This is definitely the best time of the year to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. The mild climate, the summer light and the awesome settings of the garden’s landscapes surely invite for a day of nature exploration and discovery, long walks, bike rides, or to enjoy one of the many learning workshops and events offered by the Chicago Botanic Garden.

This is also the time of the year when, among the other events and attractions, the Botanic Garden also presents the Garden Chef Series, a lineup of top Chefs with a full calendar of cooking demos every Saturday and Sunday starting the last week of may, and closing the first week of October.

Barilla America, the presenting sponsor for the 2008 Garden Chef Series, will showcase the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend, a weekend of Italian cooking programs and special giveaways at the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden this Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27. Barilla USA and Academia Barilla sponsored also last year’s edition of the Garden Chef Series - you might remember our blog posts from last year’s edition.

This year, Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti, the participating Chicago top Chefs and their respective teams, will give demonstrations using fresh Italian ingredients such as those found in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden.

Among the participating Chefs is Chef Doug D’Avico, who is already participating in our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network.

In addition to plant and recipe giveaways, the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend will offer family activities and tastings of gourmet olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pasta, traditional Italian cheeses and other Italian gastronomy delights.

The event is free but seating is limited, so please make sure to arrive early.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is easy to find, located approximately 20 miles north of Chicago at 1000 Lake Cook Road in Glencoe, Illinois. Google Map below for driving directions.

We have already received a number of gourmet recipes from the Chefs of the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend that we will be sure to share with you after the event.

So be ready for yummy dishes and top Chef tips for the preparation of Farfalle Piccolini Salad, Sautéed Wild Mushroom Bruschetta, Crescenza Ravioli with Parmigiano Reggiano and Truffle butter sauce, Lobster Bread Salad, Chicken Parmesan with Campanelle Pasta and more - all on our Italian Food Lovers blog, stay tuned!

We are back with Barilla US Chef Assistant Yury Krasilovsky for another exclusive cooking demo for our Italian Food Lovers blog!

Chef Krasilovsky today will prepare another recipe sent by Giada De Laurentiis, who is staring experimenting new recipes using her new Italian gourmet food product line, Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla.

Giada last week proposed an interesting dish, Giada’s Balsamic Chicken Drumettes, where she used her new Giada’s Balsamic Vinegar, while this week Giada sent us a new recipe where she uses her new Giada’s Tuscan herb Mix, alongside Academia Barilla’s Parmigiano Reggiano: Giada’s Parmesan Popovers.

Are you ready? Let’s go to the kitchen with Chef Iuri Krasilovski.

GIADA’S PARMESAN POPOVERS
A recipe by Giada De Laurentiis
(makes 6-8 servings)

INGREDIENTS

- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix
- 4 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3/4 cup grated Academia Barilla Parmesan (about 5 ounces)

PREPARATION 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a blender, combine eggs, flour, salt, pepper, Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix, milk, and cheese.  Blend on medium speed.  

Spray a mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 full.  Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove popovers from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack.

Thank you Giada for this interesting recipe, and again thank you also to Chef Yury Krasilovsky for his step-by-step guidance in showing us how to prepare the dish.

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!

As we announced earlier, Italian Chef and TV celebrity Giada De Laurentiis sent us a couple of recipes made using ingredients from her new Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla gourmet product line.

We remind you that the products from the Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla food line are now available nationwide in the United States at gourmet and specialty food stores as well as at some of the biggest food market chains - and of course at the Academia Barilla online store.

Here we go with the first one of Giada’s recipes: Giada’s Balsamic Chicken Drumettes. The recipe has been performed by Barilla USA Chef Assistant Yury Krasilovsky, which we thank also for sending us pictures of the preparation step!

GIADA’S BALSAMIC CHICKEN DRUMETTES
A recipe by Giada De Laurentiis
(makes 4 to 6 servings)

INGREDIENTS 

- 1/2 cup Giada’s Balsamic Vinegar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 5 sprigs of rosemary
- 5 cloves garlic, halved
- 10 to 12 chicken drumsticks
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

PREPARATION

Combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs, and garlic cloves in a large, re-sealable plastic bag.  Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar.  Add the chicken drumsticks to the bag and seal with as little air as possible in the bag.  Place in the refrigerator and marinate for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the chicken drumsticks on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Bake until the skin is caramelized and very dark in spots, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan.  Bring the marinade to a boil (in order to kill bacteria).  Reduce the heat to simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes; reserve.  

Brush some of the cooked marinade on the cooked chicken.  Place the chicken on a serving platter.  Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and the chopped parsley.

NOTES AND CHEF TIPS FROM GIADA

I like the subtle rosemary and garlic flavors.  Brushing the cooked drumettes with the reduced marinade helps the flavors along.  Also, re-moistening helps the parsley and the seeds to adhere.

Thank you very much Giada for sharing with us this great recipe and your final Chef tips, and thanks also to Barilla US Chef Assistant Yury Krasilovsky for the exclusive cooking demo for our Italian Food Lovers blog!

We will meet again Chef Krasilovsky next week with another step-by-step preparation of another recipe from Giada De Laurentiis: Giada’s Parmesan Popovers.

Stay tuned!

As we announced with a previous post, last June 29, on the opening day of the hip New York food show Fancy Food NY, Academia Barilla organized a cocktail party with Giada De Laurentiis as a top guest, at the stylish Astra NY Lounge, at the 14th floor of the beautiful D+D Building on 3rd Avenue, with amazing views of the city that never sleeps.

The event was part of the launch and official announcement of the US nationwide distribution of the new Italian gourmet food line Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla we already introduced on our Italian Food Lovers blog.

At the Astra Lounge, while Giada presented her new gourmet product line, a team of Chef from Barilla USA prepared some gourmet appetizers using Giada’s and Academia Barilla’s products, while Mionetto was partnering the NY event providing pairing wines.

We will be following up soon on this, publishing photos and recipes from the NY event, as soon as we get them at the blog editorial team. In the meanwhile, we are pleased to announce that we will publish in the next couple of weeks some Giada recipes prepared with her new products, so stay tuned!