Antoni Porowski travels the world retracing the ancestral, gastronomic roots of celebrities' families in the new National Geographic series, "No Taste like Home."
On Tuesday, Porowski gave "Good Morning America" a sneak peek and first taste of some of the food he tasted in episodes with Awkwafina and Justin Theroux.
Porowski said that the show gives a fresh lens to these actors "in their human form, just living through this whole journey and uncovering these things is an interesting lens that we don't often get to see."
Theroux seeks out the origins of a family pasta dish alongside Porowski as the pair go on an Italian road trip full of delicious discoveries and samplings of the region’s finest food to uncover more about the actor's Italian ancestry.
Awkwafina, who lost her mother at a young age, reconnects with her South Korean culinary and ancestral heritage, which presents evocative flavors and a new perspective on her own identity.
Check out two full recipes below for the dishes they discovered along their journeys.
These recipes are inspired by the dishes as seen on the series.
"This is the dish that Justin's grandmother would make for him every Christmas, which originates from the Bologna area," Porowski explained. "There's a mix of pork loin, prosciutto and mortadella all mixed into this."
Ingredients
Sfoglia:
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
Broth:
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large onion, quartered
1 whole chicken (or 2 bone-in chicken thighs)
1/2 lb (225g) beef shank or beef bones
10 cups (2.5L) water
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
Fillings:
1/2 lb (225g) pork loin, minced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 oz (60g) prosciutto crudo, finely minced
2 oz (60g) mortadella, finely minced
2/3 cup (50g) grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Directions
Prepare the broth – takes 20 minutes to prepare and 3 hours to cook
Prepare the filling:
Take the mince pork meat and cook in a pan with some butter. Cook lightly, turn up the heat and dry with some old bread.
Add salt and pepper.
Mince prosciutto and mortadella
Once the meat is cold, add the minced prosciutto and mortadella.
Add Parmesan and nutmeg (according to your taste).
If useful, add a raw egg to condense it.
Prepare the sfoglia
Assemble and fold the tortellini
Roll out the sfoglia pasta.
Cut the pasta into squares.
Add a small ball of filling to each square.
Fold the tortellini one by one and put aside to dry.
Cook the tortellini in the broth: Heat up the broth for 10 minutes. Drop in the tortellini and cook for 5 minutes.
Serve up - the ratio of broth to tortellini is according to taste.
"This is a traditional South Korean dish that Nora's Chinese-American paternal grandmother made her, so she could remember her mom because she lost her when she was 4 years old," Porowski said. "It comes together quickly with fermented black bean paste, oyster sauce, sesame oil and just mix it all together."
Ingredients
Jjajangmyeon sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp chunjang (black bean paste)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
½ lb (225g) pork belly, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 small courgette (zucchini), diced
2 scallions, sliced
2 cups (500ml) water
Noodles:
14 oz (400g) fresh wheat udon-style Chinese noodles (or dried jajangmyeon noodles)
Garnish:
Julienned cucumber
Method:
Dice onions and courgettes. Slice scallions. Dice pork belly into cubes.
In a large wok, fry chopped scallions in vegetable oil to create a scallion oil.
Sauté diced pork in the scallion oil until browned.
Add the diced onions, courgette, and saute.
Add Chunjang (black bean paste) to the sizzling hot oil and stir vigorously to loosen the paste and create the sauce as it melds with the oil, turning it a glossy black color.
After a minute of frying the paste in oil, coat the paste over the ingredients.
Add two cups of water and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
If sauce needs thickening, add corn starch here.
Add any seasoning: soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar.
Cook the noodles in boiling water, then drain.
Separate the plain noodles into deep bowls, and spoon the sauce over the top (without mixing it through).
Julienne the cucumber into matchsticks and garnish the noodles.
Recipes reprinted courtesy of National Geographic.
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