In Italy, Easter is the time for special, traditional desserts, which, apart from being delicious, were conceived to represent symbols of life and rebirth.

Easter Monday is, traditionally, "picnic day" all over Italy. It's affectionately called Pasquetta (little Easter). This video is from RAI 1, one of the principal TV stations in Italy. At this particular picnic, "primordial" cooking is the protagonist.

Gianna Mantovan shows us how to prepare an excellent clam sauce. This video is kindly provided by uChefPuntoit.

Angelo Piras, chef of the restaurant San Domenico, in Chieri, in the Turin Province, prepares some delicious and quick dishes that you’ll be enthusiastic about! This one shows the preparation of fried squid, with a surprising presentation at the end. Copyright uChefPuntoit.

Alessio Uberti, chef of the restaurant Macelleria di Torino [Butcher Shop of Turin], prepares an amazing dessert for us. Video gently provided from uChefPuntoit.

Antonio is a teacher and we find him at Somma Vesuviana, on the slopes of Vesuvius, near Naples. For some time he has tending a small garden, where he grows vegetables, which he sees as miracles of the earth, with seeds developing into fruits.

Franco Calafatti shows us his marvelous shop filled with spices. He brings us into his world, his special relationship with the spices, from traveling the world in search of the plants, to the harvesting, to the sorting, to the crushing.

Even though the tomato is an immigrant in Italy, it has become synonymous with Italian cooking. The soil produced by Vesuvius and the mild climate of the area around Naples and Salerno have allowed the San Marzano tomato to become King.

Patrizia works as an agronomist collaborating with farmers who grow heirloom vegetables of the Campania tradition. She describes a couple of different kinds of tomatoes and what they're typically used for.

Watermelon is another product of this special terrain on the slopes of Vesuvius. In the north, this is called cocomero, but in the south, it's anguria. There are some sensational wines from Vesuvius, too.

This land is not only good for cultivating grapes for wine, but also the special piennolo tomatoes, that keep for several months.

Gragnano is a town near Naples known for its pasta production. There are many different shapes and types, but they all are a bit rough to the touch, because they go through a bronze cutter, rather than a Teflon one. That's why the pasta holds the sauce better. Of course, everyone living in Gragnano is an expert about pasta.

Coral has been made into jewelry in Torre del Greco since the fifteenth century. In that same century, a variety of grapes arrived from Catalunya, which over time has produced a wine with a unique personality.

The Romans were the ones to introduce the culture of wine to the area around Mount Vesuvius as can be seen by what was left behind in places like Ercolano. And it is in Ercolano where a unique cooperative has been set up to cultivate a very special variety of tomatoes.

From Puglia, a description of olive picking the modern way, and some of the rules agricultural business are required to follow, in order to obtain top quality extra virgin olive oil.

The owner of the company Le Grotte di Sileno (The Grottoes of Silenus) continues to walk us through the steps necessary to produce high-quality extra virgin olive oil. Puglia produces more olive oil than any other Italian region.

Marino shows us how to make "maccaronara" or "spaghetti alla chitarra" (guitar spaghetti), from scratch. This special kind of pasta is from Avellino, near Naples.

Melanzane alla Parmigiana, or La parmigiana di melanzane (Eggplant Parmesan) is a classic recipe from the Campania region. Marika shows us how to make it, one step at a time.

Marika prepares the eggplant slices by baking them in the oven—a much lighter way of preparing the eggplant layers than the traditional frying method.

It's time to check the eggplant in the oven. And what about the slices that were a bit too sottili (thin)? Will they have burned? Note that English mostly uses eggplant as a collective noun (in the singular) but Italian, unless referring specifically to a single eggplant, uses the plural le melanzane when referring to eggplant in general, and to the slices themselves.

We've finally reached the last part of this recipe. Now you can make this dish yourself. Don't forget to pre-heat the oven to two hundred and twenty or two hundred and forty degrees (428-464°F). If you happen to have any leftover afterwards, you can safely freeze it. Buon appetito!

Franco Calafatti knows a great deal about spices but he also loves to experiment. The star of this segment is cinnamon.

This fascinating segment is all about salt: Our spice journey takes us to Sicily, where much of Italy's salt is harvested. Franco talks about how salt is life, salt is gold.

Franco shows us some infused salts that we would never think of off hand. His descriptions are colorful and make us want to try out these delicacies.