Italian Food Lovers

Merry Christmas from Academia Barilla, Italian Food Lovers and, of course, from our guest Chefs at the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network!

Yesterday we introduced a new entry for our Guest Chef Series, Chef John Franchetti, and today he is ready to share with us his first recipe: The Christmas Pizza!

This is a pretty simple recipe that everybody at your Christmas table will love. Chef Franchetti definitely loves pizza - look how happy he looks in the picture below, while he’s eating a pizza in the street of Naples on a Vespa! Forget gourmet! Just keep it simple, like today’s recipe!

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!

More Thanksgiving recipes from the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network! Today we have with us Chef Mark Grimes from Pinstripes Restaurant, proposing a mouth-watering recipe for your Thanksgiving menu: Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter.

Be ready, this is not a very easy recipe, as there are several preparation steps and several items to assemble during the preparation of this gourmet recipe. Let’s see all all preparation steps one by one, as suggested by Chef Mark Grimes.

ROASTED PUMPKIN RAVIOLI WITH BALSAMIC BROWN BUTTER
A recipe by Chef Mark Grimes
(serves 6 to 8)

PASTA DOUGH - Ingredients

- 33.6 oz flour (Farina di grano tenero Tipo “00” if possible, or any type 00)
- 1 tablespoon Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with Orange Zest
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 oz Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 7 oz water

PASTA DOUGH - Preparation

In your mixing bowl, combine flour and kosher salt and mix on speed #1 for 30 seconds. Add egg yolks, olive oil and water and continue to mix on speed #1 for approximately 4 minutes. As the dough begins to form, turn your mixer up to speed #2 and continue for an additional 5-7 minutes.

Once the dough has formed a ball and the inside of the mixing bowl is clean, the dough is ready. Remove the dough and wrap tightly in plastic and allow to rest 30-45 minutes at room temperature before use.

ROASTED PUMPKIN - Ingredients

- 6 pie pumpkins
- 4 oz butter
- 2 oz honey
- 1 oz maple syrup
- 1/4 tablespoon Academia Barilla Sapori Italiani Herb Mix
- 1/4 tablespoon nutmeg
- 1/4 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 tablespoon Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with Orange Zest
- 4 thyme sprig – fresh and cleaned
- 1 qt water

ROASTED PUMPKIN - Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Carefully split squash in half, end to end with a French knife. Remove meat and seeds from the insides and place in to water. Cube butter into 12 pieces and rub generously on the flesh side of the pumpkins and place any excess in the center (1 cube per half pumpkin).

In a small mixing bowl combine honey, maple syrup, herb mix, nutmeg, cinnamon, natural salt and thyme and mix together. Place pumpkins flesh side up on a sheet tray and with a large spoon, drizzle mixture evenly on each half pumpkin.

Roast the pumpkins at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until fork tender. While the pumpkins are roasting, separate the seeds from the meat of the pumpkin and lay out on a sheet tray to dry. Once the pumpkins are roasted let them cool for 15 minutes and then extract the pumpkin from the skins, process through a food mill, cool and reserve.

ROASTED PUMPKIN AN MASCARPONE FILLING - Ingredients

- 8 roasted pumpkin, pureed (or organic pumpkin filling)
- 1/2 pound mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 pound cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1/2 pound goat cheese
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 tablespoon Academia Barilla Sapori Italiani Herb Mix
- 1/4 tablespoon nutmeg
- 1/4 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/4 tablespoon Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with Orange Zest
- 4 thyme sprig – fresh and cleaned
- 1/2 pound honey
- 1/2 pound maple syrup

ROASTED PUMPKIN AN MASCARPONE FILLING - Preparation

Before you begin ensure that all components are room temperature. Combine all dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl. In a large mixing add the roasted pumpkin puree and gently fold in marscapone cheese, cream cheese, goat cheese and white balsamic vinegar, the maple syrup, the herb mix and the honey.

Add dry ingredients and mix until all is completely incorporated. Cover with plastic and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

EGG WASH - Ingredients and preparation

- 4 egg whites
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
- 1 oz water

Whisk together in small mixing bowl and reserve until ready to assemble the ravioli.

SPICED PUMPKIN SEEDS - Preparation

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Lay out seeds from pumpkins on a sheet tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes. While the seeds dry, combine 1 tablespoon all spice, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon nutmeg, !/2 tablespoon Cayenne pepper and 3 tablespoon natural salt salt.

Once the seeds are out of the oven, heat oven to 375 F degrees, toss seeds with spice mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes.

ROASTED PUMPKIN RAVIOLI

Remove pasta dough from the plastic and cut in to 4 oz piece. Start at the biggest setting on your pasta roller and move the dough through 2 times. Now move down one setting and repeat the process.

Continue to roll out the dough until it is your desired thickness for the ravioli, however do not go past #3 or the dough will become too thin and tear as you assemble the ravioli. Roll out all the dough in to sheets and sprinkle each with a little bit of flour and spread so that as you stack the sheets they do not stick.

Remove your pumpkin marscapone filling from the refrigerator. Sprinkle and spread some flour on your work surface and lay down 1 sheet of pasta dough.

Place 1 oz of pumpkin marscapone filling on the sheet about 2 inches apart the entire length of the sheet. This will give you room to assemble and cut the ravioli. Brush each edge of the sheet with egg wash and fold the top over the filling to the bottom.

