Italian Food Safari

Italian Food Safari opens with a celebration of the wood-fired oven, which many Italians constructed in their backyards when they arrived in Australia. Maeve visits the inspiring Ricupero family who settled in Jarrahdale outside Perth where they grow vegetables on a large scale and bake 140 loaves of bread every 2 weeks in the huge oven they built themselves.

Italian Food Safari joins the last sardine fisherman in Fremantle on the Western Australia coast, the charming Jim Mendolia who supplies the fresh fish market. Melbourne cook Rosa Mitchell from the Journal Canteen, better known as Rosa's Kitchen, shows Guy the secrets of her delicious classic recipe for stuffed sardines.

Italian Food Safari focuses on the glorious tomato, with presenter Guy Grossi joining tomato grower John Monigatti on Echuca's black soil plains during harvest. Maeve then shares tomato day with a large Calabrese clan - the Cipri family in suburban Sydney who have made fresh tomato sauce every year since the patriarch Severio arrived in Australia 45 years ago.

Presenter Guy Grossi visits dedicated Melbourne artisan baker Daniel Chirico and tastes bread straight from the oven drizzled with olive oil and learns why loaves with soul take a little longer to make...and to prove that nothing in the Italian realm goes to waste, Guy then demonstrates a delicious bread-based salad called panzanella.

Italian Food Safari goes to the far western end of Australia to visit the crayfishermen of the Abrolhos Islands off Geraldton and Maeve spends time with Justin Pirrottina to learn how his father and other Italian fishermen came to fish the area and tastes how good a 'cray on the barbie" can be. Guy pops in on chef Maurizio Esposito to learn the secrets of his delicious crayfish gnocchi recipe.

Italian Food Safari presenter Guy Grossi meets passionate gardeners Lina and Antonio Siciliano who have created a huge vegetable and herb garden in Melbourne's suburbs that provides them with most of their meals and even the wine to drink with it. Maeve visits her friends the Marino family in Adelaide who show how they cure prosciutto on a large scale at San Marino Smallgoods.

Italian Food Safari joins professional rock fisherman Alex Bellissimo from Rock and Beach Charters at dawn to learn why so many Italians are drawn to the sea to fish for dinner. Respected Melbourne chef Robert Castellani from Donovan's Restaurant shows Guy an ingenious way of baking snapper and explains why Sicilians put a coin in the mouth of the fish.

Italian Food safari visits Mario Mammone and his family who own large citrus orchards in the fruit bowl of Australia outside Mildura - they came to pick oranges and now own the farm, growing some varieties adored by Italians, including blood oranges. Presenter Guy Grossi visits the fennel growing Mason family on the fertile plains outside Melbourne.

This episode of Italian Food Safari celebrates the tradition of preserving the best in season. Maeve meets the effervescent Italian Australian GP Pietro Demaio whose self-published book "Preserving the Italian Way" has been a bestseller and inspired thousands - after a taste of home cured tuna, Maeve is a convert.

Italian Food Safari discovers an Italian breed of cattle called Chianina now being reared in Australia by Daniela Mollica, who co-founded Slow Food in Melbourne - they're large, white and long legged and their meat is prized for the classic dish Bistecca alla Fiorentina, which calls for high quality aged meat cut thick.

Presenter Guy Grossi goes hunting game with his chef friend Daniel Airo-Farula in the wintry hills of Bulla, then makes rabbit in a Sicilian style sweet and sour sauce- coniglio in agrodolce. In Sydney, well known chef Danny Russo shows off a delicious family recipe from Calabria for quail involtini.

Italian Food Safari savours the seafood introduced to us by Italians - the squid that was once used as bait and is now a delicacy. Maeve joins Claude Basile whose grandfather was one of the pioneers of the Italian fishing fleets off the western Australian coast and he shares the recipe for his adored black ink pasta using squid ink sacs.

"In this final episode, Italian Food Safari visits Far North Queensland and presenter Guy Grossi learns how buffalo mozzarella is made and the secret of its great taste and texture. He then shares his recipe for a simple but exquisite classic Caprese salad with mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.