On the road again … with Academia Barilla. Join us as we travel to Venice, Parma, Rome and Sicily. 

It’s that time of year again. What time you ask? Time to start planning your next trip to Italy, of course.We all know that the Italian peninsula is home to an infinite number of things to see and do and taste. But why make it hard on yourself, when you can let Academia Barilla and their team of Italian food, wine and culture experts plan your trip for you. Join us for a behind the scenes tour of your favorite region in Italy, or allow us to introduce you to someplace new.

Speaking of new, we have designed two new tours for 2009: Venice, Parma, Rome: A Trio of Italian History and Sicily for Food Lovers. 

If you have never been Italy or just breezed through on your last whirlwind tour of Europe, we invite you to get to know three of Italy’s most spectacular cities – Venice, Rome, and Parma. You will begin your adventure in Venice, where a local guide will show you around the local markets and introduce you to some of the city’s incredible craftsmen. In Parma, you will have the chance to visit the prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano-Reggiano producers. You will also be treated to a hands-on cooking class with at the Academia Barillia culinary center. Then you will head off to the eternal city for a tour of the city’s monuments and hidden treasures. And to top it all off, we will arrange for you to stay in luxury hotels and eat in unforgettable restaurants and trattorias.

If, however, you have been waiting for your chance to explore Sicily, now is the time to do it.  We have organized a special insider’s tour that will take you around the island in seven days. You will have the chance to visit Palermo, Trapani, Erice, Marzano del Vallo, Agrigento, Ragusa, Marzamemi and Siracusa. And in these fascinating cities and towns, you will have the opportunity to taste and learn more about Sicilian specialties like marzipan, olive oil, sea salt, Marsala wine, cous-cous, cheese and swordfish. In addition, we will take you to visit some of the island’s breathtaking archeological sites.

We believe that food and culture go hand in hand. There is often no better way of getting to know a new place than by exploring its local culinary traditions and historical monuments. Let us do the navigating and you will be sure to leave satisfied.

For more information about our new tours, please visit the Academia Barilla website or you can call us from the US by dialing 0039 0521 264060.

A weekend packed with cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, and educational seminars, it will surely be an event not to miss. For cheese lovers, this is truly an experience unlike any other, with over 200 varieties of cheeses for guests to sample from local and international producers.

If you haven’t tried Academia Barilla’s velvety smooth and complex Pecorino Gran Cru table cheese, rare mountain-milk Parmigiano Reggiano table cheese, tasty Pecorino with porcini mushrooms and truffles cheese spread or the savory Spicy Fig Compote, make sure to stop by and see why Connie Rizzo, Deli and Cheese Buyer of DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine Seattle, says that Academia Barilla has a cheese that’s hot now in a recent article in Specialty Food Magazine.
Take a peak below to see some delicious notes on what we’ll be featuring at the event!

PARMIGIANO REGGIANO

Aroma: Fresh milk, with hints of butter and honey.
Flavor: Sweet and mild, with hints of fresh milk, skimmed yogurt, straw and white flowers.
Texture: Soft and compact.

PECORINO GRAN CRU

Aroma: Sweet and fresh, with hints of milk, cream and grass. Scents of nuts, fruit and hay.
Flavor: Milky, sweet and nutty. Fills the palate, well balanced, round, complex flavor.
Texture: Compact, velvety, moist.

SPICY FIG COMPOTE

Made with fresh green figs and spicy mustard essence, this traditional recipe is presented
with a modern flair.
Aroma: Spicy, distinct flavor of mustard has an intense, refined aroma.
Flavor: Softened by fresh figs, this compote embodies the perfect balance between sweet and spicy.

SPREADABLE CHEESE WITH PECORINO SARDO, TRUFFLES, AND PORCINI MUSHROOMS

Aroma: Delicate notes of fresh milk and cream with the intense undertones of Truffles and Porcini Mushrooms.
Flavor: Milky and sweety with a very well balanced aroma with round flavor.

