-Growing up in New England, I used to go to my grandparents farm with my mom and we'd always sit on the porch, and I'd say to my mom, "Mom, what's over the hill?"

And she always said the same thing.

She said, that's California.

And that's what made me really curious about the world.

And what I love even today is to go and make these discoveries and bring them back to my own kitchen.

The one thing that I never shared with you after all these years of doing the show was that city over the hill that I love so much.

The place that I live, San Francisco.

You know, I actually got my start at Chez Panisse over the bridge.

And that's where I really learned about the Bay Area and how fabulous this food sourcing community is.

You can get almost anything here.

So that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to make three recipes, sourced with local ingredients.

We'll start with a fennel, arugula and persimmon salad with toasted hazelnuts.

And for the main course, we're making handmade garganelli pasta with a very simple but delicious tomato sauce and Grana Padano cheese.

And for dessert, I love this recipe.

I just wrote it.

And it's a recipe for upside-down blood orange cake that's scented with citrus and vanilla.

And I'm so excited because today I'm going to be cooking with Maddy and Ellis, they're friends, but also tenants, and we share the house.

So let's get started.

I love to travel the globe in search of new food and wine discoveries.

For me, it's about more than returning home with a handful of new recipes.

It's about taking the spirit of Austria, of Italy, of Greece and of the Danube River and injecting some of their magic into our everyday lives.

Food has a unique ability to transport us.

Join me as we discover new plates and places on our culinary journey together.

-"Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... -With Ama Waterways, guests can climb, pedal, and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at AmaWaterways.com.

-Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every vine, grape and bottle.

Washington Vintners.

-Since 1899, my family shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100 percent Italian tomatoes -- only tomatoes, only Mutti.

-For baking, cooking and snacks, California figs from Valley Fig Growers.

♪ -I've got all of my recipes written and this is the kind of menu that you'd make if you were staying in for the evening in Italy.

It's simple and really wonderful.

Anyway, I have a few more things to get, but before I go and I'd like to do is check my CSA box to see what I have there.

♪ I always love when my CSA boxes arrive.

For those of you who don't know what CSA is, it means "community sourced agriculture," and it's a really great way to support your local farmers.

These aren't agriculture that you would necessarily find at your grocery stores.

It's what you find at the farmer's market.

And I love this box because it's delivered right to my door.

Wow.

Look at what I have today.

I'm really excited about it -- blood oranges.

Perfect for the cake.

Also, I've got some kale.

I'm not going to use it today, but I've got it.

Beautiful arugula -- that'll be great for the salad.

That's perfect.

Look at this.

Oh, that is the most beautiful fennel!

That's amazing!

But also, look at these eggs.

Oh, anyway, that's perfect for the pasta.

Okay, looks like we have all of the fresh ingredients that we need.

And now we're going to head out to Lucca to get the rest.

So we're on our way to the Marina, which is about 10 minutes from my place and where you find lots of those iconic San Francisco views.

And it's where we find Lucca, which was opened in 1929 by Mike Bosco and two friends, and it's now run by his grandchildren, Paul and Linda.

Hey, Paul.

-Hey, Joanne, how are you?

-I'm good.

How are you?

-Good.

I'm just slicing some prosciutto di Parma here.

Would you like a slice?

-You know how much I love prosciutto!

Oh, that is great.

So this one is...?

-That's Parma, and then I also have a lot of other meats you might want to take a look at.

We have four different kinds of prosciutto.

We have Jamón Serrano, speck, and we also have the famous prosciutto di San Daniele.

-Oh, wow!

Oh, great.

I'm making this salad and it's going to be with persimmons, also some fresh fennel and arugula and toasted hazelnuts.

Which one do you think would work?

-This is the famous prosciutto San Daniele, which comes from Friuli, which is near the Alps and the Adriatic.

-What I'm going to do is take 24 slices of that.

-Perfect.

-It'll be perfect, yeah.

-Okay.

-So I know you have tons of other meat.

-Yeah.

Let's take a look at over here.

-See what else.

-We have the porchetta, we have bresaola, pancettas, and then we also have the guanciale.

-I need to get some guanciale.

So I'm going to take like about I'd say three ounces.

-Okay.

-Would be great.

Okay, so I have this list.

-Uh-huh.

-We have the prosciutto, the guanciale.

Okay, OO flour.

I know you have that.

-Yes.

-Also polpa tomatoes.

-Yes.

-Cans.

And some white balsamic -- you know that little bottle of white?

-Yes.

-It's like that condimenti, the -- it's so delicious.

Oh, you what I need?

Mascarpone.

And the other thing is a nice big chunk of Grana Padano.

People always use Parm, but I really love Grana Padano.

It's got -- especially for what I'm doing, it's kind of simple tomato sauce.

And I feel like with the Grana Padano, it'll kind of, you know, it's just more gentle.

You know, a little less assertive.

-Uh-huh, that's right.

-I just love it, I love it.

Seriously, standing in this corner, I can smell the cheese.

It smells so amazing.

Okay, so I have to ask you a question.

Somebody told me that this used to be a garage.

Maybe it was your sister, but this was a garage?

-Yes!

Yes, this was a garage once before it became a deli.

My grandfather started this place in 1929 with two partners -- yeah, Grandpa Mike, we called him.

-This looks like Italy.

They brought Italy to San Francisco.

-They really did know.

Here you go, Joanne!

-Oh, thank you so much, that's fantastic.

Tell your sister I said hi.

-I will.

-And it's great seeing you.

-Great to see you.

-Ciao.

-Ciao.

-Okay, thanks to Paul and Linda, we've got everything we need and we're heading back home.

It looks like Maddy has a basil plant.

You know, Ellis and Maddy are really great to have around.

They live on the bottom floor of my house.

Maddy, she works in tech.

Ellis is a structural engineer.

And even though we've been neighbors for a while, this is actually the first time that we've cooked together.

All right, so we're making an upside-down cake, so it's a blood orange upside-down cake, and usually people start with butter in the pan.

But I'm going to start with olive oil and just a couple tablespoons, and I'm using extra virgin olive oil.

When it's rippling, what we're going to do is add some brown sugar.

This looks pretty good and see how the oil is all around.

so it's really even -- that's what we want.

-Okay.

-So we're going to take 1/4 cup, and what I'm going to have you do, because I know you'll be great at this, being a structural engineer, I'm sure you're perfect at this.

-I'm sure I'll be great.

-You can just add this slowly.

So, we're looking for it all to be melted.

I'm going to cut some blood oranges.

Oh, look at this one.

This one isn't too dark.

-Calico.

-Sometimes it's -- yeah, "calico," I like that.

These are actually calico oranges.

The first time I had these in Sicily, I was shocked.

I thought it was tomato juice.

You know, blood oranges are so delicious because they're sweeter than other oranges.

-Is there a trick to cutting them so thin?

You know, you want a really nice sharp knife.

If you get smaller oranges, and the more firm they are, the better they are.

That's what I'm looking for.

-Just go all the way around the pan?

-Yes, but I want to give you light and dark so we have that beautiful mix of colors.

So what we're going to do is the dry ingredients.

-This is semolina.

-Isn't that what you make pasta with?

-You do, but what I wanted was, I wanted a cake that's got some texture to it, some weight.

Here is some cornmeal.

I'm going to trade you.

You can put 1/2 cup of that in too.

What this is, is just all-purpose flour.

-Okay.

-Yes.

So what you're going to do, dip that in, and then we'll level it off.

-Okay.

-I can't wait to come downstairs for dinner!

-We'll make all of your own recipes.

-Yeah, we'll make the cake over and over again because you'll be really good at it!

-This is what?

-They're all mixed together.

-All of it.

-It's baking powder, baking soda and salt.

-Okay.

-These now look really, really good, see how soft they are?

-Yeah.

-And some of the edges are starting to just get kind of translucent, that's what you're looking for.

-Perfect.

And they're really soft, they're kind of melting on each other.

-All right.

White sugar.

Yes, 1 1/4 cups total.

What you're going to do is take this rasp and you're going to zest that orange.

You're going to do the whole orange.

Don't go too much of the pith, the white.

-And why not?

-The pith is bitter.

That's why you only want to zest the colored part of any citrus.

So instead of butter in this cake, I'm using olive oil.

I love the flavor of olive oil.

I can almost drink olive oil, seriously.

Oftentimes when I make a cake, I'm not going to use my most expensive olive oil, but I will use an extra virgin and a good quality one.

I know, it always gets stuck in the whisk.

So don't worry.

I just kind of tap.

I do just what you do.

Okay, we're going to do three eggs.

-Okay.

-Go for it, and then whisking well after each addition.

Why don't you help, flat-mate?

-Yeah, help me out.

-Oftentimes people also will crack it into a bowl, you know, and then add it just so you don't get any shells.

This is "Flowers of Sicily."

It's used a lot in panettone and then also they put it in biscotti and cakes.

It has so many different scents in it and different ingredients.

-Oh, my gosh.

-Isn't that extraordinary?

-Wow.

-If you don't have a bottle of this in your cabinet, you need to get it.

I think this stuff is amazing.

So we're going to add about 1 1/2 teaspoon.

Now, 2 tablespoons of blood orange juice.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to add the wet to the dry and we're also going to add a little bit of yogurt.

And then what you're going to do is start to fold, cut down the center, and each time you want to see the inside of your wrist through all of the batter up over the top and you keep turning the ball at the same time.

See, my job is rocket science.

Okay, let's add the rest because we don't want to overdo it.

All right.

We're done.

I mean, this is it.

So now we'll pour this right over the fruit.

-So you're not blending it a ton.

You're just -- -That's correct.

You do not want to overdo it, with your banana bread.

Don't overdo it, just until it's mixed.

It's really important.

Nice.

-Okay, that's just about all of it.

-What do you want to take that to the oven?

-Maddy.

[ Laughter ] -So I don't know about you, but I'm hungry.

-I'm getting a little hungry.

-Okay, so we're going to make this salad that I love.

So this is the time of persimmons.

So I want to do a salad of persimmons, arugula and fennel.

Why don't you grab the fennel and also the arugula?

You could grab a couple of persimmons.

And while they do that, I want to show you how we got these persimmons.

Wow.

This is a beautiful garden.

-Oh, it is beautiful.

-Are those all Fuyus?!

-Those are all Fuyus -- that's the Fuyus for your salad.

-Okay, I have never picked persimmons.

-Would you like to try?

-I would love to.

The great thing about where we live is that lots of people grow persimmons in their backyards and usually have more fruit than they can eat, and they don't mind sharing.

Look how beautiful that is.

Oh!

So we're heading south to Mountain View to pick fruit with Craig Diserens of Village Harvest, a nonprofit that harvests persimmons from local homes and distributes them to food banks.

-Village Harvest got started way back in 2001.

Sort of noticed the trees in the neighborhood that had so much fruit and realized that nobody could use all of it.

Today, we have thousands of volunteers picking many hundreds of homes and small orchards each year.

Today we'll pick between 500 and 600 pounds just from two persimmon trees.

And the 500 or 600 pounds will go to the local food agency and it'll help feed 500 to 600 people.

-Wow, that's phenomenal.

I love it.

What I really love about what Craig does is I get to share these persimmons with both of you.

This is a Fuyu persimmon.

What I do with these is I cut off the bottom, then I just take a small knife and just peel around the outside.

Some people like the skin.

I tend not to use it, but if you want to, you can.

Let's taste.

Mmm.

They're so wonderful, so crunchy.

I want you to taste it with the prosciutto.

Oh, this is prosciutto di San Daniele, comes from the northern part of Italy.

I got this at Lucca, the Italian market.

You have to go because honestly, you will think you are in Italy.

You know how everybody has prosciutto with melon or prosciutto with figs?

We're going to do it with persimmon.

Isn't it great?

-That's so good.

-Okay, what we're going to do is make a very quick dressing.

Fennel oil, and I've got a really beautiful white vinegar that's made out of the Trebbiano grape.

It's great.

It's not too strong of acid.

Is that too acidic for you?

-No, there's no bite to that.

-I think you could take sparkling water and put this in and you would have the most delicious, delicious drink.

So take a piece of the arugula.

This will tell you, does this have enough acidity?

Does it have enough olive oil?

Does it have enough salt?

What do you think?

-I think a little bit more salt.

-I do, too.

Very good.

A little bit more.

So what salt does is salt tempers acidity.

When you get a CSA box, this is how you get fennel.

That's pretty extraordinary, right?

I mean, it's got the tops and everything.

What you do is you cut off the top and the bottom.

This stuff is so fresh.

It's incredible.

You're just going to shave this so it's really thin.

And this is what I'm looking for.

See how thin that is?

-Uh-huh.

-I want you to taste that.

-It's a lot lighter flavor than I expected it to be.

-You know, I don't like the licorice candy, but I love fresh fennel.

Okay, let's clean this up a little bit so that we can chop some hazelnuts.

These hazelnuts were in the oven at about 350°.

Some of the skins have come off.

And the reason that people peel hazelnuts is because the skin tends to be a little bit bitter.

But I like a touch of that bitterness, which adds complexity to the salad against the sweetness of the persimmon.

So I put this into a rough towel.

And then what I do is I wrap this up and I just roll these a little bit and you'll see what happens.

That's what I'm looking for.

-That's cool.

-Yeah, and so now what we'll do is we'll chop them.

