Italian Food Lovers

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!

As the Chicago Botanic Garden carried on with the Garden Chefs Series until the end of summer, we still have several recipes from the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend we already introduced here on Italian Food Lovers.

After presenting recipes from Chef Lorenzo Boni and Chef Doug D’Avico, today we introduce one of the other participant Chefs, Chef Laura Piper, Corporate Chef at Francesca’s Restaurants in Chicago, pictured here below during her Chicago cooking demo.

Chef Laura Piper today shares with us a classic pasta dish from the Francesca’s Restaurant menu, Linguine Fagottaro Pasta Salad.

LINGUINE FAGOTTARO PASTA SALAD
A recipe by Chef Laura Piper
(serves 6)

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

- 10 large (peeled, seeded and diced)
- 1/2 oz. Fresh basil (chopped)
- 1/2 oz. Raw garlic (chopped)
- 1/2 can Tomato juice
- Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil, to taste
- Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with black olives, to taste
- black pepper, to taste

PASTA INGREDIENTS

- 4 lbs. Barilla Linguine pasta (cooked)
- 3 tablespoon Garlic (chopped)
- 3 tablespoon Shallots (chopped)
- 12 Fresh basil leaves (julienne)
- 3 oz. White wine
- 3 tablespoon Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (grated)
- 3 tablespoon Fresh parsley (chopped)
- 5 tablespoon Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil
- 12 oz. Academia Barilla Pecorino Dolce
- Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with black olives, to taste
- crushed red chilies, to taste

PREPARATION

Start preparing the sauce. Set aside 1/4 of diced tomatoes. Combine all remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse to a chunky consistency. Add remaining tomatoes and fold into mixture.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate sauce until ready to assemble with pasta.

In a sauté pan, sweat garlic and shallots in 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil. Upon garlic and shallots becoming translucent, add white wine to sauté pan. Allow to reduce for 2 minutes. Add cooked linguine, parsley, basil and remaining extra virgin olive oil to sauté pan. Toss with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and season with salt and crushed red chilies to taste.

To assemble, spoon the pasta onto your serving platter. Pour chilled sauce over the pasta and top with fresh pecorino dolce and garnish with a sprig of basil.

Buon Appetito!

Thank you Laura - more recipes and pictures from the Garden Chef Series at the Chicago Botanic Garden will be coming up soon!

Just stay tuned and keep cooking with us!