A short YouTube mini-movie by Nate Buchanan documenting a day on a farm in Italy with Kara Buchanan, Nate, and their host Bob. The video shows Bob teaching homemade pizza (weights: ~600–650 g flour, 10 g salt, 6 g yeast, ~360 g water, a drizzle of olive oil), kneading (~5 minutes), proofing (about 2.5 hours), and baking in a very hot brick oven (>1,000 °F) for roughly 1.5–2 minutes. Interleaved is a Vespa ride to the nearby town of Ripa Transone to see its claimed 43 cm-wide narrowest alleyway and a visit to a local wine co-op where wine is dispensed by tap (wines priced under €2 per liter; they were charged €3 for more than ~2 liters). The piece mixes practical cooking detail with travel impressions and local culture.
Chapters
Sam.
It.
Bob is going to teach me his ways. We're going to make homemade pizza dough and cook it in their brick oven outside.
You ready?
I'm ready.
Are you ready?
Uh huh.
Are you ready? There's only five ingredients in this. There's flour, water, yeast, salt and a tiny little bit of olive oil.
Okay.
Okay.
And we're gonna do this and do most of the measurements by weight, not by volume.
Okay.
Okay. You ready for that?
I'm ready.
So we got our little scale. We're. Turn this on.
This is so cute.
600 grams of flour. Go ahead.
Okay.
It's gonna be close to four scoops, I believe. Four cups.
Almost there.
You're so precise.
I'm so nervous.
That's good. 650 and you're leaning on the bowl. Okay. Now we're going to add, let's see a little bit of salt.
Okay.
10 grams, which is about 2 teaspoons. So you can use, you can do it by measure or you can do it by weight, whichever you like.
Oh, we're weighing it.
Okay, good. I appreciate the precision, but it's probably not that important. So let's just.
You remember how bad of a baker I am. I got really wonky with the pasta.
Nah, that's all skill. Okay, now we need six grams of yeast. But I use just a teaspoon because as the numbers get smaller, this scale's not that great. You feeling good about that?
Feel pretty good.
Okay, so what have we done so far? We've done flour, salt, yeast and yeast. We need two more things.
Right.
We need water and olive oil and olive oil. Olive oil is at the very end. It's going to pull everything together before we knead it. Knead it with a K. I mean.
Yeah.
So it turns out that in the metric system, 1 gram of water is 1 milliliter milliliter of water. So 360 grams is going to be 360 milliliters. So you can get pretty close just by looking at the side of that cup.
361.
Wow.
Fantastic.
360.
You did it.
After we mixed in the water, it was still a little dry. So Bob added the final ingredient, which is a tad bit of olive oil. And he's pro, so he didn't have to measure. Just drizzles it in there.
I think you've done pretty well.
Really?
Yeah. We'll just go out for a pizza tonight.
This is where it's all gonna come together.
This is actually where the magic happens.
Feeling pretty good. Great deal. So give That a. It needs to be kneaded for about five minutes.
Okay.
The dough is officially kneaded with lots of love. Next, it goes into a slightly oiled bowl and it'll be covered at room temperature for about two and a half hours. So in the meantime, Nate and I are going to go into town and show you the biggest tourist attraction in all of Rupa Transone.
Or is it the smallest? That was good.
Bye.
I'm trying to look smooth. There's a lot of local people watching me.
Smith.
So we've just arrived in the little town of Ripa Transone, which is like a 2 minute Vespa ride from their house. At this point, I'm just looking for excuses to get on the Vespa and go somewhere because I have so much fun driving it. But this town is really cool. We're actually here a few nights ago having dinner. It didn't make the vlog, but it's just like a really, really cool town. Like so cool. I can't believe that tourists just don't flock here. But there's no tourists. It's just local. And I feel really awkward walking around with this camera because we stick out like a sore thumb.
We don't have to see super long to walk around though. So we have to go back and tent our pizza dough. I've had a really traumatic experience with homemade pizza dough.
I've had traumatic experiences eating her homemade pizza dough.
Anything that involves yeast and flour.
It was like a cracker.
It was so bad. And so I was really nervous about this. I'm hoping the fact that it was Bob and Gina's kitchen. Bob and Gina's ingredients. And they showed me what to do. I won't ruin pizza for everyone.
I have a feeling with Bob overseeing the process, it's going to turn out great.
We'll see.
Okay. But I. We'll show you this tourist attraction. The problem is I don't remember where it is.
I really have no idea. I remember there is a sign that's like, here it is.
Yeah.
Oh, we also just passed the bank.
I feel too awkward going back.
So. This city claims to have the narrowest alleyway in all of Italy. At the entrance, it is only 43cm, which is apparently how wide my shoulders are. And there's a distinction between an alleyway and just like a crack between buildings. An alleyway has a window in it. So back here behind me, which I'm sure you can't see, there is a window. But yeah, it's tiny. I actually, like, have to do my shoulders like this in order to be able to go down it. Oh, gosh. I forgot there were stairs.
So that's this town's claim to fame. And I say that jokingly because this is, like an incredibly beautiful town. It's just funny that they have something that's the most ist in Italy. The narrowest anything that's the most ist. I feel like I have to go see est.
