Italian Food Lovers

Our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network has been now officially launched.
After introducing himself as a Chef and a food lover, today Chef Douglas D’Avico from Trattoria No. 10 in downtown Chicago will start sharing with us his Chef experience, and of course also his top recipes.

As we already anticipated, Chef D’Avico loves seafood, and his first recipe for the Guest Chef series at our blog is for a great antipasto: Octopus Carpaccio with Blood Oranges.

OCTOPUS CARPACCIO WITH BLOOD ORANGES

(a recipe by Chef Douglas D’Avico)
(serves 6-8 approx)

INGREDIENTS

- 2 lb Steamed or Boiled octopus
- 4 Limes, juiced
- 1 cup Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/8 tablespoon Crushed Red Chili Flake
- 1 tablespoon Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
- Salt, to taste
- Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
- 1 Bunch Hydro or Organic Watercress, Trimmed
- 2 Blood Oranges, segmented and juices saved
- 24 Caperberries, rinsed

PREPARATION

Remove the head and beak from the octopus and slice very thin on a mechanical slicer. Put the sliced octopus in a bowl and squeeze out excess water.

Take the juice from the limes, half of the olive oil, chili flake and chopped parsley and mix in the bowl with the sliced octopus. Mix well.

Season the octopus with salt and pepper to taste, make sure that you mix thoroughly before tasting. Cover and marinate over night or at least 2 hours before serving. You can adjust the seasoning to your liking if need be.

To serve, arrange the marinated octopus on a plate in a thin flat layer. Next mix the reserved blood orange juice and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, season to taste. Mix with the trimmed water cress and divide

between the plates by placing a small amount in the center of each plate.

Garnish the plate with the caperberries and blood orange segments. Drizzle with a little bit of the olive oil and fresh ground pepper and serve.

CHEF TIPS

For a little extra flavor you can finish the plate by using the Academia Barilla Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange.

Welcome to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network series and to its official opening with the assignment of the first Guest Chef residency to Chef Douglas D’Avico from Chicago, Illinois.

Chef Douglas D’Avico, also known as Doug, decided to become a professional Chef as he loves being around food and the environment of the kitchen. Today Chef D’Avico is the top Chef at the Trattoria N0. 10 in Chicago, where the restaurant specialty is contemporary Italian cuisine.

Before taking the lead in the kitchen at Trattoria No. 10 in Chicago and been awarded with 3 Stars by the Chicago Tribune in 1991, he worked at a horse racing park, a river boat casino and for hotels in Miami, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii, as he told us in a recent interview.

Among the other questions, we asked him what was the secret ingredient in being a top Chef, and he answered “good fresh ingredients“.

Chef D’Avico’s favorite food is seafood and pasta, and he has a definition of Italian cuisine as “clean, fresh and simple“. Also, Chef D’avico definition of Italian gourmet is “taking fresh produce, artisan ingredients, and cooking with care and respect“.

Chef Douglas D’avico is an adopter and supporter of Academia Barilla products, for his culinary creations. He states that Academia Barilla products are “very good quality with clean flavors“, and you can always find them in his menus.

You can trust Chef D’Avico’s judgment or give it a try for yourself at the Academia Barilla online store, where plenty of Italian gourmet specialties are available and just a click away, and where you can also find the authentic Italian gourmet ingredients used in gourmet recipes by Chef D’Avico and other top Chefs around the world who take Italian cuisine seriously and to the next level.

If you want to get in touch with Chef D’Avico you can meet him at Trattoria N.10, 10 N. Dearborn, Chicago IL 60602 (Google map below). Please visit the restaurant website at www.trattoriaten.com for complete contact info but also detailed menus, restaurant reviews, reservations for private parties and restaurant gift cards. Also, feel free to call directly Trattoria No. 10 at +1 (312) 984-1718.

Since Chef D’Avico’s “plat fort” is seafood, he will be back with us tomorrow to share his first recipe, a yummy Octopus Carpaccio with Blood Oranges. We can’t wait, can you?