Italian Food Lovers

Today’s recipe from the Academia Barilla / Lamborghini New Year’s Eve gourmet menu by Chef Lorenzo Boni is a traditional entree: Ravioli with Academia Barilla Pecorino Gran Cru and Veal sauce.

Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni designed the entire menu taking inspiration from Lamborghini vehicles to create each dish, and today’s ravioli are inspired by the sporty Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.

RAVIOLI WITH ACADEMIA BARILLA PECORINO GRAN CRU AND VEAL SAUCE
(a recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni)

INGREDIENTS for the pasta

- 1 lb flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- water

INGREDIENTS for the filling
- 1 lb ricotta
- 1/2 cup Academia Barilla Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
- 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste

INGREDIENTS for veal sauce

- 2 lbs veal bones
- 3 stalks celery
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 quart white wine
- black pepper to taste

VEAL SAUCE PREPARATION

Brown the veal bones in the oven at 450F, adding chopped vegetables.

Let brown, deglaze with wine and reduce to half, add 1 quart of water and let cook until reduced again.

Filter through a thin colander. If needed, thicken up with a little corn starch.

RAVIOLI PREPARATION

Prepare the dough and let rest for a few hours.

Prepare the filling by mixing all the ingredients.

Make the ravioli about 1 inch diameter.

Cook in salted water. Sauté with butter and a little chicken stock.

Serve with shaved Academia Barilla Pecorino Gran Cru and reduced veal sauce drizzled on top.

WINE PAIRING TIPS
You need a good red wine to fully enjoy these delicious ravioli. You should try Ruffino ‘Il Ducale’, Toscana 2003.

More Lamborghini-inspired New Year’s Eve recipes will ride our blog tomorrow, with Chef Lorenzo Boni’s triumphal NYE main course: Pork tenderloin “bocconcini” wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma, drizzled with Balsamic Must and accompanied with baby greens. Tomorrow’s dish is inspired to the massive Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, an icon in the history of automotive.

Don’t speed. Don’t tailgate. Don’t drink and drive. Stay tuned with Italian Food Lovers!

Quick note for all the Italian food lovers in the Miami Area - this weekend Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Costantino Cicchelli will represent Academia Barilla at Laurenzo’s 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting, the now classic pre-Christmas gourmet event in North Beach Miami. Here below a picture of last year’s event.

Costantino Cicchelli will be your cheese tasting host at Laurenzo’s Italian Gourmet Market in Miami next Saturday December 8th, offering to the Miami gourmands samples of Pecorino Dolce, Pecorino Gran Cru, as well as some tasting and cooking tips on how to use the new line of Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salt.

Ask Costantino about the Academia Barilla VIP program, he will be glad to give you detailed info, and sign you in. We will be talking soon about the Academia Barilla VIP program, too.

Laurenzo’s 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting is an evening event, starting at 7.30pm, and closing at 10.30pm.
We suggest to buy the entry tickets in advance, as they are sold at $44 advance, $55 at the door - call +1 (305) 945-6381 to get your advance tickets before the event goes sold out!

Address to Laurenzo’s Italian Gourmet Market and the 22nd Holiday Food, Champagne & Wine Tasting is 16385 W Dixie Hwy, Miami, FL 33160 - here is a Google Map to make things easier for you and help you with driving directions. See you in North Beach!

View Larger Map on Google Map

As promised yesterday to our fan Karen and to our Italian food lovers friends, here is the first recipe performed by Chef Lorenzo Boni at the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend, a special event included in The Garden Chefs Series, the culinary show hosted by the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni grew up in Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna. Bologna is recognized as one of the most important centers for Italian gastronomy and culinary culture, and is at the heart of Chef Boni’s culinary inspiration.

Lorenzo’s passion for Italian cuisine began at an early age, learning from his father, the passionate, self-thought cook for Bologna’s first League soccer team.

After studying at the Rimini Culinary School, Lorenzo worked at several among the top gourmet restaurants in Italy, before joining the highly acclaimed, three star NY restaurant San Domenico as Second Chef.

Following his experience at San Domenico, Chef Boni returned to Italy to became the owner and Head Chef of Osteria Du Madon in Bologna, awarded by Fodor’s as “Choice of the Year 2000″ and highly recommended by its users.

Chef Lorenzo Boni joined the Barilla Chef team a few years ago, and is now Executive Chef at Barilla USA. Here below is one of the recipes performed by Lorenzo at the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

BARILLA LARGE SHELLS PASTA SALAD
A recipe by Chef Lorenzo Boni

(serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 box Barilla Large Shells pasta
- 2 pounds cherry tomatoes, halved and seeded
- 6 tablespoons Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup fresh arugula, roughly chopped
- 6-7 ounces Academia Barilla Salame di Parma (half salami approx.)
- 1 cup Academia Barilla Sardinian Pecorino Gran Cru cheese, diced
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1 lemon approx.)
- salt and black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Place tomatoes on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven for approximately two hours.

Remove from oven, toss with 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook pasta according to Barilla package directions, cooking one minute less than the recommended cooking time.

Drain pasta, drizzle with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, and spread on a cookie sheet to cool.

Combine pasta with tomatoes, arugula, Salame di Parma, pecorino cheese, and lemon juice; season with salt and pepper, let sit 30 minutes before serving.

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Thanks, Lorenzo for sharing your gourmet recipe, we are sure Karen and all our Italian food lovers will appreciate it.

