Italian Food Lovers

Final post on the new series of Italian gourmet Season Gift Sets from Academia Barilla, the new line Italy-in-a-box.

A true taste of Italian gastronomic culture, an experience that will evoke all your Italian food lover senses, Italy-in-a-Box is also a journey across the findings of
 Academia Barilla’s continue research into the gastronomic and cultural identities of the different regions of Italy.

Get this limited edition of gastronomic gems as a treat to yourself or as a gift to others, and get a selection of the best Italian regional products, simple and original tips for bringing the Italian flavor to your kitchen and your table, all with limited edition confections that can be personalized according to your taste.

Today we close our presentation of the gift set collection introducing other four Italy-in-a-Box gift sets: The Connoisseur’s Collection, Simply Tuscan, Artisanal Compote Trio, and Salt and Salt. Read more…

Happy Thanksgiving from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers! We wish you and your families a nice and warm family day around some of the best traditional and innovative culinary eats of the year (at least in the United States, as in Italy we have several occasions to indulge in gourmet food all along the year!).

As you have noticed, this week we celebrated Turkey Day proposing a lot of gourmet recipes from our Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, but none of them with turkey! Well, we published a recipe for the tratitional Thanksgiving roasted turkey, but we left our guest Chef free to propose alternative, innovative Thanksgiving recipes.

Today we have with us Chef Doug D’Avico of Trattoria n. 10 in Chicago with a new Thanksgiving gourmet creation: Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Cinnamon and Orange Zest. Ready? let’s go to the kitchen!

SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI WITH CINNAMON AND ORANGE ZEST
A recipe by Chef Doug D’Avico
(serves 4-6)

INGREDIENTS

- 3 lbs light fleshed Sweet Potatoes
- 1/8 cup good quality ricotta, drained
- 1/8 cup Academia Barilla Pecorino Gran Cru, grated
- 1 ea large egg
- 1/2 tablespoon Academia Barilla Sicilian Sea Salt with Orange Zest
- 1/4 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon nutmeg
- 3-4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 orange
- 1 medium size leek, white part only
- 2 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar mixture
- 3 tablespoon european style butter
- 2-3 tablespoon Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- some fresh herbs for plate garnishing

PREPARATION

Take the 3 sweet potato, wash the outside well and bake in a 375 degree F oven till soft to the touch, remove from the oven and let cool. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle remove the skins and put the flesh though a potato ricer to break up any large clumps and place into a large enough bowl to mix all the ingredients in.

Mix all the ingredients, except for the flour, into the sweet potato and combine well with your hand.
Take 2 cups of the flour and fold into the sweet potato mix half a cup at a time, making sure the flour is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next 1/2 cup. Check the dough it should be a little sticky, if it is too wet add a 1/4 cup more flour and mix. Wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

After resting take the remaining flour and use some to dust the work surface. Take the dough out of the bowl and place on the floured surface, sprinkle a little more flour over top and knead a few times so you can handle the dough.

Flatten the dough out to about 3/4 of an inch and cut strips every 3/4 of an inch and then roll each strip a little bit to round out the corners, set a side and finish the rest of the dough. Use a little more flour if the dough starts to stick to the table. Use a damp towel to cover the dough strips while you work.

Have a corn meal coated tray ready to store the gnocchi’s on after they are cut. Using a small knife cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces and you can use either the back of a fork or a gnocchi board to roll the gnocchi off of or just take your finger and poke a little indentation into each one and then place on the corn meal coated tray.

Finish the batch and then freeze the gnocchi or cook and serve.

To serve bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. In the mean time while you are waiting for the water to boil, remove the root end of the leek and cut the leek on a bias about 1/4 of an inch thick until you get to the green part, discard or use for homemade stock. Separate the layers of the leek and wash under cold water to remove any sand set aside.

Using a zester, zest 1 orange and set a side. Preheat a 12 inch sauté pan and warm over medium heat, when hot add 1/2 the butter and add the washed leeks to the melted butter, do not let the butter burn, and cook for about 3-5 minutes or until the leeks are tender season with a little salt and pepper and remove from the pan set aside. Remove the pan from the heat.

Check the seasoning in the pot of boiling water and adjust with the salt to taste. When the water is at a rolling boil add the gnocchi and stir well so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. They will take about 5-8 minutes and are usually done about 30 seconds after they start floating. Just before they are done put the large sauté and back on the fire over medium high heat.

Drain the gnocchi and add to the sauté pan with the remaining butter. The pan should be nice and hot as you will want to add a little bit of color to the gnocchi. Cook for about 3 minutes then add the cooked leeks and cook for 2-4 more minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar and add the orange zest and mix well, pour into a serving bowl and garnish the plate with fresh herbs, just before serving drizzle the Academia Barilla olive oil over the whole dish. Serve immediately. You can serve some extra Academia Barilla Pecorino Gran Cru on the side.

