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!

Welcome to our Ingredient of the month series. Today Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School wiil introduce to us the ingredient of the month for the month of May, fava beans (also called broad beans or tic beans around the Commonwealth, scientific name is vicia fava, according to Wikipedia).

Matteo will cook a great dish of pasta using the Garganelli pasta he showed us last week how to make using traditional pasta tools. For the sauce Chef Carboni suggests to use fava beans, ripe tomatoes, rosemary and garlic. The first step would be peeling the fava beans, which is very easy if we blench the beans in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Same operation to peel the tomatoes - check the video for Chef tips on how to cut the tomatoes into small cubes getting rid of the seeds.

While Chef Carboni cooks the fresh Garganelli pasta (approx cooking time 4-5 minutes) he prepares the sauce heating up some extra virgin olive oil to sauté the fava beans, to which he adds rosemary, garlic, pinch of salt and the diced tomatoes.

When the pasta is cooked Chef Carboni adds it to the sauce, and saut� for another half minute, finishing the dish while still in the pan with parsley, freshly grated black pepper and Pecorino Grand Cru. Add a bit of extra virgine olive oil (Matteo here uses Academia Barilla’s Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOP) and black pepper before serving.

Final Chef tip from Matteo: you can add a pinch of grated black truffle to make the dish more unique in flavor and presentation.Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!

After a brief consultation with the Chef Team at the Academia Barilla Culinary School, there were no more doubts about it: our ingredient of the month for the month of April is the Asparagus.

As reported by the Wikipedia, Asparagus has been used from very early times as a vegetable and medicine, mostly for its delicate flavor and diuretic properties.

There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius’s 3rd century AD “De Re Coquinaria, Book III”. Asparagus was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter.

Asparaguses lost their popularity in the Middle Ages but returned in the European culinary tradition in the seventeenth century.

Today we invite you to try a gourmet recipe with our ingredient of the month. We found a great recipe at BIGAB, the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library, in a cookbook titled “L’Asparago bianco di Bassano - Le ricette dei ristoranti Bassanesi” (Bassano’s White Asparagus - recipes from Bassano’s Restaurants). The image below is taken from the same cookbook edited by Terra Ferma, and the picture of the final dish is by Cristiano Bulegato.

The recipe we propose today involves the use of Pasta Brisé or pasta sfoglia salata, something similar to Southern piecrusts. Pasta Brisé is widely used in both Italy and France for food presentation and balance of savory food, and is not used with sweets. Pasta Brisé makes also a great base for miniature pies as appetizers, to cover and encompass finger foods, to wrap cuts of veal and seal in the juices and to make self contained casseroles.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen!

CRISPY LASAGNE WITH ASPARAGUS, SAUTE OF PRAWNS AND VESPAIOLO
(serves 5)

INGREDIENTS

- 12 oz Pasta Brisé
- 1.8 oz of Asparagus
- 15 prawns
- 1/2 green onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 5 tablespoon besciamella, white sauce
- 1 small glass of Brandy
- 1/2 glass of Vespaiolo wine
- 2 tablespoon of parsley
- 1 ripe tomato
- 2 sprigs of chives
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- salt and pepper, to taste

FOR THE BESCIAMELLA SAUCE

- 3 3/4 cups, whole milk
- 1 stick, butter
- 1/2 cu, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon, grated nutmeg
- salt, to taste

BESCIAMELLA PREPARATION

Heat the milk in a pan until almost boiling. Separately, in a medium saucepan, heat the butter until melted. Add flour all in once, stirring until smooth.

Cook gently over medium heat until light golden brown, 6-7 minutes. Add milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until no lumps left.

Bring to a boil and let it cook for a couple of minutes, continuing to stir, until a smooth sauce is obtained.

Remove from the heat and season with salt and grated nutmeg.

In order to have a more liquid or thicker sauce, reduce or increase of 1 tablespoon the quantity of flour.