Yes.
Next up, I want to show you the thing that's probably blown my mind more than anything else since we've been in Italy. But we have to get on the scooter back to the alleyway.
So that's.
This is seriously the most picturesque town we've ever been to. And the best part is you can have a photo shoot and you don't even have to try to not get people in the background, because there's no people to be in the background. It's crazy.
Sam.
So we're back at the co op where Bob and Gina brought us the very first night for dinner. And as we were on the way out, I spotted something that, like, I just couldn't believe existed. So if you're in the United States, or at least in Tennessee, where we're from, and you go to the store to buy wine, you probably not going to be able to find a bottle for less than $5. And if you do, it's not going to be good. Let me show you what they have inside.
Ciao.
Do you like to taste? So this is. This is Rosso picciano means Montepulciano and Sangiovese grape.
Yeah. Red, one gallon. Wow.
But they come from the US.
Never saw one.
YouTube.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Dara. Yeah. Have a nice trip around. Thank you.
How crazy is that? Inside they have a tap where they have six different wines. All of them cost less than €2 per liter. And you just bring in whatever bottle you want and you fill it up. She didn't even weigh it. I'm sure this is more than 2 liters. And she charged us €3.
We just have to make it home on the Vespa with me holding it so there's not going to be any filming on the way home.
We made it back with the wine that is.
The most Italian I've ever felt. Whatever cliches you have about Italy and Italians, we just rode home on a Vespa with wine that we filled up at the local co op.
The table is all set. Bob and Gina made it. So cute. And the brick oven is nice and hot. Bob has had plenty of time to remake the dough. If I messed it up, he just.
Threw yours out and made his own.
It's very likely that that happened, but now we're gonna go check on it.
Resume the cooking channel.
Uh huh. Yeah. Feels good.
Then go wash your hands.
Oh.
Put it into a thousand degree oven.
Now, the idea is to create a little bit of tension on the outside. They're just gonna sit for a few minutes.
Wanna try that, Kira? Not a big deal. You're gonna smash it in a few minutes and cover it with cheese. It'll be fine. Like really pushing it into the table so it rolls on. The friction causes it to roll. That's it.
She found it.
Look, it's natural.
Oh, I smushed it.
That's okay.
You're just gonna squish it like this. Okay.
I don't know how to, you know, do like a real Italian. I have to use a rolling. Okay. Don't attempt a circle. Okay, so just roll, roll, roll. Roll it out. Yeah.
Okay. Majestic pizza rolling. Cool.
That's it.
You have the triangle, the hard face going on.
Okay. Just start spreading the olive oil to about a quarter inch to the edge. We're not using red sauce on this one. It's just onion, salt, pepper, and cheese.
Next, we're sprinkling mozzarella.
Oh, she's such a pro.
She's.
Okay. So while they were gone, I got the pizza oven fired up. It's hot. Now I'm gonna move the embers over to the side and clear the deck for the pie.
It's high, so I can't even read it.
Yeah, it's off the chart. So it's over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Wow. Right now.
So hopefully let this thing drop down a couple hundred degrees and then we'll be ready to roll.
Oh, golden hour.
Put them in.
How about if I do the first one? Yeah, I'll do this one and then, Nate, you can do yours.
Wow, that is cooking so fast.
I'd say that's pretty good.
Oh, my gosh. Look at it. That cooked. And seriously, how long do you think that was in there? Two minutes maybe?
Yeah, maybe a minute and a half. Okay, Nate, you ready?
I'm scared, but I'm ready.
You know how you pull the. The tablecloth off? You're gonna get it in there and give it a little bit of forward motion. Not too much. You don't want the sausage to fly off. The touch. You know the touch.
Oh.
He'S got the vibrating technique. No, I like that.
That's good.
That's beautiful, man.
I feel like I know what I'm doing already.
Yeah, That's a good looking pizza.
Smoking.
That's it. Trying to make it pivot a little bit.
Well, how do I know when to take it out?
When do you think it's ready?
I can run it in the Gina, broil it.
All right. Coming out.
Yeah.
Wow, look at that.
Way to go.
Beautiful.
I've learned since we've been in Italy that a margherita pizza is what it is because it's the three colors of the Italian flag. Green basil, red tomatoes, and white tea.
And it's named after the lady that invented it.
Is that right? Invented for.
Oh, what was she, like, a princess queen?
Maybe.
We did it. Now we get to eat them. This totally feels like an episode of Anthony Bourdain. Making something really cool and then eating it with the locals with a view.
So excited. Looks good. Good level of floppiness.
It's good. It's not a cracker like my other time I made pizza. It's so delicious. I can't believe that. The view we have right now, getting to enjoy our dinner, it just keeps getting better and better. We're never gonna leave the farm.
I'm just trying to decide if I want to, like, in the crack.
Oh, like this?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Are my hands super funky up here?
Maybe.
There's a really cute old Italian man doing something. We don't know why, but he's adorable.
We need to come up with an Italian version of Nate now because he's clearly gone native.
