Today we have another yummy pasta recipe from the Academia Barilla Culinary School, an easy recipe for a delicious gourmet pasta, Tagliatelle with cream of walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, olives and prosciutto di Parma.

Ref: The source of the image above is the already quoted Marianne Paquin’s cookbook “La cucina degli innamorati” (Lover’s Cuisine), edited by Fabbri Editori, and available at the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library in Parma, Italy.

Ready to cook? Print this recipe or take the laptop with you to the kitchen, we are ready to go!

TAGLIATELLE WITH CREAM OF WALNUTS, HAZELNUTS, PISTACHIOS, OLIVES AND PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA
(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 lb fresh tagliatelle
- 2 slices of Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma
- 4 walnuts
- 8 peeled hazelnuts
- 12 peeled pistachios
- 8 green olives (without the pit)
- 7 tablespoons of cream
- 2 tablespoons Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure DOP extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Preparation time - 10 minutes
Cooking time - 10 minutes

Chop the walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios and olives together. Cut the slices of Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma into strips.

Stir the cream, Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure DOP extra virgin olive oil, mixture of chopped nuts, salt and pepper into the serving plate.

Cook the Tagliatelle in salted boiling water. When ready (check the cooking time on package), drain the pasta and pour it in the serving dish, stir gently and add the Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma strips. Serve immediately.

CHEF TIPS

Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in the cooking water so the pasta doesn’t stick together.

We really like interactive stuff, especially when it’s related to Italian food, of course. So we couldn’t help but notice that our friends of Barilla USA published a nice interactive minisite called Discover Barilla, that you can easily find at www.discoverbarilla.com.

The website, with catchy graphics that remind of Italian traditional cookbooks and authentic popular cooking, presents a virtual gastronomic and culinary tour of some among the top gourmet (and cultural) destinations across Italy. An itinerary that will take the online book readers on a trip starting in Parma to proceed to Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Verona, Tuscany, Umbria, Naples and Amalfi.

At each destination the book will unveil local gastronomy traditions, and reports local traditional recipes as well as a review of local restaurants where you can surely enjoy traditional local gourmet cuisine.

We explored for you one of the gourmet itinerary, and of course is… Parma! The Discover Barilla book gives an overview of the city in a page that includes slideshows of images and videos, before introducing to local specialties such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, and presenting two local recipes (two new regional recipes are provided at each destination of the Discover Barilla virtual culinary tour).

The Discover Barilla recipe we explored for you is Barilla Farfalle with Prosciutto and Green Peas.

BARILLA FARFALLE WITH PROSCIUTTO AND GREEN PEAS
(a traditional recipe proposed by Discover Barilla)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 box Barilla Farfalle
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups prosciutto, cut into strips
- 1 1/2 cups green peas (may use frozen)
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 cups half-an-half
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
- salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Cook Farfalle according to package directions.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes

Add the prosciutto and peas, sauté 3 minutes.

Add white wine, simmer until mixture has reduced by about half.

Stir in half-half and heavy whipping cream, season with salt and black pepper; simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Drain pasta, toss with the sauce.

Stir in Parmesan cheese before serving.

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Thank you Barilla USA and DiscoverBarilla.com for the recipe. We invite you to browse them all, and also have a look at the final section of the Discover Barilla online book, which is of course about discovering Barilla, its family, history and traditions.

Enjoy the virtual Italian gourmet trip, and stand by for a calendar of the real gastronomy and gourmet tours offered by Academia Barilla - we’ll publish soon our 2008 calendar of gourmet events!

Last week we blogged about the Marco Polo Foundation and the culinary school’s exchange program that allowed a dozen US students to spend 2 weeks at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy.

Today we want to share with you one of the gourmet recipes the students have been challenged to prepare under the guidance of Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini: Passatelli pasta with prosciutto, rucola, cherry tomatoes and eggplants.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen!

PASSATELLI PASTA WITH PROSCIUTTO, RUCOLA, CHERRY TOMATOES AND EGGPLANTS
(a recipe prepared by the Marco Polo students at the Academia Barilla Culinary School)

INGREDIENTS:

For the Passatelli pasta:

- 10.58 oz. breadcrumbs
- 7.05 oz. Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
- 3.53 oz. Prosciutto di Parma
- 1.41 oz. white flour
- 6 eggs

For the sauce:

- rucola (arucola), 3 bunches
- 1 medium size eggplant
- 3.53 oz. Academia Barilla Cherry tomatoes
- 1.41 oz. peeled almonds
- 1.76 oz. Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano, slivered
- Academia Barilla 100% Italiano Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- garlic cloves, to taste

PREPARATION
(preparation time 15’)

- Finely mince the prosciutto in order to avoid the meat from sticking in the holes of the utensil for the passatelli.

