The Economist tells how “a pasta-maker gets a taste for books“, describing the Gastronomic Library’s collection of over 8,500 cookery books in more than ten languages, and nearly 5,000 menus and scores of old prints showing food in various phases of preparation.

The Economist’s journalist quotes BIGAB’s Director Giancarlo Gonizzi and the Dewey decimal system he adopted to classify the collection, besides the cultural activities scheduled at BIGAB with students (from Parma’s university, but also US visiting students) and with Parma’s city authorities. The article mentions that the library has begun digitizing its contents and plans to make them available online.

Digitalizing the entire Gastronomic Library is a long process, but currently in progress; we will definitely keep you updated on BIGAB’s online availability.

In the meanwhile, you can start enjoying the first fruits of this hard work at the new Academia Barilla website, that features an entire section dedicated to BIGAB, and started publishing online the first series of traditional Italian regional recipes, as well as fun food facts such as those about Academia Barilla’s collection of historic menus, or “At the table with…“, a section where you can discover the favorite food and recipes of great people in history, from Cato to Catherine De’ Medicis to Napoleon Bonaparte.

The content and full index of the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library, while not currently entirely available online, it is searchable through the new Academia Barilla website, a good resource page for all food culture students, historians, chefs and food lovers!

Enjoy the food culture readings, they are food for thought!

We have been around in the blogosphere with our Italian food culture blog posts, gourmet recipes, news from the food industry, a gourmet chef network and a lot of blogging passion since back in December 2006, almost two years ago (our birthday is December 21)!

So we thought it was about time to give our beloved Italian Food Lovers blog a new design - not only from a mere design standpoint, but also from a content usability / accessibility angle.

The new and larger publishing column, which now aligns the editorial and publishing setting between the home page and the blog post, is what makes us more excited. The new widescreen format will allow us to use larger, richer visuals and images for our articles - we love it, and we hope you’ll love it too!

The new blog navigation can now provide our readership with easy access from our Italian Food Lovers homepage to all your favorite content. 

With immediate access to our featured and latest posts and easy reach to some of our most popular columns (Chef network’s gourmet recipe, Academia Barilla recipe of the month, featured videos, Italian food culture, Italian food events and Gastronomic Library) we surely provided our readers with a lot of opportunities to easily explore our content.

Of course you will still be able to browse our content by category (the Ingredients list on the left) and to grab one of our many RSS feeds to stay updated with our latest posts directly delivered to your mailbox (or RSS reader, or browser, you choose). So grab our main RSS feed to get all the content we publish, or as many as you want from the Ingredient list to get only the content you are interested to.

Last but not least, we dropped a footer with few direct links at the bottom of each page, so that you can reach directly the Academia Barilla website, the Academia Barilla online store, our new contact page or our blog archives with just one click!

We keep one little secret not to be revealed yet, but be prepared: more surprises from Italian Food Lovers will be coming up in the next couple of weeks!

Please let us know if you like our new blog design, we’d love to hear from you - use the comment box of this post!

Cyber Monday is a new tradition, brought by the web and the e-commerce world. The first Monday after Thanksgiving is now worldwide known as Cyber Monday, the beginning of the Christmas online shopping season.

This year Cyber Monday is next Monday, December 1.

Most of the online retailers and e-commerce shops around the web offer special online shopping discounts on Cyber Monday, and Academia Barilla couldn’t resist this year to propose some very sweet deals in traditional Italian gastronomy.

Remember: this offer is valid only on December 1, 2008!

Visit the Academia Barilla online shop on Monday, December 1, and shop to save big on great gourmet food products, plus get some nice season deals:

- 25% off the Sicilian Sea Salt kits

- FREE chunk of Pecorino Gran Cru with purchase of a 12-years old or 25-years Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

- 1 can of Peeled Cherry Tomatoes FREE with purchase of 5 cans.

- 1 bottle of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 3-years FREE with purchase of the Academia Bailla Extra Virgin Olive Oil Sampler

We remind you again that Cyber Monday discounts and deals are valid only on Cyber Monday, so hurry up to save on Season gifts and gourmet shopping on Monday, December 1, at the Academia Barilla Online Shop!

