♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] I'm in Thessaloniki today, Greece's second largest city, but its de facto food capital.

Thessaloniki has endured as a city for thousands of years and it's always been a crossroads between east and west.

I'm visiting pastry chef Filippos Bantis to learn how he makes the city's iconic phyllo pastry bougatsa.

Perfect.

And I take to the sea to glimpse how mussels are cultivated.

Oh, that is so cool.

In the kitchen, I'm making a popular Meze dish: feta-stuffed roasted peppers.

Smells and looks delicioso.

And a Thessaloniki classic, mussel pilaf.

East meets west in the flavors in this dish.

Join me on My Greek Table as I explore the complex, fascinating flavors of Thessaloniki's rich culinary heritage.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ [Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, has thrived as an urban center uninterrupted for more than 2,000 years.

The city has always had an international aura, be it in its proximity to the Balkans.

It's renowned as a predominantly Jewish city until World War II and its place as a refuge where so many Greeks from Asia Minor settled after political upheavals in 1922.

These Greeks changed the face of the cuisine and culture of Thessaloniki, helping to make it a UNESCO food city a hundred years after their arrival.

In the city's environs, its real wealth can be found.

Evinced in overflowing markets.

Peppers of every color and shape.

Some of the best crafted cheeses in Greece.

Local and regional pasta products.

The trinity of peaches, apples, and cherries produced nearby that are the basics of the Macedonian fruit bowl.

Seafood and fish from the bay-laced coastline.

And rice made evermore delicious by its cultivation so close to the sea, grows a short ride from Thessaloniki, at the delta of the Axios River.

Add to that, the incredible Meze culture.

In countless restaurants across the city, you'll find a cornucopia of everything from great dips and spreads to unique pepper dishes, seafood, and more.

And the wines.

Some of Greece's finest wines and noblest grape varietals, like the tannic red xinomavro, are produced within driving distance of the city.

Thessaloniki's cuisine is the paradigm of the saying that good food begins in the field.

Just outside the city sits the American Farm School, an institution dedicated to sustainable farming practices that has helped educate Greek farmers in the region and beyond for nearly a century.

I'm heading to Aliákmonas in the wetlands of the Thermaikos Gulf to meet up with Stergios Darmouslis, a recent graduate of the American Farm School who works in his family mussel farm.

[Stergios Darmouslis] Good morning.

[Diane] Good morning.

Kaliméra.

[Stergios] Stergios.

[Diane] Diana.

[Stergios] Welcome aboard.

[Diane] Thank you.

So I love mussels, but I've never seen how they're farmed and I'm really looking forward to doing this.

[Stergios] Here is the perfect place.

[Diane] While mussels have been cultivated in Greece for centuries, commercial production around Thessaloniki only began in the early 1980's.

Today the region accounts for 80 to 90 percent of Greek mussel production, or about 30,000 tons a year.

Oh, that is so cool.

Oh, wow.

These guys work very hard.

[Stergios] Yes.

The mussel farm has had almost 20 lines.

[Diane] Okay.

[Stergios] This is one line, and has 10 to 15 tons of mussels.

[Diane] One line has 15 tons of mussels?

[Stergios] Yes.

This is a very little- [Diane] Oh, those are tiny, tiny, tiny mussels.

When mussels spawn in the winter, their larvae settle on hard surfaces and begin to grow.

Small mussels like this are collected and attached to the lines in the farm.

After about nine months, the mussels will be ready to harvest.

Do you ever eat it like that, raw?

[Stergios] Yes, yes.

[Diane] Do you have lemon?

[Stergios] Yes.

Yes, I have lemon.

You're gonna taste.

[Diane] I will taste.

[Stergios] Taste the sea.

[Diane] Mm.

I just tasted the sea and it's really delicious.

Has a little bit of a bitterness, but delicious.

[Stergios] Umami, little- [Diane] Umami, for sure.

It has umami.

Mm.

