Antonio Carluccios Italian Feast

Italian food’s greatest champion, Antonio Carluccio takes us on a gastronomic tour of Northern Italy to bring us an insider’s view of his native land and its mouth-watering cuisine.

Travelling around the North of the country – from the mountains of Liguria to Venice and Verona, Antonio Carluccio takes the best of the old and the most delicious of the modern and brings them together to create food that is as full of passion as it is of flavour. As Antonio returns to his childhood haunts for a family nosh-up, joins a porcini mushroom hunt, cheers on the teams in Venice’s annual gondoliers' race and visits Milan's famous design school, he swaps recipes with chefs, housewives, old friends and even Dominican monks.

Inspired by the best ingredients and flavours of Northern Italy, Antonio demonstrates how to make a definitive pesto sauce and an authentic bolognese sauce; he reinterprets traditional dishes including rustic lentil and sausage casserole and pasta with white truffle sauce; but he also creates exciting new dishes such as polenta with shrimp and an ice cream indulgence called "the Doges 'delight'.

Special Bonus Feature - Carluccio and the Renaissance Cookbook

In this one-off documentary, Antonio Carluccio travels to Italy to investigate the life and recipes of Bartolomeo Scappi, the famed 16th Century chef; declared by many as the world’s first celebrity chef.