Let’s welcome again Chef Tony Mantuano, Chef/Partner at Spiaggia restaurant in Chicago, and Guest Chef at the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network.

Chef Mantuano today proposes a great recipe from The Spiaggia Cookbook: Eleganza Italiana in Cucina, a cookbook co-written by Tony Mantuano and wife and wine expert Cathy Mantuano.

Today’s recipe is Ravioletti di Crescenza con Salsa di Parmigiano Reggiano e Burro al Tartufo (Crescenza Ravioli with Parmigiano Reggiano and Truffle Butter Sauce). Elegant and rich, this pasta dish is all about top-quality ingredients. Crescenza cheese (also know as Stracchino) is a soft, fresh creamy cheese from the North of Italy, and is ideal for these pasta pillows.

Are you ready? Let’s go to the kitchen.

CRESCENZA RAVIOLI WITH PARMIGIANO REGGIANO AND TRUFFLE BUTTER CHEESE
(Ravioletti di Crescenza con Salsa di Parmigiano Regiano e Burro al Tartufo)
A recipe by Chef Tony Mantuano
(serves 12)

INGREDIENTS (FOR PASTA DOUGH)

- 2 cups type 00 flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup water

FURTHER INGREDIENTS 

- 1 pound Crescenza cheese
- 1/2 stick cold butter, plus 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup truffle oil
- 1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan cheese
- 12 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, crisped in olive oil
- 12 small sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 cup edible flower petals (optional)

PREPARATION

Mound the flour on a pastry board or other wood or marble work surface. Make a well in the center and add the salt and the egg yolks. Using a fork, gradually fold the flour into the eggs, adding the water little by little until you have a soft dough. Knead a few times until smooth, then form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

Roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets. Using a chef’s knife or pastry wheel, cut the pasta sheets into twenty-four 5-by-5-inch squares.

Place the squares on a lightly floured board or cloth until ready to cook. Cut out 24 rectangles of parchment paper, each 7- by 7 1/2 -inches. Grease each piece using the cold stick of butter, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border unbuttered.

Have ready a bowl of ice water. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta squares to the boiling water and cook until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove the pasta squares with a slotted spoon, shaking to remove excess moisture, and transfer carefully to the ice water to stop the cooking. Working quickly, remove the pasta squares from the ice water one at a time, and lay flat on a cloth to dry. Do not overlap or the squares will stick together.

Cut the Crescenza cheese into 24 pieces, each about 2 inches wide, 2 inches long, and 1/4 inch thick. Place a piece of the cheese in the middle of each pasta square and fold the bottom and top flap of pasta over the middle, wrapping it around the cheese. Then fold the sides into the middle, burrito style.

Place the ravioletto, seam side down, in the middle of a buttered parchment piece and fold the parchment around the pasta, repeating the technique used to wrap the pasta around the cheese. Place the parchment packet, seam side down, on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pasta, cheese, and parchment.

Bake until the edges of the parchment paper are barely golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, melt the 1 1/2 cups butter. Cook to a nutty brown color, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the truffle oil.

To serve, place 1 tablespoon of the Parmigiano Reggiano in the center of each of 12 warmed plates. Carefully remove the parchment around a ravioletto and place it on the grated cheese.

Arrange a second ravioletto next to the first. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the truffle butter over the ravioletti. Sprinkle with another 1 tablespoon Parmigiano Reggiano.

Garnish with the garlic crisps, rosemary, and flower petals, if using. Repeat to make the remaining 11 servings. Serve immediately.

CHEF MANTUANO’S TIPS

Wrapped in the parchment and placed in an airtight container, the ravioletti freeze well for up to 1 month. Bake right from the freezer for 25 minutes, and continue as directed.

Thank you Chef Mantuano for this gourmet pasta recipe!

If you want to get more recipes from Chef Mantuano, you can buy the Spiaggia cookbook, or the previous cookbook Wine Bar Food. You can purchase them online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Wine Bar Food is also available at CrateandBarrel.com.