Thank you Chef D’Avico for this yummy Thanksgiving recipe. Thanks again also to Chef Tony Mantuano and Chef Mark Grimes for the gourmet recipe shared with us this week. Thank you also to our friends at BIGAB, the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library, for providing us with the traditional Thanksgiving roasted turkey recipe!

And again, Happy Thanksgiving to all Italian food lovers from Academia Barilla and our Italian Food Lovers blog team!

Yes, we still have a number of recipes for you from the Garden Chef Series. Today Chef Mark Grimes of Pinstripes Restaurant with a new exciting recipe, Chicken Parmesan with Campanelle Pasta.

Ready to cook? We are already heading to the kitchen… be prepared as the difficulty level of this recipe is medium, and there are several preparation steps.

CHICKEN PARMESAN WITH CAMPANELLE PASTA
A recipe by Chef Mark Grimes
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- 3 lbs chicken breast, 6 oz each pounded out 1/4 inch thick
- 10 oz ricotta filling
- 2.5 oz sun dried tomatoes
- bread crumbs
- white flour, seasoned
- egg wash

PREPARATION

Take 6 oz single lobe breasts and place in between saran wrap and gently pound out to 1/4 inch thick.

In three separate pans place flour, egg wash and bread crumbs in that order.

Dip each breast into flour and shake off excess egg wash and drain, next into the egg wash and drain, then into bread crumb mixture. Repeat this process with each piece.

Divide ricotta mixture into 2 oz balls and sun dried tomatoes into 0.5 oz portions.

Place cheese and tomatoes at the top third of chicken breast and roll to create an oval shape.

Heat a sauté pan with oil and brown on all sides and finish in oven until you get an internal temperature of 165 F degrees, then set aside while preparing the nutless pesto / herb oil.

INGREDIENTS FOR NUTLESS PESTO / HERB OIL

- 2 oz garlic, fresh
- 3 oz parsley
- 1 oz basil, fresh
- 1 tablespoon thyme, fresh
- 1 tablespoon oregano, fresh
- 1.5 cups Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper

NUTLESS PESTO PREPARATION 

Place all ingredients in a container and puree until smooth with hand blender.

INGREDIENTS FOR RICOTTA MIXTURE

- 2.5 cups ricotta cheese, drained
- 3 cups Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated
- 3/4 cup gorgonzola cheese
- 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup nutless pesto
- 4 cups Italian unseasoned bread crumbs

RICOTTA MIXTURE PREPARATION

Mix all wet ingredients first and then add dry ingredients and mix well.

INGREDIENTS FOR MARINARA

- 3 large cans plum tomatoes
- 1/2 cup celery, diced
- 1/2 cup carrots, diced
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 3 tablespoon garlic, chopped
- 1/2 cup Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh Thyme
- 1/4 cup white flour
- 2 cups red wine
- Kosher salt, to taste
- cracked black pepper, to taste

 MARINARA PREPARATION

Sauté onions, celery and carrots in olive oil for 20-30 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add garlic and cook 3-5 minutes, then add flour and cook out 3 minutes.

Deglaze with red wine and reduce by half and add canned tomatoes and let simmer for 60 minutes.

Puree until smooth and add extra virgin olive oil and fresh herbs as you puree.

Season with salt and pepper.

FINAL PREPARATION STEP: ASSEMBLE

Take cooked chicken breast and top with mozzarella or provolone cheese slices to cover, place in oven until cheese is melted.

Slice into desired size and arrange on your plate.

Toss with Campanelle pasta or your favorite cooked Barilla pasta with the marinara and place on your plate.

Garnish with pesto oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and serve.

Thank you Chef Mark Grimes for sharing with us this yummy recipe! Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla!

Be ready, as we have a hot series of recipes from the Chicago Botanic Garden Chef Show to share with you this week.

Let’s welcome Chef Mark Grimes, Executive Chef at Pinstripes, an intriguing venue located in Northbrook, IL. Basically Pinstripes is an indoor bocce ball destination with bowling lanes and a top gourmet restaurant. Check out their website at www.pinstripes.com and also this restaurant review we found online.

Chef Mark Grimes is a celebrity Chef, with 25 years of culinary pedigree and Corporate Chef positions at RDGChicago/Restaurants America, Fox Sports Grill, ESPN Zone/Disney, and previous experience at The Windsor Court Hotel and The American Club resorts, among others. Here below Chef Grimes is pictured during his Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend cooking demo.

Today we will share with you a gourmet recipe by Chef Mark Grimes, Lobster Bread Salad, a dish he prepared at the Botanic Garden Chef show (sorry we don’t have a good picture of the final dish, but we got you a nice picture of lobsters!).

LOBSTER BREAD SALAD
A recipe by Chef Mark Grimes
(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS FOR WHITE BALSAMIC DRESSING

- 1 oz shallots, chopped
- 1 cup white balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 3 cups Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
- Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

BALSAMIC DRESSING PREPARATION

Mix with hand blender the vinegar, mustard, shallots and honey, add an ice cube and slowly drizzle olive oil in to create an emulsion. Season with salt and pepper.