Oh, this is really good.

It's so fresh.

I've never had such a fresh mussel.

It is so tender.

You're producing a really delicious product.

[Stergios] Thank you.

[Diane] And I want to thank you and [Speaking in Greek], it was a delicious experience.

[Stergios] Thank you.

[Diane] It was great.

And I, you know, I got to bite into the sea this morning.

Some dishes are totally synonymous with a specific region.

Today's recipe, mussel pilaf, is definitely one of them.

(soft scraping of chalk) The first thing we want to do is steam the mussels in a little bit of white wine.

We want to get the mussels in the hot wine.

(clattering) Gonna cover that and let them steam for a few minutes until they open up.

One of the classic ingredients in this classic dish are pine nuts, and we're gonna toast them a little bit.

The reason we do that is to get all of their beautiful essential oils out.

While my pine nuts are toasting here, I'm gonna get the onion ready.

It calls for an old technique in Greek cooking, which is to grate the onion.

It's very easy to do, along the coarse side of a hand grater.

And what you get when you grate an onion is a much softer texture.

But you also get the onion juice.

And when that cooks, it actually sweetens up a little bit.

It kind of caramelizes.

The pine nuts, the color's great, getting a little bit of that nutty aroma.

And our mussels are also done.

And what we want to do here, let me just show you.

We only want to use the mussels where the shells have opened.

Shells that haven't opened, we're gonna discard those mussels.

I'm getting a whiff of the sea in this pot.

We want all this good mussel juice, because this is what's gonna flavor the rice, but we have to strain it.

So I've lined a colander with some cheese cloth.

And the cheese cloth will catch any grit that's in the pan.

I'm gonna rinse out my pan.

Now we're ready to start the pilaf.

A little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil, and those nice, soft grated onion with whatever onion juices on this plate.

Scallion.

Celery.

We're just sautéing the onion, the scallion, and the celery to soften them up, over pretty high heat.

The rice goes in next.

I like to toast the rice a little bit to coat it in the olive oil.

I'm gonna add the garlic to that.

I just want to measure out the mussel juice.

We've got about two cups.

And bloom a little bit of the saffron, krokos kozanis.

It actually cultivated not that far from Thessaloniki.

And we want a total of about three cups of liquid for the rice.

So I'm just gonna add a little water to this.

A little bit of salt... and some black pepper.

(cracking of peppercorns) I have freshly squeezed lemon juice right here.

And I'm just gonna let that cook over low heat and get to the cleaning of the mussels.

I'm gonna leave some of them in the shell, because it looks really pretty at the end, you know, we're gonna mix all of this into the rice, but we want to get most of the mussel meat out.

I've got most of the mussels cleaned and I left a few in the shell.

I'm gonna get the herbs ready and I've got some fresh dill.

It's a very, very Greek herb, and oftentimes goes into rice dishes.

And a little bit of parsley.

Parsley's an herb that's used a lot in the cooking of Northern Greece, especially the areas around Thessaloniki.

Let's see what's going on in this pot.

Looking good and smelling even better.

I'm gonna get my raisins in here, so they have a little bit of time to soften up.

So this is almost done.

And right now, just a few minutes before all this liquid is absorbed, I'm gonna add the pine nuts... and the cleaned mussels.

This is one of the defining dishes of Thessaloniki cooking.

It's probably a dish that came with the Greeks who emigrated to the city in 1922.

They brought with them a much more urban cooking, and access and knowledge to all of the spices that were part of their own daily cooking lives.

Get my herbs in next.

The dill and the parsley.

Stir that up.

This looks really, really beautiful.

The whole mussels are going in next.

And here we have mussel pilaf, in English.

And not a word that's too hard to say in Greek, midopilafo.

And it's one of the classic dishes of Thessaloniki and really one of the great dishes of Greek cuisine.

Just gonna get some of this served.

It smells really good.

I want to get a couple of whole mussels in here too.

Time to taste this Thessaloniki classic.