Karen, please let us know about your experience with this dish by commenting to this post – also feel free to send us some pictures of your culinary creations, we’ll love to hear from you all about your experience with Italian cuisine.

By the way, did you try our Italian gourmet trivia game? It is great fun, it takes little time (only ten random questions to answer to) and, at the end of the game, you can download a digital cookbook (pdf) that traces the history of Italian cooking culture since before the Roman Empire, and up to the 19th century, with key gourmet recipes selected from historic books from the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library collection.

This is all for this post, but here is a little anticipation: we will publish in the next days other recipes from the Garden Chefs participating at the Chicago Botanic Garden event, so stay connected with Italian Food Lovers!

Last weekend the Finger Lakes Wine Festival has teamed with the New York Wine and Culinary Center of Canandaigua, NY, and Academia Barilla, to bring hands-on culinary classes to the festival, held on July 20-22 in Watkins Glen, N.Y.

The Festival, supported by the Corning Museum of Glass, offered to its visitors several wine seminars and cooking demonstrations, which included workshops on Wine & Dine, New York Craft Beers, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, and Wine and Cheese from the Empire State - guess where Academia Barilla has been called in to bring the flavor and taste of Italian gourmet food to the NY-based Wine event…

Wendy Brubaker, the Festival Director stated in a recent Finger Lakes press release “We are thrilled to welcome Barilla America and Academia Barilla as new sponsors of the July 20-22, 2007 event. The true, authentic flavors of Italy will bring a heightened culinary aspect to the Finger Lakes Wine Festival.”

In a relaxed, smooth jazz style environment, Finger Lakes guests had the opportunity to sip and savor the evening’s bounty while they mingled amongst select New York wine makers, taste Academia Barilla’s Italian gourmet selections, and enjoy the crafty Finger (Lakes) Foods prepared by Chef Paul Mach, the guest Chef of the Fingerlake event.

Chef Paul Mach, who’s the co-host of the “You’re the Chef” public television cooking series produced by Penn College and WVIA-TV from Scranton, PA, performed cooking demos at three “action stations” throughout the evenings, while groups of exclusive winemakers discussed the nuances of their key vintages.

The event, located in the facilities “Suites”, was structured with 3 wine stations and several food stations, each with an unique culinary delight for guests to sample from, one of which was entirely dedicated to Academia Barilla’s Italian gourmet food products.

The Finger Lakes menu also featured several Academia Barilla specialties, with some of the food delights being prepared to order at the Festival’s food stations:

- Fallow Hallow Roast Venison Leg, Cherry Shiitake Mushroom Compote
- Pan-fried Catfish with Garlic, Red Pepper and Corn Hushpuppies
- Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya; plain white rice
- Salad Station of Fresh Figs, Kalamata Olives, Bitter Greens, Academia Barilla Peeled Cherry Tomatoes, hand tossed to order with Shredded Academia Barilla Pecorino, Toasted Italian Bread, Academia Barilla Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars
- Yancey’s Fancy, New York’s Artisian Cheese Table
- Regional Artisan Breads
- Academia Barilla Salame di Parma, Salame with Fennel, Prosciutto di Parma
- Sautéed Tomato and Zucchini Tart with Yancy’s Fancy Bergenost Cheese and Roasted Garlic Cheddar
- Braised Beef, Shredded and Sautéed with Charred Peppers, Garlic, Basil and Barilla Celentani Pasta with Academia Barilla Black Olive Sea Salt
- Smothered Pork Shoulder: Regional BBQ and Chutneys, demi-rolls
- Ice Wine Zabaglione over Fresh Strawberries
- White Chocolate Raspberry Tart
- Macerated Strawberries Infused with Academia Barilla 25-year Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, Vanilla Mousse
- Roasted Nut and Chocolate Truffle Tart

With a menu like this, all Italian food lovers living in the NY area should make sure not to miss the Finger Lakes Festival next year!

If you cannot wait to get yourself some of the Italian food specialties distributed by Academia Barilla, just visit our online store. We can deliver to your home in just two days!

Right before sponsoring and participating to the 25th Food and Wine Classic event in Aspen, Colorado, the Academia Barilla US team has been under the spotlight for Taste Italy at Two Rodeo, another successful Italian food tasting event in Los Angeles, California.

As reported by Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone, the partnership between Academia Barilla and Learn About Wine brought a real crowd at an open-air wine and food tasting event at Two Rodeo, check the picture here below (all pictures in this post courtesy of Learn about Wine).

Under the claim “Live better, drink better“, Learn about Wine has been operating the last few years in California as “The Source for Wine Education and Events”. And of course, you cannot keep drinking better if you don’t “eat better“; with fine Italian wines on the menu, who else could accompany the wide selection of wines at the tasting event, other then Academia Barilla’s and its delicious Italian food selection?

If you love fine wines (like all food lovers do) and live in California, you should especially check out Learn About Wine’s tasting and events program, as well as their wine lovers membership program - you will see our wine friends partnering with Academia Barilla again soon!

Find more info on Learn About Wine’s events at learnaboutwine.com. For more pictures of the Taste Italy at Two Rodeo tasting event click on this link.

For those who live far from California, please remember that Academia Barilla hosts regular tasting events across the United States all year-round. So stay tuned with our blog, and be patient - sooner or later there will be an Academia Barilla food tasting event near to you!

If you really cannot wait to sample our delicious Italian gourmet specialties, remember that you can buy Italian gourmet food online anytime at the Academia Barilla online store!