- Add the minced prosciutto to the other ingredients for the passatelli, and mix them together. Then form the mixture into balls, cover them with wrapper and leave in the fridge.

- Clean the vegetables, cut the tomatoes and take away the seeds. Cut the eggplant into small cubes and brown in a pan with olive oil.

- Put in a blender the rucola, the almonds, the parmigiano, the garlic and the extra virgin olive oil. Mix until creamy.

- Mix the cherry tomatoes with the eggplant and cook the passatelli in salted water or broth.

- Drain and season in a pan with the vegetables and the rucola pesto. Put into dishes and serve.

Last December a group of American students from NY Universities (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, NY) spent some time in Parma to study Italian Cuisine at the Academia Barilla Culinary Center .

The group of students were headed by Giacomo Berselli, President of the Marco Polo Foundation, the organization who sponsored the students’ trip to Italy. After spending 7 weeks in Otranto (Puglia) and 3 weeks in Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna), the students attended cooking classes at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma for additional 2 weeks.

During their Parma residency the US students of the Marco Polo project studied the typical products of the Parma region, and attended classes of olive oil tasting, Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma tasting, as well as Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and wine tasting. After theory and tasting classes in the morning the young Chefs spent some time researching Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library, with the support of the Library Curator Giancarlo Gonizzi and his team.
The afternoon were generally spent in the kitchen, trying dishes and recipes containing the ingredients the students have been working on all day, under the guidance of Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini and his Chef team.

To complete the students’ full immersion into the art of Italian gastronomy, Academia Barilla organized also culinary and gastronomy tours for the students, allowing them to discover the secrets of producers and farmers of authentic regional products, and to meet the countryside traditions and history of the Emilia-Romagna region, that certainly is a key ingredient of our traditional recipes.

At the end of the 2 weeks of classes the Academia Barilla Culinary School released to each student a certificate of completion of studies that, join with the other certificates awarded by the students at the other learning locations across Italy, would have grant them the formal recognition of the exams and classes by their respective original colleges (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, both in the NY State).

Here below a couple of testimonial notes from the Marco Polo students, as written on the Academia guest book, pictured here above with more Marco Polo testimonials:

“Thank you Barilla for such an informative 2 weeks. I enjoyed myself thoroughly would tell my family friends about this wonderful place. Thank you so much.”

“Ciao, this school has taught me that food to the Italian is religion and the kitchen is their church. Thank you Academia Barilla.”

To know more about the student program we interviewed Marco Polo Foundation President Giacomo Berselli who firmly says that “Academia Barilla is state-of-the-art of the Italian Cuisine“!

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Today we introduce the recipe for the Maserati Murcielago LP640 - no, you won’t be able to prepare in your kitchen the Italian car that turned into a legend, but you will be certainly able to cook an awesome main course for the New Year’s Eve dinner, that Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni designed getting inspiration by the Lamborghini line of vehicles to create the Academia Barilla - Lamborghini NYE gourmet menu.

After introducing the Lamborghinis of the last posts and their respective recipes, today Chef Lorenzo Boni proposes to celebrate the Lamborghini Murcielago with Pork Tenderloin “bocconcini” wrapped in Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma, drizzled with Academia Barilla Balsamic Must and accompanied with baby greens.

Yummy, let’s go immediately to the kitchen!

PORK TENDERLOIN BOCCONCINI WRAPPED IN PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA, DRIZZLED WITH BALSAMIC MUST, AND ACCOMPAINED WITH BABY GREENS
(a recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni, inspired by Lamborghini Murcielago LP640)

INGREDIENTS

- 2 pork tenderloins
- 12 slices of Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma
- 1/2 bottle Academia Barilla Balsamic Must
- one sprig rosemary
- 2 cloves garlic
- baby green salad, 1/2 lb
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with Black Olives to taste
- black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Cut pork tenderloin in small 2 oz pieces (bocconcini, in Italian), individually wrap them with prosciutto, securing with toothpicks.

Cook on both side until pink in the middle. Meanwhile reduce the balsamic with rosemary and garlic until it thickens up a little. Cool down.

Before serving the tenderloin on a bed of baby green salad, seasoned with natural sea salt, black pepper and olive oil, drizzle the balsamic reduction over the top.

WINE PAIRING TIPS

Red wines from Tuscany generally are a good choice with pork and red meats, try Lodola Nuova Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2003 for best gourmet results.