Mm.

East meets west in the flavors in this dish.

The rice is the backdrop to all of these beautiful complex flavors that are playing off each other in this plate.

The saffron's really strong, but so is the sweetness of the raisins.

That beautiful nuttiness from the pine nuts.

And that almost iodine-y, that delicious sea flavor from the mussels.

It's all coming through loud and clear.

And this calls for one of the great, Greek white grape varietals called Assyrtiko.

This particular Assyrtiko is produced in Argos.

It's mineraly.

It's got a beautiful citrus undertone, but I'm also getting apple on the palate and it goes beautifully with this rich mussel dish.

All these wonderful flavors working together.

This is a really nice, balanced combination.

Eis ygeian.

To some, Thessaloniki is glykomana, or sweet mother.

Literally.

Almost everywhere you turn there is a shop selling soropiasta: syrup-drenched phyllo pastries in every shape and size.

One whole area of the city, Panorama, is known for a particular sweet, the large triangular custard-filled phyllo pies called trigona.

Then there is bougatsa, a kind of poster-child for Thessaloniki's rich pastry heritage.

Bantis Bougatsa has been perfecting these pastries for generations.

And pastry chef Filippos Bantis is going to show me how they're made.

In other parts of Greece, we know bougatsa as something sweet.

[Filippos Bantis] Yes.

[Filippos] Yeah.

[Diane] Cream-filled pastry.

[Diane] In Thessaloniki, it can be filled with almost anything, right?

[Filippos] In Thessaloniki, we fill it with cheese, with meat, with peanuts, and with cream, of course.

[Diane] And with cream.

And you're one of the last, I think you mentioned, the bougatsa makers.

[Filippos] We are only a few left that make bougatsa by hand now.

I took it from my father and from my grandfather and, I love it.

I love it so much.

[Diane] I'm really looking forward to seeing this up close.

Wow, that's really elastic.

[Filippos] Okay.

A little...back.

[Diane] Okay.

[Filippos] Okay.

[Diane] This is very buttery.

And then you add more butter on top.

[Filippos] Yeah, like that.

[Diane] Wow.

[Filippos] But the old chefs... eh put twice as- [Diane] Twice as much.

[Filippos] Yeah.

As much, that we put here now.

If you ask an old bougatsa maker, if the phyllo does not... full of fat, it's not good.

[chuckles] A little more.

[laughing] Now we put our sweet custard cream.

[Diane] And what's in the custard?

[Filippos] It's only milk, sugar, vanilla, then semolina.

[Diane] So almost the same as galaktoboureko?

[Filippos] Yes.

Almost the same, without the eggs.

And here we try to support all of the local producers.

So the milk is from a village outside Thessaloniki.

[Diane] Ah.

[Filippos] My cheese, the same, from around here.

[Diane] Now that this is done, what do you do next?

[Filippos] Okay.

I put it in here.

And now it will go into the oven, in 180 degrees.

[Diane] Okay.

[Filippos] For about half an hour.

[Diane] Okay.

♪ ♪ [Diane] Chef, I can't wait to taste this.

I love bougatsa, but I want to taste the famous Bantis Bougatsa Thessaloniki.

Mm.

Perfect.

[Filippos speaking in Greek] [Diane] And now I understand why... why you and your bougatsa are so famous.

It's not very sweet.

[Filippos] Yes.

[Diane] It's really flaky and really buttery.

It's perfect for breakfast.

[Filippos] The best way to start your day.

[Diane] And I thank you.

Thank you for sharing your family story and a little bit of your technique.

[Filippos] I thank you very much for coming here.

[Diane] This was great.

[Speaking in Greek] [Filippos speaking in Greek] [Diane] Thessaloniki is land of some of the best Meze recipes in all of Greece.

It's also land of some of the best pepper recipes.

In this dish, both come together.

I'm making spicy feta cheese roasted stuffed peppers.

I'm gonna get started first on the filling.

