David throws a fall festa at his farmhouse for friends and neighbours with a little help from a group of artistic friends. This is an annual feast where they celebrate the vegetables of the season, freshly pressed olive oil and serve Italian classics like fire-roasted porchetta.

Inspired by a lunch in Florence at one of his favorite street vendors, David makes a series of Italian sauces including a chili pepper jam that is to die for.

David travels to the Tuscan town of Panzano and spends time with the most famous butcher in Italy, maybe the world! Dario Cecchini is a flamboyant character who is fanatical about meat and a master at selecting, cutting and serving it. People from all over the world make pilgrimages to meet him and eat in one of his restaurants. David and Dario spend a wild time together exploring their mutual passion for meat, cooking meat and eating meat!

Welcome to Chianti one of Italy’s most famous wine regions. Here in the verdant rolling hills of Tuscany is Castello di Trebbio, a historic 11th century castle now owned by Anna, Stefano and their family. They produce some of the best wine and olive oil in the area. David tours the grounds, takes part in the grape harvest and makes some dishes using their wine and grapes.

Who doesn’t love pizza? David makes dough from scratch and then its pizza pandemonium as he makes savory pizzas, calzones, foccacia and dessert pizzas in his wood-burning oven.

In Italy, it’s considered the food of the Gods. For generations the harvesting and pressing of olives into olive oil has been one of the major food events in the country. In Tuscany, people take time off from their regular jobs to work the harvest and take their payment in olive oil. David goes to Fattoria LaVacchio where Faye and her family have been producing organic olive oil for over 40 years. He learns about their farm and participates in the harvest. David makes a number of recipes that feature olive oil.

What’s more comforting on a chilly day than a bowl of soup? David makes simple but hearty soups using mostly inexpensive cupboard staples with a few seasonal vegetables thrown in.

David visits his local butcher who raises his own animals and sells organic meat from a cart at the side of a country road. After the visit, David heads home and makes a variety of meatballs using the beef. He also makes meatballs out of fish and some vegetarian ‘meatballs’ that would please any meat eater. And for each meatball, there’s a matching sauce.

David makes a series of foods called ‘sfizi’: These are smaller bites that can be enjoyed on their own or put together in a big antipasto spread.

David finds out everything you’d ever want to know about chestnuts, from the very unusual way in which they are harvested, to how versatile and nutritious they are.

Simple ingredients make magical meals. For instance, its just flour and water but from these two humble ingredients Italy has built several culinary classics. David goes to an organic farm, grinds his own grain in a windmill, and then makes some of those classics: including Tuscan bread and pasta. And then another simple combination produces the classic dessert zabaglione.

Every fall the Tuscan Hills ring with the sound of guns as hunters track the famous cinghiale, or wild boar. This wild meat is so associated with Tuscan cooking that the area’s capital Florence has a bronze statue honoring the beast in one of its major tourist markets. David goes out with a group of hunters and then prepares dishes with the meat. David also befriends his neighbours who have a gourmet men’s cooking club that meets once a month to cook some macho dishes—including their own take on cinghiale that no woman in their right mind would touch.

It’s in every kitchen, but it doesn’t get as much respect as olive oil or wine. David travels to the Tuscan town of Volpaia to see how fine vinegar is made and cooks with it. The same place also makes fine Vin Santo, a wine with spiritual associations that he uses to make a heavenly dessert.