ink Risotto With Cuttlefish.
Calamari (seppia in Italian) is the cousin of the squid and the octopus. And the squid ink is an important ingredient.
“The precious ink is used to blacken the risotto, making the dish as theatrical as Venice itself,” explains Tucci.
This risotto dish is so delicious that some neighboring countries claim it as their invention. It is impossible to know for sure who made the dish, but in the Venetian cookbook, the ink has been dry for a long time.
RECIPE: Black Ink Risotto With Squid
The risotto that Tucci calls ‘a revelation’
Risotto With Grana Padano Cream, Beer Reduction and Coffee
(Risotto with Crema di Grana Padano, Riduzione di Birra and Caffè)
Recipe courtesy of Christian and Manuel Costardi
piedmont, a region in northwestern Italy, is all about risotto. And the beating heart of this food tradition is the city of Vercelli, where Risotto, restaurants specializing in risotto can be found everywhere. One of the best places to try it in Italy’s rice capital, Christian & Manuel Ristorante, is tucked away at the back of a 1960s tourist hotel called Hotel Cinzia†
The restaurant is run by two brothers who give this dish a modern twist. Christian and Manuel Costardi’s signature version is a risotto with Grana Padano cream, beer reduction, and coffee. It should taste like cappuccino or tiramisu, but risotto – all in one dish.
Inspired by Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans”, the Costardi brothers playfully serve their specialty in individual metal cans.
The chef’s unique risotto earned them a Michelin star.
“This changes everything I thought about risotto,” Tucci said. “That’s a revelation. That’s a thousand things at a glance. Wow!”
RECIPE: Risotto With Grana Padano Cream, Beer Reduction and Coffee
This fondue is so delicious, it takes a spoon
Fonduta Valdostana
(Valle d’Aosta Fondue)
Recipe courtesy of Lorella Tamone of Alpage Restaurant
The Swiss are known for fondue, but their neighbors in Italy have their own take on this delectable melted cheese dish. It is called fonduta†
Instead of Emmentaler and Gruyère, the Italians in the Valle d’Aosta region use only one cheese: fontina.
Fontina is a creamy semi-hard cheese with a mild, nutty taste.
“Italian fontina cheese from cows fed on sweet grass high up on these mountains makes the fondue so delicious it doesn’t need the white wine they add in France or Switzerland,” Tucci said.
“Oh my god, that’s so good,” Tucci said as he enjoyed it fonduta Bee Restaurant Alpage at the foot of the Matterhorn. “So delicious!”
Presentation of the famous black truffle
Assoluto di Bosco
(Essence of the Woods Pasta with porcini and truffle)
Recipe courtesy of Alice Caporicci of La Cucina
The region of Umbria in central Italy is one of Italy’s major producers of highly sought-after black truffles, the earthy, aromatic fungi renowned the world over. The traditional method of truffle hunting with dogs and lots of digging in mountainous terrain can be difficult to sustain.
Carlo Caporicci was able to go truffle hunting and turn it into truffle cultivation on his family estate, San Pietro a Pettine. Using a method that takes more than five years to complete, Caporicci is able to produce black truffles that he believes are identical to their counterparts in the wild. His daughter, Alice Caporicci, uses her family’s produce in dishes at the estate’s restaurant, La Cucina†
The Essence of the Woods Pasta, also known as Assoluto di Boscocombines the delicious flavors of beetroot, porcini mushrooms and black garlic to create a mouthwatering pasta sauce that complements, but doesn’t surpass, the star of the show – a whole lot of truffle.
“A fitting finale,” Tucci concluded as he savored the dish, “celebrating Carlo, Alice, the future of the truffle and possibly the future of Umbrian cuisine.”
Pan pizza from a family run Italian pizzeria
Pizza al Padellino
(Cast Iron Pan Pizza)
Recipe courtesy of Adriano and Alfredo Lazzeri from Restaurant Il Cavaliere
Most people think of pan pizza and they think of mega American pizza chains, but a family-run Italian pizzeria has been baking this classic for over 60 years.
When Adriano Lazzeri’s Dad Opened Restaurant Il Cavaliere in 1958 Pizza al Padellino (meaning ‘pizza in a pan’) was a brand new concept. The restaurant in Turin, Italy, targeted factory workers, who went all out.
The base is a traditional Tuscan crust, inspired by the region where Lazzeri’s father grew up.
“The pan pizza has a very long rising time, the dough is in fact already prepared in the morning, it is spread in the pan and with the tomato sauce it floats for many hours. This way, once cooked in the old wood oven, a crispy, digestible and very tasty pizza is left,” explains the restaurant’s website.
Each pan pizza is a small personal pizza. Each customer can fill it with their own custom toppings. When Tucci visited the restaurant during the filming of season two of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” he chose sausage as the topping. He also added anchovies, on the recommendation of Chef Lazzeri.
“I usually like very thin pizzas, but this one is delicious, very creamy,” Tucci said after trying the dish.
RECIPE: Pizza al Padellino [add link on Sunday]
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