This month we published a good share of recipes, among those from Giada De Laurentiis, others from our Chef Network, and a couple more from the Chef team at the Academia Barilla Culinary School, but we didn’t forget about also browsing the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library (BIGAB) for recipes, where we generally get great inspirations.

Summertime brought to our minds fresh, sunny, Southern Italian seafood dishes, and we stumbled upon a great cookbook, Chef Giuliano Bugialli’s “Foods of Sicily, Sardinia and the smaller islands” (1996, Rizzoli International Publications). We often talk about Chef Bugialli’s “Parma” cookbook, edited by Academia Barilla and available at the Academia Barilla online store, but we like also Chef Bugialli’s exploration of further Italian regional traditional cuisines.

Today’s recipe comes from Trapani, Sicily: Couscous alla Trapanese (Couscous Old Trapani Style). Couscous is a typical Arab dish, imported into the food culture of Southern Mediterranean countries more than a 1,000 years ago. Traditionally, Arab couscous is made with meat and vegetables, but the unique Tunisian version of couscous is made entirely with fish and seafood.

The proximity of Trapani, Sicily, and Tunis, Tunisia, and the commercial and social exchanges that intertwined the two cities over the centuries, allowed a fusion of some cultural topics from architecture to fishing style and, obviously, to food. Trapani is less than 300 miles away from Tunis, and some of the Sicilian minor islands, such as Pantelleria and Lampedusa are even closer, as you can see in the Google Map below.

Trapani absorbed the Tunisian couscous culture (and vice-versa), adding its own Sicilian touch to a typical Arab dish. The Sicilian Couscous alla trapanese is a main course, and its unusual feature is that fish and chicken are combined in the same dish, a duo sometimes found in Spain (Valencian Paella) but not in Italy. It has become very difficult to find authentic preparations of this dish because today Italians often omit the chicken.

Nowadays people rebel as much at the amount of work and time required to make real couscous as they do to make real polenta. Certainly precooked versions of these grains save time but it is important to understand that in using these precooked versions, the real flavor and texture of the dish are sacrificed.

Ready for the Couscous Old Trapani Style? This recipe requires a long preparation time.

COUSCOUS ALLA TRAPANESE
(Couscous Old Trapani Style)
A recipe by Chef Giuliano Bugialli
(Dish picture by John Dominis)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE

- 1 large red onion, cleaned and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 pounds blanched and seeded tomatoes, cut into large pieces
- about 2 pounds fish heads and tails, wrapped in cheesecloth
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- a large pinch of hot red pepper flakes
- 20 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves only
- 6 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 10 very large fresh basil leaves, left whole
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 cups completely defatted chicken broth, preferably homemade

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FISH AND CHICKEN

- 6 medium-sized calamari (about 1/2 pounds), cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch rings
- 2 pounds of different types of non-oily fish, cut into large pieces, with bone (Langoustine, the small lobsters, are optional)
- 1 large lemon
- coarse-grained salt
- 1 chicken (about 3 pounds), cut into 10 pieces, with all the extra fat removed

INGREDIENTS FOR THE COUSCOUS (NOT PRECOOKED)

- 1 pound couscous
- salt to taste
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- a large pinch of ground saffron
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 5 large bay leaves

INGREDIENTS FOR PRECOOKED COUSCOUS

Follow the procedure printed on the box, adding oil, not butter, as well the bay leaves and ground saffron listed above.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE BROTH 

- 4 quarts very light chicken broth, preferably homemade
- 4 bay leaves
- a large pinch of ground saffron
- 4 medium-sized carrots, scraped and cut into large pieces

INGREDIENTS TO SERVE

- 3 or 4 langoustine for decoration (optional)
- 15 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves only, coarsely chopped

PREPARATION

Soak the chopped onion pieces in a bowl of cold water for 1/2 hour. Soak the calamari and fish pieces in a large bowl of cold water with the lemon, cut in half and squeezed, and a little coarse salt for 1/2 hour.

If you are making your own couscous, place the (not precooked) grain in a large bowl. Add salt to the water along with the saffron and start adding the water by tablespoonfuls while constantly rubbing the grains between the palms of your hands. Do not add extra water until the previous tablespoonful has been completely absorbed by the grain and uniformly distributed. When all the water is used up, oil your palms and again rub the grains. Keep repeating until all the oil is used up.

Place the 4 quarts of broth along with the bay leaves, saffron and carrots in a stockpot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Line a colander with a thick cheesecloth then mix the prepared couscous with the bay leaves and put it in the prepared colander.

