After discovering how to choose a ripe melon at the market, today Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Culinary School will teach us an easy and fresh dessert recipe for a hot summer: Melon Sorbet.

Chef Matteo introduces the ingredients at the beginning of today’s video: 1 melon (1.5 oz), 1/2 oz white sugar, 3 oz glucose, the juice of 1/2 lemon, and Academia Barilla Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 12 years old. Let’s watch the entire preparation on video!

After introducing the ingredients, Chef Carboni proceeds with the sorbet preparation: first he cuts the edges of the melon off, then he cuts the melon in half, cleaning the inside with a spoon, and finally he chops the melon in slices. When you peel the melon, reminds Matteo, be careful not to cut your finger!

Chef Carboni roughly chops the melon in pieces, then puts them inside a food processor (mixer) and moves on to the preparation of the sugar syrup, for which you will need the 1/2 oz white sugar, 3 oz of water and 3 oz of glucose.

To prepare the syrup, put the sugar and the water in a pot and bring it to 250 degrees F, then add the glucose, mix and let it rest.

In the meanwhile, start blending the melon in the food processor, then add the syrup and the lemon juice, and mix for a few seconds more.

Chef Matteo Carboni uses a professional ice-cream machine in this video, but gives all the tips on how to prepare ice-cream at home.

If you don’t have a professional ice-cream machine you can put the mixture in a bowl and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes, take it out, whip it, put it back in the freezer for 10 minutes, take it out and whip it again, then back in the freezer and so on.

You will have to keep repeating this step until the mixture is ice-cream dense, and this will vary according to the power of your home freezer.

To finalize the recipe, Chef Carboni uses an ice-cream scoop to serve 2 ice balls in a glass, and adds a finishing touch using a dash of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and a fresh mint leaf - ready to serve!

Thank you very much Matteo, see you soon on Italian Food Lovers!

Welcome to a new blog post in the Ingredient of the Month series! After introducing watermelon as a mid-summer dessert, today we introduce a strict relative of the watermelon as the ingredient of the month of August: the melon.

Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Culinary School gives us today a Chef tip: how to choose a ripe melon at the market. In Italy melon is a quite versatile ingredient, says Matteo; it used as an antipasto, for example with Prosciutto di Parma, and also as a dessert.

As Chef Matteo says in the video below, the first thing to check in a melon is its flavor that must have a strong and full, ripe smell.

Another important thing to verify before buying a ripe melon is the color of the side stripes. The melon is ripe, says Chef Carboni at the end of this video, when the green stripes have turned yellow.

Thank you very much Chef Carboni for this short but interesting video. Tomorrow we will publish part two of the video; Chef Carboni will delight us with a gourmet recipe of the month using melon as the ingredient. Stay tuned!

Here we are finally with Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, who we have called in at Italian Food Lovers by mistake a couple of days ago - sorry Lorenzo!

Chef Lorenzo Boni and his team have been the spine of the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Garden Chef Series. Pictured here below, you can see Lorenzo in action during the cooking demo, surrounded by an attentive crowd and… the full range of Academia Barilla gourmet products, which are all available online at the Academia Barilla online store.

As “resident Chef” for Barilla USA Lorenzo proposed several recipes to the participants to the event, and we are glad to be able to share with you the first one today, an easy-to-prepare pasta salad: Farfalle Piccolini Pasta Salad.

FARFALLE PICCOLINI PASTA SALAD
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- Barilla Farfalle Piccolini pasta, 1 package
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons
- 1 ripe avocado
- Cherry tomatoes, 2 pints
- Red onion, julienne, 1 cup
- Pine nuts, 1 tablespoon
- Academia Barilla Pecorino Sardo Gran Cru, grated, 1 cup
- Basil, 5 leaves
- Lemon juice from 1 lemon
- Salt, black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

Cook pasta according to directions, drain one minute prior to the lowest cooking time; drizzle with a little oil in order to prevent the pasta from sticking together and allow it to cool down flat on a sheet tray.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion with 1 tablespoon of oil. Set aside.

Slice the tomatoes in half, season with salt and let drain in a colander.

Sauté the pine nuts over medium heat till lightly brown.

