More Italian Easter recipes for your Easter Day menu. As we told you yesterday, the Easter Dove is one of they key symbols of the Italian Pasqua, both in religious iconography and in holiday food tradition.

Symbolizing both peace and the Holy Spirit, the Dove, has become the shape of the famous traditional Easter cake, Colomba Pasquale (Easter Dove), a classic dessert at any Easter meal in Italy. Here is the recipe for our Italian Food Lovers readers!

Ref: The source of the image above is Iginio Massari and Achille Zoia’s cookbook “Cresci - L’arte della pasta lievitata” (Grow - The art of baking dough), edited by Pavoni, and available at the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library in Parma, Italy.

COLOMBA PASQUALE
(serves 8-10)

INGREDIENTS - for the dough

- 11.6 oz flour
- 1 oz yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 8 oz of lukewarm milk
- 3 oz butter
- 1.3 sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2.7 oz candy lemon zest finely minced
- 1/2 grated zest of fresh lemon

INGREDIENTS - for the syrup

- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons water

OTHER INGREDIENDS

- flour to the base
- margarine to grease aluminum foil
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 oz sifted powdered sugar
- 1.4 oz peeled almonds
- 2 raisins

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 360 °F

For the dough

Place the flour in a large bowl, forming it into a mound. Add the yeast, sugar, 4 oz of lukewarm milk in the middle of the mound and knead the dough.

When completely incorporated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 15 minutes so that the dough is puffy.

While the dough is rising, melt the butter in a small pan or microwave it in a microwave safe container. In another small bowl, beat the yolks with the sugar.

When the sugar is completely mixed with the yolks, add the melted butter to the mixture and mix. Add the mixture of the yolks, sugar and butter and the remaining milk and flour to the dough, and continue to knead vigorously until the dough is firm and compact, making sure it is not sticky.

Subsequently, add the fresh lemon zest and candied lemon to the dough, and form a ball. Set aside and let the dough rise for approximately 30 minutes in a warm place.

For the syrup

In a small pot, bring the 2 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of sugar to a boil; remove from heat and let cool.

For the dough

When the dough is ready, divide it in half and make 2 rolls (approximately 7 to 8 inches in size). Shape each roll into a dove. You may also choose to place each roll in a dove-shaped mold.

Cover the dough and let each dove-shaped roll rise for about 20 to 30 minutes until each is double in size. When the dough is ready, brush the surface with the syrup mixture and sift the powdered sugar over the top. Top each dove-shaped roll with almonds, pressing them in slightly.

Add one raisin to each dove-shaped roll in order to make the eyes of the dove. To preserve the shape, wrap the cake with greased aluminum foil. Place the dove-shaped rolls in the preheated oven on the lower rack for 40 minutes.

When ready, gently remove the aluminum foil and allow the Colomba Pasquale cool before serving.

Buon Appetito and again Buona Pasqua from Academia Barilla!

Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary specialist Francesco Zimone is very busy this week with a series of gourmet tasting events in California.

We just received an email from Francesco, who was very excited about the success of last Monday’s dinner at the Palmeri Restaurant in Brentwood, LA.

Those who follow our blog with regularity already know that Academia Barilla partners Chef Ottavio Palmeri and his LA Restaurant for a series of themed Italian dinners that take place every first Monday of each month, with Chef Palmeri designing the entire menu getting inspiration from the Academia Barilla range of Italian gourmet products.

Let me quote Francesco for more details on last Monday’s dinner at Ristorante Palmeri.

Last night event at Palmeri was amazing, thank you so much for the support with recipes and the blog coverage.

The formula of the event is getting better and better. I was dressed in Academia Barilla Chef’s attire and we started dinner with a shot of Pomodorini pelati (peeled cherry tomatoes), black olive salt, Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil and basil.

Next on the Palmeri menu was Pesce crudo con un tocco di Riviera Ligure (raw fish with Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil), followed by Involtino di melenzane (stuffed eggplant) with a touch of Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil, Peperonata (Bell Peppers salad) and Involtino di pescespada (stuffed swordfish) covered with Balsamic Must (with additional Balsamic Must on a side for Balsamic tasting).

We closed dinner with one of Ottavio Palmeri’s top Sicilian specialties, a Cannolo Siciliano served with some Hand-Cut Pears with Balsamic Vinegar on the side.

Every client got great attention and then they left with a can of peeled cherry tomatos and a recipe. Everybody asked and signed on my business card the products they loved. I told everybody they could find the products at Bay City Stores and soon also at Bristol Farms - and Chef Palmeri already started working on next month’s menu!

If you live in the LA area you should absolutely try to join the Academia Barilla and Palmeri teams at the next gourmet dinner, scheduled for Monday April 1, 2008.

You can refer to our blog post from last month to get all the restaurant contact info, including a Google Map for your driving directions.

The ingredient of the month for February is Pumpkin, as suggested by our friends at the Academia Barilla Culinary School. Today Chef Matteo Carboni presents on video how to cook another simple but delicious pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Pennette with Pumpkin, Bacon and Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

Here is the transcription of the video recipe prepared by Chef Matteo Carboni, so you can print it to have it at reach while cooking.