Fold the cheesecloth over the top and insert the colander in the stockpot containing the boiling broth. Tightly cover the colander with a lid or with aluminium foil. If you have a lot of space between the stockpot and the colander, you can seal it by wrapping a kitchen towel dampened in cold water all around or you can make a dough with flour and water, and attach it all around the opening in order to keep the steam from coming out (the dough method is Sicilian and probably older than the cloth method). Let simmer for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large casserole over medium heat. When the oil is warm, drain the onions and add them to the casserole; sauté for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every so often with a wooden spoon. Add the fish heads and tails with their cheesecloth wrapping and cook for 15 minutes, turning the “bags” over 2 or 3 times. Season with salt, pepper and the hot pepper flakes.

Finely chop parsley and garlic together on a board. Add the chopped ingredients along with the whole basil leaves to the casserole, mix very well and cook for 5 minutes more. Dissolve the tomato paste in the broth and pour it into casserole. Lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. The liquid should be reduced by half. Remove and discard the cheesecloth with all its fish bones.

Taste the sauce for seasoning. Start adding the fish that require at least 35 minutes of cooking time, such as calamari, to the broth. Add the other fish and chicken pieces that take less time as appropriate. The chicken will not take more than 20 minutes to cook.

Open the cheesecloth, mix the couscous very well to be sure no lumps have formed, then close it again and cook for 1 hour more.

When the sauce is ready and the fish and chicken are cooked, transfer the couscous to a large serving platter. Pour all the sauce over the couscous, arrange all the fish and chicken, with or without langoustine, on top and sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot.

CHEF TIPS FROM ACADEMIA BARILLA

To obtain a full Sicilian flavor, the Academia Barilla Chef Team suggests to use Academia Barilla’s Monti Iblei Sicilian extra virgin olive oil and Natural Sicilian Sea Salt with Black Olive Oils - they are both available at the Academia Barilla online store.

Buon Appetito!

As you have seen from our latest post activity, we have been very busy both at Academia Barilla and at the Italian Food Lovers blog team. We didn’t forget about it, we are only late - so let us introduce you the ingredient of the month… for the month of June: strawberries!

Don’t worry, we won’t skip a month just because we are late, so expect another ingredient and recipe of the month post this month of July.

As usual, Chef Matteo Carboni from The Academia Barilla Culinary School offered to show how to make a gourmet dish, in this case a dessert, using a video recipe - we love this! So welcome today Matteo with a step-by-step preparation video on how to make a Strawberry Mousse with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

As Matteo tell us in the video, the ingredients we will need are about 1 pound of fresh strawberries for 6 servings, plus fresh cream, mint, icing sugar, food gelatin and Traditional Balsamic Vinager of Modena (Matteo here uses Academia Barilla’s 25-years Balsamic, which you can find at the Academia Barilla online store.

After cleaning and cutting the strawberries, Chef Carboni put them in a blender, while preparing the gelatine using a bowl of warm water and food gelatin (1 pound of gelatin for 1.3 pounds of warm water approx).

While the gelatin soaks, Che Matteo heat on a stove a third of the strawberry puree, then simmers, adds the gelatine and waits to completely melt before adding the rest of the puree. 

While the strawberry mixture cools down, Chef Carboni whips the cream, then mix it with the pure and finally filles single serve molds with the final cream. Chef Carboni suggests to prepare the mousse in advance,as the molds need to refrigerate for at least one day.

Final presentation and tasty details: some slices of strawberries, mint leaves and the final Chef touch, a few drops of a Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 25-years!

Buon Appetito from the Academia Barilla Culinary School and the Italian Food Lovers blogging team - Strawberry Mousse Forever!

Summertime is here, at least according to the calendar since today is June 21. Not much according to the season, as in Italy this year we experienced a very slow start of the season, with heavy showers up to a couple of days ago alternated to beautiful sunny days, but not so hot as we had up to last year (this is actually good news, as last year we couldn’t even breath for the high temperatures!).

What’s the most characteristic summertime food icon? Nine out of ten would say Ice Cream and sure gelato plays a big role in Italian gastronomy and food culture, so we decided to serve you a video on an event we hosted at the Academia Barilla Culinary School last month, for the Academia Barilla Short Film Awards, a satellite event to the well-know Brescello 2008 Film Festival.

During the gala event, Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini, helped by Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Chef Team, prepared and served to the participants of the event a very particular ice cream: liquid nitrogen ice cream.

We managed to get some video footage of the Academia Barilla Short Film Award Gala from TV Parma, who was partnering, filming and broadcasting the event. After some editing for the web format, and with the help of Chef Matteo Carboni whose voice-over comments the making of ice cream using the nitrogen freezing process, we are happy to present you the video on how to make a gourmet ice cream using liquid nitrogen.

