Italian Food Lovers

We had a slow start this year with the Italian Food Lovers blogs, mostly because we have been focusing on completing the launch of the new Academia Barilla website. Our blogging team has been heavily involved with the development of the content side for the new website, and this kept us from blogging with our usual frequency. 

While the Academia Barilla website is now completed, as well as all the new website features we invite you to explore, we are now working on the restyle/redesign of the Academia Barilla online store, that will be released in its new version soon.

We love our blog and we couldn’t stay away from it, so here we are again, back to blogging.

Since you can now discover gourmet recipes from the Italian regional gastronomic tradition at the new Academia Barilla website, we asked Barilla Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni to provide us with a recipe from our beloved region, Emilia-Romagna, and he provided us with a recipe for a classic dish: Veal Cotoletta alla Bolognese, that Chef Boni pairs with a side of Asparagus Tips and Cherry Tomatoes sautéed in Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen! Read more…

We have the pleasure to feature today another gourmet recipe from Barilla Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, who presents a delicate balance between sea and turf in this autumn pasta dish: Barilla Campanelle with Lobster and Sautéed Porcini Mushrooms.

BARILLA CAMPANELLE WITH LOBSTER AND SAUTEED PORCINI MUSHROOMS
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni
(serves 4-6)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 box Barilla Campanelle pasta
- 4 tablespoon Academia Barilla Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup celery
- 1 cup carrots
- 1 1/2 cup onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cups Porcini mushrooms
- 1/2 tablespoon parsley
- 1 1/2 lobster, medium size
- Academia Barilla Natural Sicilian Sea Salt with Black Olives, to taste
- black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

Bring a large salted pot of water to a boil and blanch lobster for 5 minutes with celery, onions, carrots.

Peel lobster and chop shells and head. Return shells to the blanching water along with tomato paste and keep cooking for 20 minutes. Dice lobster meat and set aside.

Bring a large salted pot of water to a boil and begin to cook pasta. In sauté pan cook garlic with 3 tbs of olive oil for about two minutes then add the remaining onions and continue sautéing for 2 minutes. Add lobster meat and cook through. 

In separate pan sauté mushrooms in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil on high heat until wilted down a bit, then combine lobster with mushrooms.

Add 1 ladle of lobster cooking broth and reduce by an half, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle in parsley. Toss with cooked pasta and serve.

Thank you Chef Lorenzo Boni for this great recipe, it is always a pleasure to host your culinary creations!

Sorry Italian Food Lovers this time we didn’t have any dish picture or video, we hope you enjoyed the photo compositions we created for you with images found around the web and on blogs and websites such as Lobster Help, Rosa Jackson’s Edible Adventures, Veg Foodie Blog and Herbivoracious. Thank you!

Today we have for you another Italian food creation of Barilla’s Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni’s series of gourmet recipes made with the new Academia Barilla artisan gastronomy products: Sicilian Tuna Carpaccio.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen! Missing a Academia Barilla ingredient? Just follow the links in the recipe to find the respective products at the Academia Barilla online shop.

SICILIAN TUNA CARPACCIO
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 lb, tuna sushi grade, sliced thin
- 4 tablespoons, lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons, Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup, heart of celery, julienned
- 1/2 jar, Academia Barilla Nocellara del Belice Olives, sliced
- Academia Barilla Sicilian Sea Salt with Orange Zest, to taste
- 4 leaves, basil, julienned
- 2 slices, bread

PREPARATION

Arrange the tuna slices on a platter. Season with lemon, Academia Barilla Sicilian Sea Salt with Orange Zest and pepper; marinate for five minutes.

Combine the drained olives with celery, basil. Top the Carpaccio and serve with warm bread croutons

To make croutons:
Rub bread with Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Academia Barilla Sicilian Sea Salt with Orange Zest and pepper; grill or toast in the oven until slightly brown.

CHEF TIPS
While making this dish, keep the celery in ice for extra crispiness.

Thank you very much, Lorenzo! We are sure that our Italian Food Lovers readership really appreciated the additional Chef tips that make italian cuisine more tasty!

More recipes prepared by Chef Lorenzo Boni with the new Academia Barilla products coming soon…

We just blogged about the new Academia Barilla Italian Tomato Sauce and, as promised, here is the first recipe proposed of Barilla’s Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni’s series of gourmet recipe prepared using the new products just included in the Academia Barilla gastronomy line.

Today Chef Lorenzo Boni teaches Italian food lovers how to make Italian Fish Soup a classic seafood dish from the Italian gastronomy tradition - with, of course, with an Academia Barilla twist.

CLASSIC ITALIAN FISH SOUP
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- 4 tablespoons, Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/2 white onion, julienned
- 8 mussels
- 8 pasta clams
- 1/2 lb sea bass fillet
- 8 shrimps, head on
- 1/3 cup, white wine
- 1 jar, Academia Barilla Italian Tomato Sauce
- 4 slices, Italian bread
- 1 tablespoon parsley, roughly chopped
- salt and black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

Clean and rinse the clams and mussels very thoroughly.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion with 2 tablespoons of Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil for five minutes over medium heat.

Add the mussels, clams, Sea Bass, shrimp and wine; season with salt and pepper and reduce over high heat for one - two minutes.

Add the Academia Barilla Italian Tomato Sauce and simmer until the fish is thoroughly cooked.

Meanwhile rub the bread with the Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil and toast it in the oven until it is crunchy.

Arrange the soup in a platter, surrounded with the bread croutons. Sprinkle with parsley and remaining Academia Barilla Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil before serving.

Thank you Lorenzo for your recipes, and for using the new Academia Barilla Italian gastronomy line as main ingredients!

Look out for our upcoming posts: more delicious recipes from Chef Lorenzo Boni, Tuna Carpaccio and Spaghetti with Pistacchio - you don’t want to miss those yummy ones!

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!