First of all, we would like to say thank you to Barilla USA’s Chef Lorenzo Boni, Trattoria N. 10’s Chef Doug D’Avico, Francesca Restaurants’ Executive Chef Laura Piper, Pinstripes’ Chef Mark Grimes and Mado’s Chef Rob Levitt for sharing their recipes with us. Thank you again, see you again on Italian Food Lovers!

Just to recap, this year we had the pleasure to publish on Italian Food Lovers recipes for 7 gourmet dishes. Did you try any of them at home? 

• Sautéed Wild Mushrooms Bruschetta
• Grilled Baby Octopus with Watercress Salad and Oranges
• Farfalle Piccolini Pasta Salad
• Linguine Fagottaro Pasta Salad
• Lobster Bread Salad
• Chicken Parmesan with Campanelle Pasta
• Grilled Peach and Prosciutto with Parmigiano-Reggiano and Bulsamic Must

Also, we have to say thank you to Stephanie Sette from the Academia Barilla USA Marketing Team (in the picture above) for getting all the content together for us (she does it all the time with the US events content, by the way) and of course also to Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti, who has been conducing several rounds of educational and tasting demos during the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend.

In these pictures taken during the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend Mario Rizzotti shares his Italian culinary knowledge with the show participants, teaching them how to professionally taste some of the best Italian gourmet products, such Italian extra virgin olive oils and traditional Italian cheese specialties such as Parmigiano-Reggiano and the several varieties of Pecorino, from Sardinian Pecorino Dolce to Pecorino Toscano DOP and Pecorino Sardo Gran Cru. Follow the link to see more pictures of Mario Rizzotti’s tasting demos at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

A final thank you goes of course also to all the guests and visitors and participated to the Chicago’s Chef show. If you liked the Italian cooking and Italian food culture you experienced at the Chicago Botanic Garden, you now you can find it also here on Italian Food Lovers all year round!

Also remember that you can experience the flavor and taste of Academia Barilla’s Italian gourmet food specialties all year round too, they are all available at the Academia Barilla online store, where you can also find Italian cookbooks, Chef tools, Italian gastronomy gift boxes and gift certificates!

Today Chef Rob Levitt (pictured here below at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s event) of Chicago’s gourmet restaurant Mado shares with us an interesting gourmet recipe from the Italian gourmet event: Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Salad with Parmigiano-Reggiano and Balsamic Must! Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen!

GRILLED PEACH AND PROSCIUTTO SALAD WITH PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO AND BALSAMIC MUST
A recipe by Chef Rob Levitt
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- 4 slightly under ripe peaches (free stone are best)
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 2 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- Academia Barilla Unfiltered Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoon Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt
- 4 twists fresh cracked black pepper (or to taste)
- 7 tablespoon Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano (shaved with a vegetable peeler)
- 4 paper thin slices Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma
- 8 tablespoon Academia Barilla Balsamic Must
- arugula leaves (optional)

PREPARATION

Light a charcoal or wood grill, and let the coals burn until you have a nice, even, medium heat.

Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits. Toss with the lemon zest, olive oil, thyme leaves, 2 tablespoon salt and pepper.

Place the peaches on the grill cut side down. Let them cook for about four minutes, or until they can be lifted easily from the grill and have nice lines charred into them (the grill marks are mostly aesthetic. If they stick a little, it’s ok, they will still get the smoky grill flavor we are going for).

Turn the peaches 90 degrees and let cook 2 more minutes. Turn over and let cook for 2 minutes.

Take the peaches off the grill and place in a bowl with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss together and let cool.

Cut the peach halves into thirds, divide amongst 4 plates, and season with remaining sea salt.

Scatter the Parmigiano shavings over the peaches. Lay 2 Prosciutto slices over the peaches. If using, scatter the arugula leaves around the plate and drizzle with the remaining olive oil.

Drizzle with the Condimento Balsamico, and finish with a twist of black pepper.

Thank you Chef Levitt for sharing this yummy recipe with our readership! We look forward to having you as a blog guest again soon!