Italian Food Lovers

Calling all history buffs. Boy, oh boy, do we have something special in store for you!

After scouring the shelves of the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library in search of information about famous historical figures with a love for Italian food and culture, we have put together a list of stories and recipes guaranteed to whet your appetite.

From Cato the Censor, a Roman statesman and gifted orator, to the lovable Italian comedic actor Totò, our findings span over two millennia of history. Read more…

We are back with our new Guest Chef and wine expert for the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, Chef and partner of Spiaggia Restaurant Tony Mantuano and wine expert Cathy Mantuano.

We interviewed via email Tony and Cathy, and asked them a couple of questions about their Chef and wine experience and their love for Italian food.

Chef Tony Mantuano wanted to be a Chef because he “loves to cook“, as simple as that. According Chef tony Mantuano, “the secret of being a top Chef is being smart enough to know to leave out an ingredient. The most important ingredient in any dish is the one you leave out“, he said to us.

Chef Tony Mantuano’s favorite food is Cape Cod Potato Chips and his favorite cooking style is “Regional Italian food that respects tradition“. His definition of Italian cuisine is “Food that has respect for Italian culture and tradition“, while his definition of Italian gourmet is “Traditional food presented in a modern fashion for today’s palate“.

Check out this video we found on Google Video, if you want to get more Italian Chef insight, knowledge and philosophy from Chef Tony Mantuano!

We also interviewed wine expert Cathy Mantuano, and she told us that her favorite food is “pasta because there are so many kinds of pasta and so many different sauces and preparations for it“, while talking about her cooking style she stated that she is “a fan of any cuisine that uses fresh, seasonal products as a base for its dishes. I like spicy dishes, as in Thai and Chinese food. I also like Japanese food. I love the spices of Middle Eastern cuisine“.

When asked about her definition of Italian cuisine Cathy Mantuano said that “Italian cuisine highlights top quality ingredients in season, prepared simply, using few ingredients“, while her definition of Italian gourmet is “freshly picked produce, handmade pasta, farm raised poultry and meat, artisanal cheese, estate wines“.

As we reported on our latest post, Cathy and Tony Mantuano are co-authors of the Italian cookbooks “Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match” and “The Spiaggia Cookbook: Eleganza Italiana in Cucina“, both available online at Barnes and Noble’s and Amazon.com’s online stores. Wine Bar Food is also available at CrateandBarrel.com.

Some of the recipes from Cathy and Tony’s cookbooks feature Academia Barilla products (as well as in their Chicago restaurants Spiaggia, Café Spiaggia, and Private Dining Rooms of Spiaggia) and we got permission from the authors to share with you some of their Italian gourmet creations - so here we go with the first one… only that we want to publish the recipe on a clean new post, so you can print it and take it with you to the kitchen - stay tuned for the recipe post coming up tomorrow!

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!