Italian Food Lovers

Don’t miss this year’s Seattle Cheese Festival! Academia Barilla will be showcasing its line of authentic Italian food products on May 16th and 17th in Seattle at the famous Pike’s Place Market for the one and only Seattle Cheese Festival.

A weekend packed with cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, and educational seminars, it will surely be an event not to miss. For cheese lovers, this is truly Read more…

The Italian Food Lovers Chef Network keeps growing, and today we are proud to introduce a new Guest Chef: Chef John Franchetti from Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar in Santa Rosa, California.

We had an email chat with John in California and learned a few things about hisChef experience and insight, that started in 1981, when John met the American celebrity Chef, restaurateur, television personality and cookbook author Chef Emeril Lagasse, really liked what he was doing, and decided he was going to follow the same path into a gourmet Chef career.
Read more…

Cyber Monday is a new tradition, brought by the web and the e-commerce world. The first Monday after Thanksgiving is now worldwide known as Cyber Monday, the beginning of the Christmas online shopping season.

This year Cyber Monday is next Monday, December 1.

Most of the online retailers and e-commerce shops around the web offer special online shopping discounts on Cyber Monday, and Academia Barilla couldn’t resist this year to propose some very sweet deals in traditional Italian gastronomy.

Remember: this offer is valid only on December 1, 2008!

Visit the Academia Barilla online shop on Monday, December 1, and shop to save big on great gourmet food products, plus get some nice season deals:

- 25% off the Sicilian Sea Salt kits

- FREE chunk of Pecorino Gran Cru with purchase of a 12-years old or 25-years Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

- 1 can of Peeled Cherry Tomatoes FREE with purchase of 5 cans.

- 1 bottle of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 3-years FREE with purchase of the Academia Bailla Extra Virgin Olive Oil Sampler

We remind you again that Cyber Monday discounts and deals are valid only on Cyber Monday, so hurry up to save on Season gifts and gourmet shopping on Monday, December 1, at the Academia Barilla Online Shop!

Welcome back to Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Culinary School who, after telling us about the different variety of table grapes in an Academia Barilla video last week, will share with us his Chef advice on how to make Grape Must Jelly, and how to prepare Sugoli, a traditional Parma gourmet dessert. Enjoy the video chef tips!

As recommended by Chef Matteo Carboni in the video above, results are better when different varieties of grapes are mixed, which will result in a richer flavor. In the video recipe, Chef Carboni uses Sultuna, Pans and Moscate, which he introduced in his last video here on Italian Food Lovers.

Before proceeding with the grape hand-pressing. Matteo advises to use 4 pounds of table grapes in order to obtain 4 cups of table juice for 6 servings.

Not an easy job! You will surely need some strength to do this. Chef Carboni suggests to begin pressing the grapes with your hand, then to proceed crushing the remaining grape berries one at the time with your fingers before filtering the grape juice and giving it a final hand-squeeze to get as much juice as you can.

For 4 cups of grape juice we will need 4 oz of all-purposes flour that must be mixed with the grape juice in a bowl. Start with a little bit of juice. Mix with a whisk ensuring there are no lumps. Add the rest of the juice and keep mixing for a few more minutes until all the lumps disappear.

Put the mixture in a pot and bring to a boil, constantly stirring it. Keep boiling for 2 minutes before placing the mixture into molds while it’s still hot. Chef Carboni uses two different molds based on the servings he desire to prepare. Place the molds in the fridge, allowing them to rest for at least a couple of hours.

The first recipe prepared by Chef Matteo Carboni, Sugoli Grape Jelly paired with Pecorino Cheese and hazelnuts, is a dish that you can serve at the end of the meal as a dessert, or before the dessert. 

Chef Matteo Carboni concludes the video with a final dessert preparation, using the bigger Sugoli Grape Jelly molds that have been in the fridge for a bit longer. For the dessert presentation Matteo simply adds fresh cranberries, fresh mint and ground dark chocolate to the Sugoli Grape Jelly.

Chef Carboni also suggests trying a glass of Moscato wine (Muscat wine), to enjoy with this delicious Italian gourmet dessert.

Thank you Matteo, we can’t wait for your next video recipe!

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!