Summertime is here, at least according to the calendar since today is June 21. Not much according to the season, as in Italy this year we experienced a very slow start of the season, with heavy showers up to a couple of days ago alternated to beautiful sunny days, but not so hot as we had up to last year (this is actually good news, as last year we couldn’t even breath for the high temperatures!).

What’s the most characteristic summertime food icon? Nine out of ten would say Ice Cream and sure gelato plays a big role in Italian gastronomy and food culture, so we decided to serve you a video on an event we hosted at the Academia Barilla Culinary School last month, for the Academia Barilla Short Film Awards, a satellite event to the well-know Brescello 2008 Film Festival.

During the gala event, Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini, helped by Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Chef Team, prepared and served to the participants of the event a very particular ice cream: liquid nitrogen ice cream.

We managed to get some video footage of the Academia Barilla Short Film Award Gala from TV Parma, who was partnering, filming and broadcasting the event. After some editing for the web format, and with the help of Chef Matteo Carboni whose voice-over comments the making of ice cream using the nitrogen freezing process, we are happy to present you the video on how to make a gourmet ice cream using liquid nitrogen.

Used in creative cuisine, as well as in many other applications including surgery, liquid nitrogen has the power to freeze instantly and, in the ice cream making process, really helps in reducing preparation time, while not affecting the ice cream flavor nor its organoleptic properties.

As Matteo comments, liquid nitrogen has a boiling point at -320 Fahrenheit degrees, and this is why the Chefs have to use protection gloves to handle the preparation. So please don’t try this at home before taking all due safety precautions.

The ice cream base is composed by milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks. As Chef Matteo Carboni reminds in the video, it is important to pour the liquid nitrogen very slowly and keep mixing the ingredients to avoid crystallization, and to keep the ice cream homogeneous and smooth.

All the fog you see in the video and in the picture above is the product of the fast evaporation of the liquid nitrogen, and it is safe to breath for the few minutes of preparation. As Matteo says, the ice cream made with liquid nitrogen has a fresher flavor and a finer and smoother texture than the traditional ice cream - yummy!

Happy summertime to all Italian Food Lovers from the Academia Barilla Culinary School!

Welcome to our Ingredient of the month series. Today Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School wiil introduce to us the ingredient of the month for the month of May, fava beans (also called broad beans or tic beans around the Commonwealth, scientific name is vicia fava, according to Wikipedia).

Matteo will cook a great dish of pasta using the Garganelli pasta he showed us last week how to make using traditional pasta tools. For the sauce Chef Carboni suggests to use fava beans, ripe tomatoes, rosemary and garlic. The first step would be peeling the fava beans, which is very easy if we blench the beans in boiling water for about 20 minutes. Same operation to peel the tomatoes - check the video for Chef tips on how to cut the tomatoes into small cubes getting rid of the seeds.

While Chef Carboni cooks the fresh Garganelli pasta (approx cooking time 4-5 minutes) he prepares the sauce heating up some extra virgin olive oil to sauté the fava beans, to which he adds rosemary, garlic, pinch of salt and the diced tomatoes.

When the pasta is cooked Chef Carboni adds it to the sauce, and sautee for another half minute, finishing the dish while still in the pan with parsley, freshly grated black pepper and Pecorino Grand Cru. Add a bit of extra virgine olive oil (Matteo here uses Academia Barilla’s Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOP) and black pepper before serving.

Final Chef tip from Matteo: you can add a pinch of grated black truffle to make the dish more unique in flavor and presentation.Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!

Millefoglie is the Italian version of the French pastry Mille-feuille, meaning “thousand leaves” which is a layered cake which can be filled in delicious several ways.

As described by the Wikipedia, other names for Millefoglie around the world are Mille-feuille (French), Napoleon (U.S.), vanilla slice, cream slice or custard slice (Commonwealth), all to describe a pastry made of several layers of puff pastry alternating with a sweet filling, typically pastry cream, whipped cream or jam. You can find the dessert name also written as “millefeuille” and “mille feuille“.

At the Academia Barilla Culinary School we thought this could be a perfect gourmet dessert to celebrate Mother’s Day, so we asked Chef Matteo Carboni to share with us the recipe, and also to prepare the dessert for us, so we could have some pictures, too (that, by the way, we uploaded also on Wikipedia).

We also took a small video of the preparation, available on YouTube and other video spaces, and of course embedded also here below in this post.

Ready for the recipe? Let’s go to the kitchen!

STRAWBERRY AND CHANTILLY MILLEFOGLIE
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- puff pastry, 1 pound
- chantilly cream, 1 pound
- strawberries, 1/2 pound
- sugar (for decoration), to taste
- icing sugar (for decoration), to taste

INGREDIENTS FOR THE PASTRY CREAM

- fresh cream, 1.7 oz
- milk, 10 oz fl
- egg yolks, 2
- sugar, 1.7 oz
- white flour, 0.7 oz
- vanilla stick, 1/2

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Unfold 1 puff pastry sheet and gently roll out into a piece of 12 inches with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface.

Put it into a large baking sheet, previously buttered and prick all over with a fork. Trim edges of pastry with a knife.

Cut each sheet into rectangular of 3 x 1.5 inches. Sprinkle sugar on and then bake the sheet in the heated oven at 350° F until pastry is puffed and golden (approx 15 minutes).

Let it cool on racks. Aside, prepare the Chantilly Cream.

Boil the milk. Whisk egg yolks and sugar, add the flour and keep mixing.

Pour in part of the hot milk in order to obtain a smooth cream. Aromatize with vanilla stick and add the remaining milk very slowly.

Cook over moderate heat and keep mixing until thickened. Then let it cool quickly.

Whip the cream and add it to the Chantilly Cream.

In the serving plate , spread over one puff pastry cake base, part of the cooled pastry cream.

Cover it with a second puff pastry cake base.

Decorate the top and the plate with cubed strawberries, and icing sugar.

Check out our video below for more preparation details!

CHEF TIPS

Add few drops of Academia Barilla Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 25 years on the top for maximum gourmet results. You can easily find it at our online store.

Happy Mother’s Day from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!