Dice the avocado. Combine all the ingredients with pasta, season with salt and pepper.

Allow the salad to rest for half hour at room temperature before serving.

Thank you Lorenzo for sharing with us your pasta salad recipe - we’ll publish more recipe of yours soon again!

More recipes from our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network. After yesterday’s wrongly attributed recipe, here is a new recipe from Chef Doug D’Avico of Trattoria N. 10 in Chicago.

Chef D’Avico today shares with us another recipe from the Chicago Botanic Garden show: Grilled Baby Octopus with Watercress Salad and Oranges. But since Chef D’Avico is also a Guest Chef participating to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, this time we file this post under the Chef Network category.

GRILLED BABY OCTOPUS WITH WATERCRESS SALAD AND ORANGES
A recipe by Chef Doug D’Avico
(serves 8)

INGREDIENTS

- 2 lb Tenderized baby octopus
- 4 limes, juiced
- 1 cup Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/8 tablespoon Crushed Red Chili Flake
- 2 tablespoon Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon Rosemary, no stem, chopped
- Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
- 1 Bunch Hydro or Organic Watercress, Trimmed
- 1/2 Head washed Radicchio leaves
- 2 Oranges, segmented and juices saved
- 1/4 cup Toasted pine nuts
- Academia Barilla Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange, to taste

PREPARATION

Remove the head and beak from the octopus and put into a metal bowl.

To make the dressing, take the juice from the limes, olive oil, chili flake and chopped parsley and rosemary, combine and season to taste. 

Pour one third over the octopus and cover. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Before grilling, drain any liquid off the octopus so you don’t cause a flare up on the grill.

You can season the octopus before you grill it. Grill the octopus over a medium high heat and weight it down a little bit so it gets a little bit of char.

To serve, arrange the watercress and radicchio in the center of a serving platter. Cut the octopus up in small pieces and pile in the center of the greens. Garnish the plate with the pine nuts and orange segments. Drizzle the salad

With the rest of the dressing, add a little bit of the Monti Iblei olive oil and fresh ground pepper, and a pinch of Academia Barilla Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange. Serve.

Thank you Chef D’Avico for this new recipe and sorry again for yesterday gaffe!

We look forward to having you again as guest at our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network!

We have been asked to publish more info about the Giada de Laurentiis and Academia Barilla event in New York City, so we managed to get more pictures and the dinner menu, designed by celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis.

The evening, organized in conjunction with Fancy Food NY, officially launched the new celebrity gourmet food line Giada de Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla, a series of authentic Italian food specialties you don’t want to miss in your Everyday Italian cuisine.

The guests at the Astra Lounge, the exclusive NYC penthouse, had the pleasure to taste a number of dishes prepared using the new Giada De Laurentiis product line. Giada’s NY menu was definitely tempting, with innovative recipes such as:

Artichoke Pesto on Ciabatta
Parmesan Popovers (you can find the recipe here)
Whole-Wheat Penne with Green Beans, Ricotta and Lemon
Balsamic Chicken Skewers
Grilled Swordfish with Lemon, Mint and Basil
Balsamic Marinated Beef Tenderloin Skewers
Roasted Baby Potatoes with Tuscan Herbs
Anytime Vegetable Salad

The newly-launched gourmet product line designed by Giada De Laurentiis and selected and produced by Academia Barilla, is composed by:

100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil - artisan production from the sunny Southern Italy, this extra virgin olive oil has a subtle and smooth taste, with hints of arugula, artichoke and grass.

Balsamic Vinegar of Modena - a gourmet selection from Modena’s artisan producers, this balsamic vinegar presents a tart fruity taste with hints of raisin and red apple.

Natural Sea Salt with Fresh Lemon Zest - hand harvested from famous salt pans in Sicily’s seaside town of Trapani, this natural sea salt is enhanced with zest of fresh local Sicilian lemons.

Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix - an aromatic mix of wild rosemary, sage, bay leaf, basil, marjoram, thyme, wild fennel and chili pepper. Hand harvested and dried in small batches on a Tuscan estate.

The entire product line is available at the best gourmet food store in the United States, and also online at the Academia Barilla online store, just follow the links above to get to each product!