Chewing The Sea

Grass-fed takes on a whole other dimension here in Epirus, Greece's untrammeled northwestern mainland, where sheep and goats graze in the lush green mountains. Here, Diane follows the country's best-known cheese, feta, from its artisanal roots to modern state-of-the-art production. She explores a range of other sheep and goat milk cheeses that are new to most Americans. Diane visits a shepherd in the villages called Zagorohoria and makes farmhouse cheeses with a local friend Vassilis Paparounas.

Diane celebrates the intensely flavored food and unique wines of one of Greece's most breathtaking islands, Santorini. Diane hops in a boat to pick capers on this volcanic island. Back in the kitchen she cooks sea bass with briny capers and a dash of minerally Santorini wine and serves the delectable fish dish with fava, a velvety yellow split pea puree classic in Santorini. She visits a renowned vineyard which still practices the island tradition of growing grapes in basket-shaped vines.

Is there a Greek dish more iconic than Spanakopita, spinach pie? Diane follows the fillo flake trail from a New York City diner to the remote Greek countryside to explore the origins of fillo pies. She proves that making homemade fillo is a lot easier than it seems and demonstrates how to transform the flaky pastry into a classic spinach pie. We see how a traditional cheese pie is made and visit one of the oldest artisan fillo makers in Greece. Store-bought fillo is the perfect shortcut for Diane's deliciously easy chicken pie.

Diane visits the source of the well-known Mediterranean diet: Crete. A hearty, soul-satisfying breakfast grain called hondros, or cracked wheat, gives a great start to the day. For a glimpse of village life, she follows a local family's daily routine of working the land and cooking up a storm and meets an unusual farmer who lives the way people did on Crete a hundred years ago. From picking wild artichokes and asparagus to preparing a simple omelet with wild greens, life's a celebration of fresh, robust food.

Diane goes off the beaten path to lush Mount Pelion in Central Greece in search of ways to preserve nature's incredible bounty. Preserves of every kind are the starting point for so many dishes here, from whole apples and almonds put up in sugar syrup to wild pistachio shoots pickled in vinegar. With a bunch of pickled sweet red peppers in hand, Diane makes a hearty local sausage-pepper dish. A foraging escapade inspires a fabulous dish of eggs cooked inside a bed of greens.