Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes

Rick Stein discovers the many varied delights of Mediterranean food by visiting some of his favourite places in this all-important sea. Rick catches a ferry to the mountainous island of Corsica where he discovers great sausages, wonderful sheep's cheese and the locals' passion for chestnuts.

On a misty lagoon in Sardinia, Rick watches the fishermen catch mullet using the same methods as the Romans did centuries before. He boards a ferry for Sicily to find, in the heart of Palermo, one of the best pasta dishes he's ever tasted.

In Sicily, Rick enjoys the colour and sheer operatic quality of Catania's busy fish market. In Puglia, on the Italian mainland, Rick discovers how the region's historic poverty has informed its fantastic cuisine.

Rick arrives in Corfu, where he's invited to a family feast, and in restaurant kitchens throughout the island he learns how to make authentic Greek dishes. Later he heads for Majorca.

Rick Stein travels from Mallorca to Catalonia and tries a variety of regional foods. On Mallorca, Rick finds the most succulent roast lamb he's ever tasted and, back on the Spanish mainland, he samples Catalonian food at Barcelona's Boqueria market.

Rick samples the delights of couscous, tagines and mint tea in Moroccan bazaars, before heading along the old silk route to south-eastern Turkey to make lahmacun, a Turkish lamb flatbread.