INGREDIENTS FOR BREAD SALAD MIXTURE

- 1 loaf of your favorite bread (brioche, sesame semolina), cut into 1 inch cubes
- 4 cups heirloom tomatoes, chopped
- 2 cups fresh corn
- 1 cup of homemade pickles, chopped
- 1 pound of cooked lobster or shrimp, chopped
- 2 cups of white balsamic dressing
- 1 oz roasted garlic, chopped
- 2 oz caper berries, chopped
- Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive oil, to taste
- Academia Barilla Balsamic Must, to taste
- Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

BREAD SALAD MIXTURE PREPARATION 

Mix all ingredients well and serve immediately as a salad or place on plastic wrap and mold into a roulade and let it sit 24 hours for Hor D’Oeuvres and then slice into rounds.

FINAL PREPARATION: ASSEMBLE

Take bread salad rounds and place on small plate or platter and garnish with crispy Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure extra virgin olive, Academia Barilla Balsamic Must and micro arugula.

Thank you Chef Mark Grimes and Pinstripes for sharing with us this recipe - you Italian foodies stay tuned, more gourmet recipes to come in the next days!

After a brief consultation with the Chef Team at the Academia Barilla Culinary School, there were no more doubts about it: our ingredient of the month for the month of April is the Asparagus.

As reported by the Wikipedia, Asparagus has been used from very early times as a vegetable and medicine, mostly for its delicate flavor and diuretic properties.

There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius’s 3rd century AD “De Re Coquinaria, Book III”. Asparagus was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter.

Asparaguses lost their popularity in the Middle Ages but returned in the European culinary tradition in the seventeenth century.

Today we invite you to try a gourmet recipe with our ingredient of the month. We found a great recipe at BIGAB, the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library, in a cookbook titled “L’Asparago bianco di Bassano - Le ricette dei ristoranti Bassanesi” (Bassano’s White Asparagus - recipes from Bassano’s Restaurants). The image below is taken from the same cookbook edited by Terra Ferma, and the picture of the final dish is by Cristiano Bulegato.

The recipe we propose today involves the use of Pasta Brisé or pasta sfoglia salata, something similar to Southern piecrusts. Pasta Brisé is widely used in both Italy and France for food presentation and balance of savory food, and is not used with sweets. Pasta Brisé makes also a great base for miniature pies as appetizers, to cover and encompass finger foods, to wrap cuts of veal and seal in the juices and to make self contained casseroles.

Ready? Let’s go to the kitchen!

CRISPY LASAGNE WITH ASPARAGUS, SAUTE OF PRAWNS AND VESPAIOLO
(serves 5)

INGREDIENTS

- 12 oz Pasta Brisé
- 1.8 oz of Asparagus
- 15 prawns
- 1/2 green onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 5 tablespoon besciamella, white sauce
- 1 small glass of Brandy
- 1/2 glass of Vespaiolo wine
- 2 tablespoon of parsley
- 1 ripe tomato
- 2 sprigs of chives
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- Academia Barilla Riviera Ligure D.O.P. Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- salt and pepper, to taste

FOR THE BESCIAMELLA SAUCE

- 3 3/4 cups, whole milk
- 1 stick, butter
- 1/2 cu, all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon, grated nutmeg
- salt, to taste

BESCIAMELLA PREPARATION

Heat the milk in a pan until almost boiling. Separately, in a medium saucepan, heat the butter until melted. Add flour all in once, stirring until smooth.

Cook gently over medium heat until light golden brown, 6-7 minutes. Add milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until no lumps left.

Bring to a boil and let it cook for a couple of minutes, continuing to stir, until a smooth sauce is obtained.

Remove from the heat and season with salt and grated nutmeg.

In order to have a more liquid or thicker sauce, reduce or increase of 1 tablespoon the quantity of flour.

MAIN DISH PREPARATION

Prepare a thin layer of Pasta Brisé and cut it to shape 12 round pieces of about 2 inc hes of diameter and cook them in the oven for 7-8 minutes at 350° F.

In a separate saucepan with two tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, brown the garlic clove then sauté the prawns for few minutes, flame with brandy and eventually add the Vespaiolo wine. Eventually, add the minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

In a casserole with extra virgin olive oil, brown the green onion finely minced, add the asparagus, previously washed and cut in small pieces, season with salt and pepper and let cook.

When done, add the prawns and at last, the previously prepared, besciamella sauce.

On the serving plate, place a piece of Pasta Brisé, pour over a spoon of asparagus and prawns, then add a second piece of Pasta Brisé and two prawns on the very top.

Decorate the plate with some fresh cubed tomatoes, two sprig of chives and thyme.

The dish is now ready to be served! Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!