We have introduced several times Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist and TV Chef celebrity Mario Rizzotti, but we keep getting more and more content about his Italian food experience, and we want to share it with you.

Do you remember when we blogged about the “And they Came to Chicago: The American Italian Legacy”, the documentary produced by Chicago-based Modio Media? Now the documentary is available also on DVD and, if you are interested, you can order it online at the Modio Media’s site.

To better promote their documentary the guys at Modio Media published online some key video sequences, among which are a couple with our Mario Rizzotti, such as the one here below. Here Mario introduces Chicago Cooking instructors Dede Frank and Roseanne Pileggi, who teach a class on Italian-inspired cooking.

In this video Mario Rizzotti joins with them in the kitchen while they are preparing Linguine with Olive Oil, Capers, Lemon Zest and Anchovies - listen to the Chef tips from Dede and Roseanne, especially on how to make a perfect soffritto with the anchovies.

While hanging out in the kitchen, Mario offers his expert advice on how to taste extra-virgin olive oil, on avoid abusing garlic “not to kill food with it” as Mario says, or to pay attention to the cooking time of the pasta to make it “al dente”. Mario Rizzotti’s Chef tips include adding fresh Italian parsley and some bread crumbs at the end, “to add textures” as Mario explains.

Final note: the Italian extra virgin olive oil the Chef used in this recipe is Academia Barilla’s Monti Iblei, available also online at the Academia Barilla online store.

Buon appetito from Academia Barilla, and kudos to Modio Media for the great movie production!

After introducing the “Discover Barilla” project last week, we have another important announcement about our parent company’s online activity. Barilla, the world’s number one pasta maker, announced last week its second annual call on pasta lovers to help fight hunger in the United States with the launch of The Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook.

To create the cookbook, Barilla US asked 5 of America’s favorite celebrities, one of the world’s leading Italian chefs and the most prominent party planner in the U.S. to help celebrate the Italian Table in 6 different ways.

Hollywood celebrities Stanley Tucci, Marisa Tomei, Debra Messing, Natalie Portman and Chris Daughtry shared their favorite pasta dishes with us. Chef Mario Batali recreated these dishes and developed a special menu for each party, while David Tutera developed creative and stunning table designs to make each experience special.

Barilla’s Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook offers the following celebrity-inspired recipes and table settings:
- Romantic Night with Chris Daughtry’s Rigatoni with Basil and Gorgonzola
- Celebratory Feast with Debra Messing’s Penne alla Vodka
- Girlfriends Gathering with Natalie Portman’s Penne alla Puttanesca
- Dinner Party with Marisa Tomei’s Farfalle “alla Marisa”
- Family Dinner with Stanley Tucci’s Spaghetti al Tonno
- Babbo with Mario Batali’s restaurant favorite Fettuccine with Zucca

The Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook is available online for free download at www.celebrityitaliantable.com for the entire month of February. For every downloaded copy of the cookbook, Barilla will donate 1$ to America’s Second Harvest, the US Food Bank Network. To thank the celebrities for their participation, Barilla is also making an additional $5,000 donation to America’s Second Harvest on their behalf. Follow this link for a cookbook preview, or this link for a direct download.

Since 1997, Barilla has been a supporter of America’s Second Harvest, donating over 5 million pounds of pasta. Donations are distributed among more than 200 member food banks serving all 50 states, the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico.

“Today in America there are more than 35 million people, 12 million of whom are children, who are at risk of hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. “We are grateful to have Barilla’s continued support for our fight against hunger. It’s easy to do your part by simply downloading this year’s cookbook.”

“Barilla is passionate about supporting hunger relief and passing on Italian traditions that show others how to bring people together around the table,” said Kirk Trofholz, president of Barilla US. “We are thrilled to partner again with America’s Second Harvest on this campaign and be part of such a highly worthwhile cause.”

Beside of the main fund raising for Second Harvest, The Celebrity Italian Table website proposes a photo contest, with the help of the online community of Gather.com: upload your Italian Table pictures on ItalianTable.Gather.com and every week a winner will receive a Barilla gift basket filled with pastas, sauces and olive oils. All weekly winners will be also eligible to win the grand prize of a $500 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. See the contest website for details.

More precious resources for all Italian food lovers are available at ItalianTable.Gather.com, such as premium articles by Barilla on how to host a pasta party, or the complete “Pasta 101: A Quick Guide for Making Perfect Pasta Every Time“.

Don’t forget to download your Celebrity Italian Cookbook today - your download will help Second Harvest, and will make all your friends happy next time you’ll invite them for an all-Italian, celebrity-inspired lunch or dinner!

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!

We would to introduce you to one of our recent partners, the Denver-based Cook Street.

Located in the historic LoDo district of Denver, Colorado, Cook Street is a world renowned Chef school which delivers culinary training by focusing on hands-on learning, menu preparation, palate development, wine education, and by building a rich appreciation for the culture, history and heritage of great cuisine.

The Cook Street School of Fine Cooking offers an accelerated Professional Food & Wine Career Program, recreational cooking and wine classes for students of all skill and experience levels.

Cook Street also provides online resources for those who are looking for more info about the culinary world, and offers a directory of trusted (friendly) links to several operators in the food industry under categories such as Books, Food&Wine, Kitchenware, Restaurant Equipment, Nutrition and more.

Italian Food Lovers has been listed within the cooking classes category, that we remind you we regularly run all year-long at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy, and across the United States in partnership with several local US food organizations. We will soon publish on Italian Food Lovers the updated calendar of 2008 cooking classes at our Parma Culinary School.

Academia Barilla and Italian Chef, cookbook writer and TV celebrity Giada De Laurentiis started the New Year with a great announcement that we actually anticipated on this blog: the launch of a new product line of high quality, authentic Italian gourmet food products.

Giada De Laurentiis, a long-time friend of Academia Barilla, designed in partnership with us an exclusive gourmet product line of authentic Italian specialty food that opens, of course, with an Italian classic: 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made exclusively with olives from Italy.

The gourmet product line goes further with a Balsamic Vinegar of Modena obtained from gently cooked grape must, grown and processed solely in the Modena area, and an hand-harvested, all-natural Sicilian Sea Salt with Fresh Lemon Zest that comes from a combination of the pure Sicilian sea water and the freshest lemons grown under the sun of Sicily, in the middle of the Mediterranean.

The “Giada for Academia” product line gets its cherry on the pie with Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix, a mix of refined appetizing herbs that brings to your dishes tastes and aromas you can only find in the gourmet hills of Tuscany.

All these products are available through exclusive distribution at the Crate & Barrel stores in the United States.

Crate & Barrel made of Giada’s line the highlight of the month, as she presented the Academia Barilla gourmet food line alongside other hand-picked kitchen items from the Crate & Barrel catalogue, featuring Giada as cover star.

If you don’t live close to a Crate & Barrel Store, you can request their catalogue online, and then proceed to place your order from the web when you’ll have the catalogue (you will have to report a catalogue code to be able to place your order). Don’t forget to add to your Crate&Barrel order the new Academia Barilla / Giada De Laurentiis gourmet products!

We will be updating you soon on the availability of Giada’s products outside the US, or through the Academia Barilla online store – and, promised, we will publish some new gourmet recipes from Giada soon!