Cup your hands around each spoon of filling to rid the ravioli of air. This will eliminate tearing and splitting the dough while cooking. Once the dough is secure around the filling and the top and bottom together, cut your ravioli with desired shape cutter. Place the ravioli on a floured sheet tray and reserve until ready for cooking.

Bring 1 gallon of water and 2 tablespoon salt to a rolling boil. Only place as many ravioli in the boiling water as to not change the temperature and ensure even cooking speed. Once the ravioli have floated to the surface and remained there for 20-30 seconds they are ready to serve.

BALSAMIC BROWN BUTTER - Ingredents and preparation

- 1 oz butter
- 2 oz Academia Barilla Balsamic Must aged 8 year
- 2 oz honey
- 2 tablespoon fresh sage julienne
- 1 tablespoon Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt with Orange Zest

Cube butter in to 32 even pieces and place in a medium sized sauté pan on medium flame. Let the butter melt and skim impurities from the surface with a spoon. Once the butter has melted, continue to leave over medium heat while it begins to brown.

Add the balsamic, honey and kosher salt and whisk in to butter. Once the butter has the aroma of toasted nuts it is done. Remove from the heat and add fresh sage julienne. Be careful with the butter in that it is extremely hot. Reserve for service.

FINAL PREPARATION

Toss ravioli with balsamic brown butter. Garnish with shaved pecorino and spiced pumpkin seeds, micro arugula.

This has been easy but very long in terms of preparation, as all good things it took a lot of attention. Thank you Chef Mark Grimes for sharing with us this Thanksgiving pasta creation. More gourmet recipes for Turkey Day coming up tomorrow, stay tuned!

Here we are finally with Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, who we have called in at Italian Food Lovers by mistake a couple of days ago - sorry Lorenzo!

Chef Lorenzo Boni and his team have been the spine of the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Garden Chef Series. Pictured here below, you can see Lorenzo in action during the cooking demo, surrounded by an attentive crowd and… the full range of Academia Barilla gourmet products, which are all available online at the Academia Barilla online store.

As “resident Chef” for Barilla USA Lorenzo proposed several recipes to the participants to the event, and we are glad to be able to share with you the first one today, an easy-to-prepare pasta salad: Farfalle Piccolini Pasta Salad.

FARFALLE PICCOLINI PASTA SALAD
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- Barilla Farfalle Piccolini pasta, 1 package
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil, 4 tablespoons
- 1 ripe avocado
- Cherry tomatoes, 2 pints
- Red onion, julienne, 1 cup
- Pine nuts, 1 tablespoon
- Academia Barilla Pecorino Sardo Gran Cru, grated, 1 cup
- Basil, 5 leaves
- Lemon juice from 1 lemon
- Salt, black pepper, to taste

PREPARATION

Cook pasta according to directions, drain one minute prior to the lowest cooking time; drizzle with a little oil in order to prevent the pasta from sticking together and allow it to cool down flat on a sheet tray.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion with 1 tablespoon of oil. Set aside.

Slice the tomatoes in half, season with salt and let drain in a colander.

Sauté the pine nuts over medium heat till lightly brown.

Dice the avocado. Combine all the ingredients with pasta, season with salt and pepper.

Allow the salad to rest for half hour at room temperature before serving.

Thank you Lorenzo for sharing with us your pasta salad recipe - we’ll publish more recipe of yours soon again!

More recipes from our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network. After yesterday’s wrongly attributed recipe, here is a new recipe from Chef Doug D’Avico of Trattoria N. 10 in Chicago.

Chef D’Avico today shares with us another recipe from the Chicago Botanic Garden show: Grilled Baby Octopus with Watercress Salad and Oranges. But since Chef D’Avico is also a Guest Chef participating to the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, this time we file this post under the Chef Network category.

GRILLED BABY OCTOPUS WITH WATERCRESS SALAD AND ORANGES
A recipe by Chef Doug D’Avico
(serves 8)

INGREDIENTS

- 2 lb Tenderized baby octopus
- 4 limes, juiced
- 1 cup Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1/8 tablespoon Crushed Red Chili Flake
- 2 tablespoon Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon Rosemary, no stem, chopped
- Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
- 1 Bunch Hydro or Organic Watercress, Trimmed
- 1/2 Head washed Radicchio leaves
- 2 Oranges, segmented and juices saved
- 1/4 cup Toasted pine nuts
- Academia Barilla Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange, to taste

PREPARATION

Remove the head and beak from the octopus and put into a metal bowl.

To make the dressing, take the juice from the limes, olive oil, chili flake and chopped parsley and rosemary, combine and season to taste. 

Pour one third over the octopus and cover. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Before grilling, drain any liquid off the octopus so you don’t cause a flare up on the grill.

You can season the octopus before you grill it. Grill the octopus over a medium high heat and weight it down a little bit so it gets a little bit of char.

To serve, arrange the watercress and radicchio in the center of a serving platter. Cut the octopus up in small pieces and pile in the center of the greens. Garnish the plate with the pine nuts and orange segments. Drizzle the salad

With the rest of the dressing, add a little bit of the Monti Iblei olive oil and fresh ground pepper, and a pinch of Academia Barilla Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange. Serve.

Thank you Chef D’Avico for this new recipe and sorry again for yesterday gaffe!

We look forward to having you again as guest at our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network!