We want to get the feta whipped together with a bunch of different seasonings.

(tapping) A little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil to loosen and lubricate the feta cheese filling.

Fresh lemon juice.

We use lemon juice to counter some of the richness of the feta.

Some chili powder.

Feta and spice go really, really well together.

Some dried Greek oregano.

Smells really good.

We also have some dried Greek thyme here.

Thyme has a very nice subtle sweet undertone.

And finally, a little black pepper.

(clicking) So while we process this, we have to kind of use our judgment and maybe add a little bit more olive oil to see the texture, the looseness of the filling.

We don't want it too loose, but we also don't want it so solid that we won't be able to fill the peppers.

(soft whirring of blades) This needs to be a little bit looser.

So I'm gonna add a bit more olive oil.

(clicking) (whirring) Let's see the texture on this now.

This is perfect.

It's nice and soft.

It's still solid, we don't want liquid.

We want to be able to get it into the pastry bag.

The next step is to prep the peppers.

And we're gonna use the cap as well as a kind of a stopper.

We just want to clean out whatever seeds might be in here.

They come out really easily.

I like to do a combination of green and red peppers and the red ones are called piperies florinis.

Peppers from Florina, which is not too far from Thessaloniki, and an area known for the cultivation of all sorts of peppers.

If you have a few seeds in there, it's not a big deal.

I'm gonna set the peppers aside.

We want to make this as easy as possible.

So I like to do it with a pastry bag.

And the easiest way to fill a pastry bag is put it in a tall container.

And I'm just gonna take a big heaping spatula full of the feta cheese mixture.

Get it into the bag.

This will make the peppers really easy to fill.

If there's any left over, you can always just serve it up with some chips.

It makes a really nice dip.

This is a classic recipe from Thessaloniki.

There are lots of different renditions of spicy feta cheese dips.

Gonna take the pastry bag.

Push down a little bit.

And this is really easy.

You just want to get the tip in there.

Try not to fill them all the way up, because the feta will soften a little bit.

And you want to leave a little bit of space for that.

So there's not too much spillage as these bake.

Securing the cap is important, so you keep the feta from spilling out.

We can do that with all of them.

And this is pretty much done.

The only thing I'm gonna do is add a little bit of olive oil and we want to just make sure the pan is lubricated and the peppers are lubricated.

And this needs a little liquid.

I like to add a bit of dry white wine.

The dish needs a little moisture so that the peppers don't puff up too much when they bake.

I like to add parchment before the aluminum foil so that the food doesn't come into contact with the aluminum foil.

This is going right into the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Let's reveal this.

Ooh.

Smells and looks delicioso.

I'll get this, served, this is piping hot.

Be a little careful.

I want to get some of these delicious pan juices.

This is basically olive oil infused with pepper juice.

And just a little bit of thyme on here.

We want to remove the toothpicks.

That's very important.

So this is what a feta cheese-stuffed pepper should look like.

And I'm just gonna get a little taste.

Mm.

This is Meze heaven.

The peppers are really, really flavorful.

They're very aromatic and that beautiful, almost pleasantly, bitter pepper taste that's really nice in here, sweet and bitter at the same time.

But the feta cheese is so creamy and so infused with the herbs and the spice.

It all comes together really beautifully.

It's always an interesting challenge to marry dishes that contain feta cheese with wine.

So I'm marrying it today with actually a very interesting Greek grape called Savatiano, which is the grape you might know from Retsina.

Eis ygeian.

Nice and crisp and a refreshing acidity that pairs really nicely with the richness and the heat.

So this is a really nice combination.

On that note, the Meze table, the Meze recipes of Greece, are meant to be shared.

And I hope you have great company and a lot of loved ones to share all the dishes of Greek cuisine together.

For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

[Announcer] Diane's cookbook's "My Greek Table" and "Ikaria" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com Or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... ♪ ♪ (inaudible) (camera shutter clicks)