Used in creative cuisine, as well as in many other applications including surgery, liquid nitrogen has the power to freeze instantly and, in the ice cream making process, really helps in reducing preparation time, while not affecting the ice cream flavor nor its organoleptic properties.

As Matteo comments, liquid nitrogen has a boiling point at -320 Fahrenheit degrees, and this is why the Chefs have to use protection gloves to handle the preparation. So please don’t try this at home before taking all due safety precautions.

The ice cream base is composed by milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks. As Chef Matteo Carboni reminds in the video, it is important to pour the liquid nitrogen very slowly and keep mixing the ingredients to avoid crystallization, and to keep the ice cream homogeneous and smooth.

All the fog you see in the video and in the picture above is the product of the fast evaporation of the liquid nitrogen, and it is safe to breath for the few minutes of preparation. As Matteo says, the ice cream made with liquid nitrogen has a fresher flavor and a finer and smoother texture than the traditional ice cream - yummy!

Happy summertime to all Italian Food Lovers from the Academia Barilla Culinary School!

Academia Barilla gets featured again as a must-do when traveling in Italy from Italian cooking website Cooking in Italy, who dedicates a full page to the culinary classes and cooking courses offered at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy.

As reported by Cooking in Italy:

You will experience regional delicacies, authentic menus, exclusive tastings, one-of-a kind culinary tours to regional Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Prosciutto Di Parma, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, olive oil and wine producers to learn the intricacies and traditions of true Italian foods.

You will also be able to explore authentic Italian markets and gourmet stores, observe the cultural street life, and enjoy the wonderful shops, cafes and restaurants that Parma boasts. Instructed by top professional Italian chefs, countless food enthusiasts have been amazed by the prized elements and variety in our program.

We offer full hands-on training, group or individual classes, professional tasting techniques and instruction, authentic menus with specialty recipes and English-Italian translation in our modern, state-of-the art facilities.

Ditto! Still waiting?

Get in touch with Academia Barilla to organize your culinary learning vacation at the Academia Barilla Culinary School.
You can call toll free in the United States at +1 866 772.2233, in Italy at +39 0521 264060, or by email at academiabarillaculinary@barilla-usa.com.

See you in Parma this summer! By the way, if you are planning a culinary tour of Italy, we suggest you read the travel advisory tips offered by Cooking in Italy on their website on “Choosing the right cooking holiday” - among which the latest tip, that goes “Plan as far ahead as possible. Many of the more popular cooking holidays book up quickly!”

Ditto, again!

In the mid 1980’s, long before the release of the blockbuster film Sideways, GreatEveryDayItalianWines.com’s founder and wine expert Gary Grunner was part of a small group of wine representatives and educators traveling all over New York State by car, train, bus and plane — selling, doing staff seminars, hosting wine dinners, fund raisers, teaching classes and talking wine all along the way.

It all started in 1982 when Gary fell in love with Italy while on a college exchange student program. As he recalls “It truly was a life changing experience. Not only did I develop a love for Italian wines, food and soccer from the contagious passion of my professors, but I also met a young Italian girl who later became my wife“.

Twenty-six years later Gary has homes both in New York and Italy and spends 10 hours a day immersed in the food and wine scene. He loves to share his passion of food and wine with people and he’s the first to talk about a new wine find, a new wine gadget, a chefs new restaurant and a great wine vacation.

Gary’s websites GreatEveryDayItalianWines.com and GreatEveryDayWines.com reach out and engage people on both sides of the wine world: the eager buyer and the enthusiastic seller.
Both websites provide innovative wine cards and other exciting tools to learn about wines, while Gary’s wine articles appear in a local New York restaurant magazine or on dishdujourmagazine.com. Gary is also in the midst of completing two books on wine and one on food that should be in print in 2009. We all look forward to it!

In the meanwhile, we invite you to explore GreatEveryDayItalianWines.com, where you can also find a wide range of information not only on Italian wines, but also on wineries, wine shops and restaurants, wine books, and more.

A special section of the website is dedicated to “Turismo del Vino in Italy” (Wine Tourism in Italy) and this month features Academia Barilla’s Culinary School as a must-do for those how plan to travel to Italy to learn about Italian food, engage in culinary and gastronomy classes and, of course, to learn also about Italian wines and wine and food pairing!

A full list of culinary and gastronomy courses, complete with cooking classes and gourmet tours of the Italian Food Valley, are listed at the Academia Barilla page on GreatEverydayItalianWines, and we will be soon blogging more in details about it.

For more information about the Academia Barilla Culinary School and this year’s calendar of culinary tours, cooking classes and culinary learning vacations, please contact Academia Barilla by phone in the US at +1 866 772.2233, in Italy at +39 0521 264060, or by email at academiabarillaculinary@barilla-usa.com.