MAIN DISH PREPARATION

Prepare a thin layer of Pasta Brisé and cut it to shape 12 round pieces of about 2 inc hes of diameter and cook them in the oven for 7-8 minutes at 350° F.

In a separate saucepan with two tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, brown the garlic clove then sauté the prawns for few minutes, flame with brandy and eventually add the Vespaiolo wine. Eventually, add the minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

In a casserole with extra virgin olive oil, brown the green onion finely minced, add the asparagus, previously washed and cut in small pieces, season with salt and pepper and let cook.

When done, add the prawns and at last, the previously prepared, besciamella sauce.

On the serving plate, place a piece of Pasta Brisé, pour over a spoon of asparagus and prawns, then add a second piece of Pasta Brisé and two prawns on the very top.

Decorate the plate with some fresh cubed tomatoes, two sprig of chives and thyme.

The dish is now ready to be served! Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!

The ingredient of the month for February is Pumpkin, as suggested by our friends at the Academia Barilla Culinary School. Today Chef Matteo Carboni presents on video how to cook another simple but delicious pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Pennette with Pumpkin, Bacon and Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

Here is the transcription of the video recipe prepared by Chef Matteo Carboni, so you can print it to have it at reach while cooking.

PENNETTE WITH PUMPKIN, BACON AND TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR OF MODENA

INGREDIENTS
(4 servings)

- Barilla Penne Rigate pasta, 12 oz.
- brown onion, to taste
- pumpkin, 8.5 oz.
- smoked bacon, 7 oz.
- Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 12 years, to taste
- Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- parsley, to taste
- rosemary, to taste
- garlic, 1 clove
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- salt, to taste

PREPARATION
(preparation time: 30 minutes)

Peel and remove the seeds from the pumpkin. Cut into cubes of about 1 cm/0.5 inch each side.

Place the discards of the pumpkin, the onion, and a little salt in a pan and cover with water until it boils. When the vegetable is cooked, whip until you obtain a cream.

First cut the smoked bacon into pieces of about 3mm in length and then cut in Julienne style. Mince the rosemary, garlic and parsley.

Put a pan on medium heat, add a drop of oil and fry the pumpkin adding salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the pumpkin from the pan, add the smoked bacon and cook until browned. Add garlic and rosemary to the bacon and pumpkin and after 2 minutes of cooking, add the pumpkin cream.

In plenty of salted boiling water cook the pasta, drain and add with the previously prepared sauce.

Add the minced parsley, plate the pasta and drizzle with Traditional Vinegar of Modena before serving.

Buon appetito from the Academia Barilla Culinary School!

And of course, here is the video version of this recipe.

[youtube]SEVfZ5ZK1IQ[/youtube]

We introduced a new series of blog posts this month, dedicated to the Ingredient of the Month - Cauliflower, in its local Roman version Cavolo Romanesco.

In the previous video, Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School reveals how to easily clean the cauliflower separating all the florets, which allows for better cooking and presentation.

Today Chef Carboni demonstrates in a new video recipe how to cook a simple but yummy pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Spaghetti with Romanesco Cauliflower.

After separating all of the florets, Chef Carboni suggests to chop them in halves, and to place them in boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Other ingredients used in this recipe are anchovies, garlic, thyme, Academia Barilla Monti Iblei DOP extra virgin olive oil and Academia Barilla Pecorino Cheese.

As a first step of preparation, Chef Matteo Carboni places the pasta into boiling water in a medium sauce pan. He immediately begins preparing the cauliflower-based sauce with a sauté of garlic and anchovies in a hot sauté pan.

Once the anchovies are melted Chef Carboni adds the cauliflower. Stir fry this for a couple of minutes while seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.

When the pasta reaches the “al dente” cooking time as described in the pasta packaging (here Chef Carboni uses Barilla Spaghetti), drain it and add it to the sauce for a final sauté, to which is added olive oil and Pecorino cheese.

The final touch before serving is adding some more Monti Iblei D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil, cauliflower florets and a sprig of thyme.

Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla!