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Chef Gino D’Acampo is back for the fourth series of a culinary tour of his homeland.
‘Gino’s Italian Escape: Hidden Italy’ airs tonight (Monday October 10) on ITV at 8pm.
This time he’s revealing Italy as the locals know it, by going off the beaten track. Across seven episodes, tours seven regions that, for Gino, have some of the best kept culinary and cultural secrets that Italy has to offer.
His journey takes viewers from the central state of Abruzzo, north to Trentino Alto-Adige and Lombardia, back down through Umbria and Tuscany, then up to Liguria, and ending in Piemonte. He will be sharing tips and recipes inspired by his travels.
In episode one, he visits Abruzzo in the middle of Italy, bordered by Lazio, Marche, Umbria and the Adriatic Sea. Fishing and farming are what defines this region, so that’s exactly what Gino experiences first hand.
His food odyssey starts in the coastal town of Pescara, where he samples the region’s Chitarra pasta, named after the guitar like contraption that shapes the pasta, and learns how to make it by using a 200 year old technique.
Gino then travels along the Trabocchi coastline where he learns how fishermen are keeping another ancient tradition alive. He is inspired to make a pasta dish using the pasta he made earlier, in front of a backdrop of the Trabocchi.
He then goes deep into the mountainous terrain, where the locals make their living working the land, and meets a farmer who also trains the local breed of sheep dog. While Gino tries his hand at herding sheep, he learns about the dangers these shepherds face. After trying the shepherd snack of Arrosticini, Gino is inspired to create his own Mediterranean barbecue meal.