If you can’t wait until the event or won’t be able to make it, try this tasty recipe below to experience a cheese lovers delight!

CHEESE FANTASIA
Ingredients for 4 servings:
5.2 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano
5.2 oz. Pecorino Toscano
5.2 oz. Pecorino Dolce
5.2 oz. Mozzarella
7 oz. Spicy Fig Compote
7 oz. Fresh Pears with Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
7 oz. Gourmet Chianti Wine Jelly
7 oz. Monti Iblei D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sicilian Sea Salt with Black Olives, To Taste
2 Fresh Figs
1 Fresh Pear

Cut the figs into one-fourth pieces, the pears into eighth and the grapes into half. Cut the Parmigiano into flakes, the Pecorino into slices and the Mozzarella into cubes. Place all the ingredients on a platter with the Parmigiano near the Fresh Pears with Balsamic Vinegar and a piece of fresh Pear. Place the Pecorino Toscano near the Gourmet Chianti Wine Jelly and the fresh Grapes, then the Pecorino Dolce near the Spicy Fig Compote and the fresh Figs. Sprinkle the Mozzarella with the Monti Iblei D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a pinch of Sicilian Sea Salt with Black Olives.

As a matter of fact, the Valrhona meeting, entitled Il Gelato sotto i riflettori or “Gelato Highlight,” was held at the Academia Barilla headquarters in Parma, Italy. Here, Valrhona shared with their clients their new selection of summer recipes: from gelato cakes to desserts served in a glass. Obviously, all of the recipes were based on chocolate!

Alain Chartier, Master Pastry Chef honored with the titles of best pâtissier in France and World Gelato Champion, demonstrated how to prepare the Valrhona treats in front of a full house.

But start at the beginning. The day began at 1 pm, when guests were welcomed into the Academia Barilla Training Room where, for the special occasion, Master Pastry Chef Gianluca Fusto arranged an appetizing buffet of macaroons, small soft coconut tarts filled with chocolate and fabulous little chocolates.

Selections of macaroons, coconut tarts and chocolates

Academia Barilla training room

After this sweet prelude, the meeting moved to the fantastic Academia Barilla Auditorium, where Alain took over the show, in front of numerous guests and Academia Barilla’s video cameras.
The demonstration lasted 3 hours, during which Alain made various chocolate preparations – all of which were truly fantastic.

A moment during the demonstration

For his first recipe, Alain presented a dessert called Mojito. Based on an original recipe, the treat is combination of lime sorbet and vanilla with a light white rum mousse with a chocolate gelato. The recipe took 40 minutes to prepare, but we can assure you that it was worth it! Alain demonstrated, with expertise and professionalism, all of the steps necessary for making a perfect Mojito. And here is the final result.

A hard shell of shiny chocolate containing lime and vanilla sorbet that surrounds a white rum mousse with a heart of soft and creamy chocolate. Beautiful presentation and sublime flavor!

Another recipe that Alain presented was Sante, a glass of sorbet composed of an orange-carrot mousse, carefully placed on a soft layer of Coeur di Guanaja, a delicious chocolate produced by Valrhona.

The dessert was presented in a glass glazed with Coeur di Guanaja with a small transparent strip so that you could see the contents. The finishing touches were very fine strips of dried carrot. Excellent work Alain!

To prepare the desserts for all of the guests, Alain was joined by Chef Marco Canevari and Chef Fabrizio Pantani, who also assisted him during the demonstration.

From the left: Master Pastry Chef Gianluca Fusto, Chef Marco Canevari, Chef Fabrizio Pantani and Master Pastry Chef Alain Chartier.

The meeting ended with a tasting session of all of Alain’s fantastic preparations and a toast to a job well done! Congratulations to everyone! Academia Barilla is very happy to have had you as our guests!

Did you know that library houses over 4,700 historic menus from the 19th and 20th centuries? And did you know that they are all available for public view should you make the very worthwhile trip to visit us in Parma, Italy?

And in perhaps even more exciting news for our friends on the other side of the Atlantic, many of these menus are available online.

