All the places in Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy - Sicily

Chef Tony Lo Coco welcomed Tucci into his Michelin star restaurant for his take on the Sicilian classic spaghetti alla bottarga. "The core, the soul of your restaurant," Tucci said to the chef, "is taking the really simple food of Sicily, and elevating it."

Sicily is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, but its wines are often thought to be too bold to enjoy on their own. Winemaker Arianna Occhipinti is changing the game by producing a more delicate vintage at her vineyard in Vittoria.

In Palermo, Stanley visits the 16th-century palace of Princess Stefania de Raffadali, the perfect setting to sample a dish that he has come to be associated with: Timballo (Timbale in English) or Timpano. This is the Sicilian casserole-type food that features in “Big Night”. Using a timbale mold, the princess’s chef Maria prepares eggplant timbale, rice timbale, and a timbale with a pastry crust. Tucci and the Raffadali family discuss the international origins of Sicilian food, the mafia murders of Falcone and Borsellino, and the changing faces and flavors of modern Sicily.

After a two-hour flight, Tucci lands in Lampedusa, the tiny Sicilian island that has become the center of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Here he meets fisherman Beppe, who tells a harrowing tale of an overturned migrant ship. The “open arms” policy of Lampedusa earned the island a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2014. At the home of Beppe and his wife Rina, Tucci dines on sarde a beccafico, the poor man’s attempt at recreating a stuffed poultry dish made with the beccafico (garden warbler). Sarde a Beccafico has many different versions depending on in which city in Sicily it is made.

Tucci does not climb the slopes of Mt. Etna. But the still-active volcano looms over everything in Catania. Its mineral-rich soil is also the reason why food and wine from this area is especially prized.

In the port city of Catania, Tucci dined on donkey carpaccio -- "like beef carpaccio, but even sweeter" he says -- and pasta alla norma at Roberta Capizzi's restaurant. "The food is great," Tucci says, "but the magic ingredient that makes this restaurant so special is the wonderful Sicilian hospitality."