PENNETTE WITH PUMPKIN, BACON AND TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR OF MODENA

INGREDIENTS
(4 servings)

- Barilla Penne Rigate pasta, 12 oz.
- brown onion, to taste
- pumpkin, 8.5 oz.
- smoked bacon, 7 oz.
- Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 12 years, to taste
- Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- parsley, to taste
- rosemary, to taste
- garlic, 1 clove
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- salt, to taste

PREPARATION
(preparation time: 30 minutes)

Peel and remove the seeds from the pumpkin. Cut into cubes of about 1 cm/0.5 inch each side.

Place the discards of the pumpkin, the onion, and a little salt in a pan and cover with water until it boils. When the vegetable is cooked, whip until you obtain a cream.

First cut the smoked bacon into pieces of about 3mm in length and then cut in Julienne style. Mince the rosemary, garlic and parsley.

Put a pan on medium heat, add a drop of oil and fry the pumpkin adding salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the pumpkin from the pan, add the smoked bacon and cook until browned. Add garlic and rosemary to the bacon and pumpkin and after 2 minutes of cooking, add the pumpkin cream.

In plenty of salted boiling water cook the pasta, drain and add with the previously prepared sauce.

Add the minced parsley, plate the pasta and drizzle with Traditional Vinegar of Modena before serving.

Buon appetito from the Academia Barilla Culinary School!

And of course, here is the video version of this recipe.

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Our Academia Barilla Culinary School has been recently included in the Alta Cucina directory of Italian Culinary Courses at www.altacucinasociety.com, and we would like to thank our new Italian culinary friends by blogging about them.

Alta Cucina is a Manhattan-based epicurean society founded to explore, share and celebrate premium-quality Italian food and wine products. Created by a group of Italian cuisine connoisseurs who value the company of others “at table” as a way of sharing the experiences of life, Alta Cucina started proposing in New York interesting experiments in dining and food experience.

Alta Cucina recognizes that the enjoyment of fine food is an art form in which every ingredient plays an important role and must be carefully chosen, and each event or product they select is of certified excellence and tied closely to local Italian craft traditions.

As they report on they website,

Product and recipe selections are always made with deference to natural seasonal rhythms, because to know the essence of Italian cuisine in its purest form also means to understand that each dish or ingredient is the product of precise climactic and territorial conditions. Therefore, there are foods whose true flavor can only be enjoyed a few times during the year.

Here at Italian Food Lovers we definitely like this attitude towards Italian food, so let us tell you also about their events such as the upcoming Day of Slowness promoted by Alta Cucina in New York last February 25, or The Aperitivo Series, introducing in busy NY the traditional Italian experience of “aperitivo“, meant for chilling out with friends after work pairing wines, beers and cocktails to a wide range of finger food made from original Italian gourmet products.

In The Aperitivo Series Alta Cucina throws in also a friendly expert or Chef who introduces dishes and wines, talks about their traditional origins and about the differences with similar, non-Italian food products. Well done, it sounds like the series of Academia Barilla gourmet events, where our guests can always count on the presence of an Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist to ask questions to, and get precious Chef and Tasting Tips too.

Alta Cucina Inc’s CEO Amedeo Angiolillo, who has been interviewed for this blog post, invites also discovering the newly launched series of events Alta Cucina Dinners, featuring themed dinners prepared by Italian visiting Chefs in several restaurants of the US East Coast. The next Alta Cucina Dinners will be held in March at the Barbetta Restaurant (New York) and at the Cafe Oggi Restaurant (Washington, DC).

For more details and full schedule of events visit the Alta Cucina website.

We introduced a new series of blog posts this month, dedicated to the Ingredient of the Month - Cauliflower, in its local Roman version Cavolo Romanesco.

In the previous video, Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School reveals how to easily clean the cauliflower separating all the florets, which allows for better cooking and presentation.

Today Chef Carboni demonstrates in a new video recipe how to cook a simple but yummy pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Spaghetti with Romanesco Cauliflower.

After separating all of the florets, Chef Carboni suggests to chop them in halves, and to place them in boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Other ingredients used in this recipe are anchovies, garlic, thyme, Academia Barilla Monti Iblei DOP extra virgin olive oil and Academia Barilla Pecorino Cheese.

As a first step of preparation, Chef Matteo Carboni places the pasta into boiling water in a medium sauce pan. He immediately begins preparing the cauliflower-based sauce with a sauté of garlic and anchovies in a hot sauté pan.

Once the anchovies are melted Chef Carboni adds the cauliflower. Stir fry this for a couple of minutes while seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.

When the pasta reaches the “al dente” cooking time as described in the pasta packaging (here Chef Carboni uses Barilla Spaghetti), drain it and add it to the sauce for a final sauté, to which is added olive oil and Pecorino cheese.

The final touch before serving is adding some more Monti Iblei D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil, cauliflower florets and a sprig of thyme.

Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla!