Parma, the capital of Italy’s Food Valley and home to Academia Barilla has been celebrating these days not only the love for Italian food but also the love for opera, with a full month of celebrations and events dedicated to the Italian opera Maestro Giuseppe Verdi with the Opera Verdi Festival 2008.

As our readership probably remember, last year we dedicated several blog posts to the Opera Verdi Festival 2007, blogging about the Maestro as well as about the Opera Festival and the gourmet opera tours organized by Academia Barilla to allow the Italian food and opera lovers to enjoy the event at its best.

This year the Opera Verdi Festival 2008 presented an even more structured program, with plenty of opera shows at several historic theaters and locations; a full digital booklet with program and info in English is downloadable at this link from the Teatro Regio website.

Academia Barilla offered luxury gourmet and opera travel packages to enjoy the experience of discovering Verdi’s opera, the city of Parma and the Italian Food Valley in full style.

In addition to the gourmet cultural tours organized in conjunction with the Festival Verdi, Academia Barilla provides more gourmet and cultural tours to Parma and Italy’s Food Valley, that we love to call Italian Culinary Learning Vacations, as they allow tour guests to learn a lot about Italian culinary culture while enjoying a luxury vacation.

For more info, details and booking for Academia Barilla’s cultural, culinary and gastronomic tours, please get in touch with Academia Barilla in Parma at +39 0521 264060 (toll-free number from Italy 800 376-116), or in the United States at the US toll-free number 1-866-772-2233.

Welcome to the Academia Barilla Culinary School, and to a new installment in the series of Italian Food Lovers’ Ingredient of the Month. Today Chef Matteo Carboni introduces us to the main varieties of Italian Table Grapes with another Academia Barilla video.

As commented by Chef Matteo Carboni, Italy is a great producer of very good wines, but also a great producer of table grapes. In the video above, he tells us about the grape varieties of Sultana, White and Red, Pans, and Moscato.

Table grapes are a very good snack for the morning or the afternoon, but also for the end of a meal, to be enjoyed on their own, or accompanied with some mature cheeses such as Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino.

The grape varieties presented by Chef Carboni are very different from each other. Sultana has a thicker skin and a simpler taste, and it is the grape variety used to make golden raisins. Pans has a thinner skin and it is very rich in pulp and juice - the favorite variety of Chef Carboni to be tasted with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Moscato (Muscat) has smaller berries and it is very sweet; this is the grape used to make the famous Italian sparkling dessert wine Moscato.

Table grapes are good on their own, but also a very good ingredient to make gourmet recipes such as roasted veal or pork, in the preparation of rich salads with baby spinach and walnuts, and of course in the preparation of desserts.

Thank you Matteo for sharing your Chef knowledge with us, we look forward to having you again on Italian Food Lovers, next time with some gourmet recipes!

We run out of recipes from the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Garden Chef Series and the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend, at least for this year - next year we’ll make sure to have one of our bloggers from the Italian Food Lovers editorial team on site, so we can actually video the Chef demos and interview the Chefs (not while they demo, of course).

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!

Welcome back to Italian Food Lovers with more Chef recipes from the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Garden Chef Series event earlier this year.

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!

A quick post to remind all Italian food lovers, as anticipated three weeks ago, that Italian celebrity Chef, cookbook writer and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis will be in California this week to promote her newly released Italian cuisine cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen.

After touring the entire United States with a number of book signing events at several book stores and gourmet stores across the country, Giada De Laurentiis will be available this week in California to sign copies of her new cookbook at two Williams-Sonoma stores in Costa Mesa and San Francisco - save the dates and locations if you live in California!

October 15 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - Costa Mesa, CA
South Coast Plaza
, 3333 South Bristol Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92626 

(714) 751-1166

October 20 12pm-2pm
Williams Sonoma - San Francisco, CA
Union Square, 340 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 362-9450

While signing her new cookbook at the California William Sonoma shops, Giada De Laurentiis will also be promoting her new Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet product line.

Giada’s Italian food specialties are also all available at the Academia Barilla online shop: just follow the next links to purchase the products: Giada’s Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, Giada’s 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix, and Giada’s Natural Sea Salt with Lemon Zest.