I love the combination.

You know, we have this wonderful, earthy kind of nut with the slight bitterness of the skin.

And then you have the licorice from the fennel, the pepper from the arugula.

So with a simple salad, you've got lots of flavor.

And there's just going to be a light dressing on this because there was a little dressing on the bottom of the bowl.

If you overdress something like the arugula, it's really going to wilt.

That looks great!

But we're missing prosciutto.

And I just kind of tuck it into the salad.

I like to make it look like it fell out of the garden, but really it's very much placed on the plate.

-Little bit of everything.

-Ooh, that looks good.

Okay, Maddy, that's for you -Thank you.

-Ellis.

-Thank you.

-Let's see how we did.

-It's really good.

So it's very delicate on that arugula -- it's great, but you know what would make this taste even better?

-What?

-What are you thinking?

-A little glass of wine.

This wine should be delicious with it.

-What kind of wine is it?

-This is Pigato grape, and it's from Liguria.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Yeah, to our salad.

That is perfection.

-It's really an amazing combination.

-Mm!

I think I'm going to have to get a case.

Okay, pasta!

I'm going to let Ellis and Maddy eat their salads.

And I want to show both of you how to make some homemade garganelli and a delicious tomato sauce.

First, I want to measure 360 grams of flour, and I'm using 00 flour.

This is a pasta dough that I learned from my friend Valentina.

She comes from Bologna in the northern part of Italy.

It's really a wonderful recipe.

So I take the flour, add a little pinch of salt, not too much, and then just mix this together.

And this goes right out on the work surface.

I'm making a well in the center and I'm adding the eggs right to the well.

And I just take my thumb and I'm going around the edge and gathering the flour into the center.

You can see it's pretty easy.

You just don't want to break the well.

So you can make this, if you want, in a food processor or a stand mixer.

But there's something about making pasta with your hand like this, it just feels so good.

And when you know it's not going to roll out of the well anymore, you can use a pastry scraper and gather it together.

What I'm trying to do now is gather this together in a ball.

It looks really rough at the beginning, but then it starts to look more and more smooth.

When you're kneading, what you're doing is you're picking it up and kind of pushing it away from you.

So picking it up and you really want to work this.

This is developing the gluten, and then you let it rest, so that relaxes the gluten so you have a nice, tender pasta.

We knead this for 10 minutes and then we let it rest for 30 minutes and then we can roll it out.

Okay, you ready?

-I'm ready.

-I'm going to make the sauce!

Remember the guanciale that I got at Lucca?

You could use pancetta also if you like, but I love the texture from the guanciale.

There's lots of fat to it, but that fat has flavor.

What I'm going to do is dice this.

So I would say this is about 1/2 inch squares.

You can see how there's a good amount of fat, but also there's some meat to it too.

And that fat really crisps.

And that's the wonderful thing about it.

When we add it at the end, it adds this great texture.

So I'm heating the pan and adding a few tablespoons of oil to the pan.

What I'm looking for with the guanciale is that it gets crispy on the outside.

Can you smell that?

-I can smell it, starting to.

-Smells great.

-Oh, I know it smells so good!

How is the dough going?

-I think it's coming along pretty well.

-Can you smell the dough from up there?

-yeah, I can smell the dough!

And I'll set this aside.

And I've got all that nice oil in the pan.

I'm going to let that cool little bit and peel some garlic.

What I'm doing is just to scent the oil with the garlic.

So I don't want to cook the garlic all the way through, just until it's light golden.

And in the meantime, what I can do is cut the onion.

Can you smell the garlic?

I mean, that is so delicious.

All right, now that that has scented the oil, I'm removing the garlic and I discard that because that would be big chunks of garlic in it.

You don't want that.

And now cook the onions.

I'm just cooking this until it's soft and translucent.

Now that these have cooked, we're just adding the tomatoes.

Now I'm going to add some salt.

Always remember: tomatoes, salt.

Would you do me a favor?

-Yeah!

Would you grate some of this Grana Padano?

-Sure.

-And I want to add a little bit of sugar to the sauce.

And a little pinch of crushed red pepper.

I let this cook for about 10 minutes.

This is a very quick sauce, that's all there is to it.

And then we've got that guanciale!

This smells so delicious.

I really have to taste this.

Mmm, it's delicious, wow, and just that little hint of garlic, but you know what I forgot?

Just a little oregano.

It's just going to give a hint of flavor.

So 10 minutes, that's it.

And now we're going to make some garganelli.

So this is what we're going to use -- the pasta machine -- to roll up the garganelli.

