In 1957 a visionary Mario Soldati for the newborn Italian television he began to tell the wonders of traditional local cuisine, retracing the recipes and the most characteristic products of the different realities of Northern Italy in that absolute masterpiece that is his episode documentary Travel in the Po valley. Subtitle: In search of genuine food. And so today, more than six decades after that glorious debut on the small screen, there are those who try to recover that same spirit of investigation, declining it according to the new instances of the podcast. Thus it was born The Republic of sautéed, the new signed project Donpasta – aka Daniele De Michele.

An excursus of 22 episodes for about 45 minutes, conducted by the director, DJ, economist and obviously passionate about gastronomy Donpasta, who will aim to rediscover, enhance and pass on the most precious secrets of Italian popular cuisine. Those guarded by grandmothers, aunts and mothers, and which today more than ever constitute a real treasure made of "add a pinch of flour" and "put the lard in place of the oil".

"I have been traveling around Italy for ten years," explains Donpasta. «I recounted my encounters with grandmothers, peasants, fishermen with images and writing, but I was missing something. I had an immense archive of interviews to reveal, a treasure trove of meetings, an encyclopedia of recipes, from fish to ragù. In this long period of lockdown, so fragile for everyone, I told myself how much what I had learned on that trip was current, illuminating, ethical, urgent in that cooking in a truly sustainable way, for the health of the earth, body and spirit .

A journey from north to south, in an Italy dotted with many, precious culinary differences, united however by the unconditional love for genuine food. And for the sauté, of course. So, for example, Mrs. Ornella – from Irpinia with fury – reveals the secrets for the perfect dumplings with ragout of chops. While Giuliana, from Florence, explains to us how to prepare the best tomato sauce of our life, and grandmother Marinetta, 92 years old from Reggio Emilia, is divided between the inevitable fried dumpling Emilian and a ragù made strictly with minced veal, shaded with white wine and left to cook for three hours in the preserve. Homemade, of course.

All in a story that wants to go well beyond the simple recipe, as the author of the project explains. "The podcast allows you to tell everything, to show the alchemy of the encounters, the magic of silences, allows you to think about it a bit, thanks to the extended times that seem to be those of cooking well. In making myself a narrative voice I tried to bring back my emotion in listening to those interviews, while the memories of this long journey resurfaced, the emotion of these surprising encounters, the goodness of dishes that are always so good ". The episodes of The Republic of sautéed will be available from July 6 on Audible.it, the Amazon portal entirely dedicated to audiobooks, podcasts and related.