Hidden within the Gastronomic Library section of the Academia Barilla website, you will find a wide array beautifully decorated menus that mark milestones of Italian gastronomic history. There is so much to explore… so let’s get started.

Here is a fun historical fact.
Menus – or printed lists of dishes to be served at a specific occasion – did not appear until around 1810 when formal dining in Europe witnessed a major change. Prior to this date, most formal dinners were presented with traditional French service, which meant that all the dishes were placed down on the banquet table at once.
However, in Russian service dinner guests were served one dish at a time, over the course of the evening. Printed menu cards were presented to the guests, like playbills, giving them a preview of what was to come. These elegant menus of yesteryear are not unlike the prix-fixe menus you might fine in a contemporary fine-dining restaurant or at a gala dinner.

As was custom during the 19th and some of the 20th century, many of the menus are printed in French – the language of European diplomacy. However, with the unification of Italy, the menus printed in Italian began to appear.

The Academia Barilla virtual menu gallery is subdivided into sections, making it easy to navigate. The “A Menu a Month” section contains 12 menus – one for each calendar month – and is a fun introduction to the collection.

A brief description of the event for which the menu was printed is presented next to the digital image of the menu itself. You can click on the image to enlarge the menu, allowing you to read, for example, exactly what Umberto I of Savoy at for lunch on February 27, 1897.

In the “Menus of the Italian Nobility” section, you will find the menus from meals served to many of Italy’s great noble families. Take a trip back in time by scrolling through the menus from the Borromeo, Meli Lupi di Soragna, Negroni, Spinola, Visconti and Litta family lunch and dinner parties. One of the Spinola family documents even contains a seating chart for a 1920 lunch held at the Villa Spinola in Genoa.

And there are even more hidden treasures to be discovered in the “Historic Menus from the House of Savoy” and “Menus of the Italian Government” sections of the gallery. Here you can explore what the Vittorio Emanuele III used to eat for dinner or what the Italian Ministry served visiting diplomats.

You may even be surprised to find a menu including pizza alla Napoletana, served with sparkling wine no less.

Come and join us on a gallery tour!

You will find the recipe for chef Matteo’s Easter rack of lamb with herbs and artichokes in our previous post about the Academia Barilla Easter Gift Set. The recipe can also be found on the Academia Barilla website, as well as at our online store.

LAMB WITH ARTICHOKES AND SAPORI ITALIANI
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4 to 6
· 2.2 lbs of Lamb loin
· 6 artichoke hearts
· 1 clove of garlic, chopped
· 1 bunch of mint leaves, chopped
· Academia Barilla IGP Toscano Extra Virgin Olive Oil
· 4 oz. of Academia Barilla Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
· Academia Barilla Sapori Italiani, to taste
· salt and pepper, to taste

To begin, we suggest you take special care in selecting your ingredients. Italian cooking is all about bringing out the natural flavors in foods. Traditionally, fresh lamb is a springtime food and, depending on where you live, you should be able to find it at your local farmer’s market. While you are at the market, don’t forget to pick up artichokes, garlic and mint! The rest of the ingredients called for in the recipe are available at our online store.

Before you start cooking, we suggest that you watch chef Matteo’s video at least once. He provides helpful hints along the way allowing you to work through the recipe smoothly.
While the lamb is marinating, Matteo suggests that you trim and slice the artichokes. By placing them in cold water with lemon juice, you will be able to keep them from discoloring.

Another important tip is to hold onto the lamb trimmings in step 1 of the recipe. They will be used to make the base for the mouth-watering balsamic vinegar sauce. The sweet flavor of the sauce pairs perfectly with the savory flavor of the meat.

And be sure to pay attention to how Matteo plates this dish, beginning with the sautéed artichokes, then layering on the lamb and finishing the dish with the balsamic sauce, some extra virgin olive oil and, last but not least, Sicilian sea salt flavored with black olives.

Well, Matteo, you sure have got our mouths watering. Thanks for another delicious, seasonal recipe!
Buona Pasqua a tutti!