You are going to be master pasta makers after this.

I just cut one piece and then flatten this piece.

And don't worry, you're going to be rolling here.

-Can't wait.

-And I open this to the widest and then I send the pasta through.

Now I'm going to go to number three.

When I worked at Chez Panisse, I used to make 40 pounds of pasta a day!

All right, go for it.

-Okay.

So, just right in here and start cranking?

-Yes.

And the more noise it makes it, the better it is.

[ Squeaking ] And you can send it through three or four times.

That gives you a good shape.

But it also continues to knead the pasta.

Let's put a little flour on that side.

-And is it just because it gets tacky?

Like, what's the -- -Yeah, it's a little bit sticky and then it's going to stick to itself when it falls down.

-Wow, that's really cool.

-I know.

It just thins it out, right?

Now is the fun part.

We'll cut this into three strips.

-I don't know if I can do a straight line like that.

-Oh, stop!

-It's like cutting wrapping paper.

-I think you can.

So then we want to cut it into a square.

-This wide?

-Yes.

You want them all to be about the same shape.

Okay, what we're going to do is take a board and we're going to roll them.

And you want to stick?

Can you put it on the board like this, and then you wrap the top around like this, and then you're going to give a little bit of pressure, just like that.

So you have these beautiful ridges.

-How cool!

-Isn't it?

-So satisfying.

-I love that!

♪ Okay, here's the fun part.

-Okay.

-Throw some salt in there, what it does is it brings the water back to a boil more quickly, and also for flavor.

Your job, you're going to add the guanciale -- -Just put it all in?

-To the sugo, yes.

Now we can all do a little bit of tearing of basil.

-Why don't you cut it?

Why do you have to tear it?

-If you cut it, it's going to turn black.

So what you want to do instead is just tear it like this.

All right?

-What are you looking for when you check the pasta?

I just want to see what the texture is like.

Hmm.

It's hot!

-Be careful!

-You ready?

[ Laughter ] -But you can see it doesn't need much time.

-No, it doesn't.

-Mmm!

So good.

-I think it's perfect.

-Okay, Ellis says perfect.

Turn it off.

Yes.

Sauce smells so good!

And we'll have that nice, crunchy guanciale.

You're having way too much, I think.

-Way too much fun.

-We'll do lots.

-What kind of cheese is this again?

-This was Grana Padano, and I love this because it's a little bit more mellow than some of the other grating cheeses like Parmigiano.

It's just delicious.

It will work really well with this simple tomato sauce.

Mm!

That looks so good.

I am excited.

So you can kind of toss that together now.

-Okay.

-Don't be afraid of it.

-Not folding it?

-Just jump right in there.

We even have more tomato sauce if we want to add more.

♪ Glasses.

Do you want to pour?

-Yeah.

-Oh, I can't wait to try this wine.

-How did you choose this wine to go with this food?

-There's one thing I always say: What grows together goes together.

And this comes from the same region.

So I know this is going to work.

Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Ooh, You take your plate!

Please!

Know what they say in Italy?

You're never supposed to wait.

-Mmm.

-I love this.

-Joanne, it's so good.

-I'm salivating.

-Wow.

You can really taste the meat in the sauce.

-Isn't that wonderful?

-And it wasn't that much.

-And then when you get the crunch of it, but then you have that delicate pasta.

The acidity of the tomato.

Mmm.

So delicious.

I wish so much you were here with us.

-We did good.

-You did -- Did you hear her?

She said, "We did good."

No, you did great!

-We did great.

-This is the kind of meal I really love creating in my kitchen, especially when we use great ingredients while exploring a place I call home.

Ta-da!

-Oh, wow!

-And it's with good friends who are really excited about cooking and just spending time together.

And it all just kind of came together.

Cheers!

-Cheers.

-I'm so happy that you could share this with us.

You can visit my website to find and print selected recipes, get information about each episode, learn more about the show, see behind the scenes photos, provide email feedback and more.

It's all at Joanneweir.com/plates-places.

-"Joanne Weir's Plates & Places" is brought to you by... -With Ama Waterways, guests can climb, pedal, and journey beyond the beaten path while cruising on storied rivers across Europe.

You can find out more at AmaWaterways.com.

-Our winemaking is the result of teamwork and patience.

Working together, we dedicate our best efforts with every wine, grape, and bottle.

Washington Vintners.

-Since 1899, my family shared our passion for everything that goes into our Mutti 100 percent Italian tomatoes.

Only tomatoes, only Mutti -For baking, cooking and snacks, California figs from Valley Fig Growers.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