Or, you can subscribe to Academia Barilla’s newsletter, that delivers monthly exclusive content and latest news and culinary insight on the art of Italian gastronomy, including of course gourmet recipes. This month’s featured recipe is from Chef Tony Mantuano, a yummy Prosciutto with Parmigiano Reggiano, Shaved Artichokes, and Hearts of Palm Salad.

Chef Mantuano’s recipe is paired with a cocktail recipe by wine expert Cathy Mantuano: Negroni Sbagliato, a classic Italian cocktail. As Cathy Mantuano explains, Sbagliato means “mistake” in Italian. The mistake in this drink is that the bartender at Bar Basso in Milan grabbed a bottle of sparkling wine instead of a bottle of gin to make a Negroni. The customer loved it. The rest of course is history.

Do you want to get to this content and to receive it on regular basis? Easy, just register to Academia Barilla’s monthly newsletter! It’s free!

We are late with this recipe since we promised you, as well as Chef Tony Mantuano and wine expert Cathy Mantuano, our new guests at the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network, that this recipe would have been published last week, only that we have been really busy traveling around the world here at the Academia Barilla blog editorial team.

After the PKN conference in Parma, we had to head to NY for a big event - no anticipations about it, we’ll blog about it later!

Now it is finally time for the first recipe provided by Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia, the top Italian restaurants and cafe in Chicago, Illinois. Wine expert Cathy Mantuano also sent us a great recipe for a classic Italian cocktail, so today you finally get both recipes! Here we go with the first one.

CRISPY PARMIGIANO FLATBREAD
A recipe by Chef Tony Mantuano
(makes 16 large pieces)

NOTES AND TIPS FROM THE CHEF

This cheesy flatbread is so satisfyingly crunchy and easy to make that you will want to bake it regularly. We recommend using a manual or electric pasta machine to roll out the dough for these crispy, paper-thin treats. Using a rolling pin will yield slightly thicker results. After just one bite you will understand why this is one of the most sought-after recipes in our restaurants.

INGREDIENTS

- 2 envelopes active dry yeast

- 11⁄2 cups warm water

- 2 tablespoons Academia Barilla extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing

- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

- 2 cups freshly grated Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1 teaspoon sea salt


PREPARATION

Combine the yeast and warm water in a small bowl and let sit until bubbly, about 5 minutes. Stir in the olive oil.

Put the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook or in a large bowl. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix on low speed or with your hands until the water is absorbed and a shaggy dough is formed.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured board until the dough is uniform and smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. It will be slightly sticky.


Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and shape into balls. Dust with flour and place on a floured cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.


Preheat the oven to 425°F. 
Have ready 2 nonstick cookie sheets or grease regular cookie sheets with olive oil.
 Working with one dough ball at a time (cover the remaining dough with a moist kitchen towel until ready to use), dust the ball with flour and flatten with your hand.

Cut the dough in half and roll half the dough through a pasta machine with the rollers set midway apart. Dust the dough with flour if it becomes sticky. Reduce the space between the rollers one setting at a time until you have reached the last setting and the dough is a smooth, thin sheet.

Transfer to a cutting board and cut in half on an angle into large pieces so that 2 will fit on a cookie sheet. The pieces should each be approximately 4 inches wide and 12 inches long. Roll and cut the remaining half in the same manner as the first.

Place the rolled dough on the cookie sheets. Brush lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with about a quarter of the cheese, and bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on a rack before serving.

Repeat this process with the rest of the dough balls, rolling and baking until all the dough is used. Stored in an airtight container, the flatbread will keep for up to 2 days.


Buon appetito from Chef Tony Mantuano, Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!

Please see next blog post for Wine expert Cathy Mantuano’s recipe.

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!

We have the pleasure today to introduce a new Guest Chef for the Italian Food Lovers Chef Network. We will continually introduce a new Guest Chef each month, while the Chefs already introduced will keep sending us one recipe per month, each month! Wow, by the end of the year this will be a top Chef recipe bonanza, and of course we all love it!

This month we won’t only introduce renowned Chef Tony Mantuano, but also wine expert Cathy Mantuano. James Beard award-winning chef Tony Mantuano is Chef and Partner of Spiaggia, the only 4-star Italian restaurant in Chicago! Chef Mantuano and wine expert and wife Cathy recently released a new cookbook titled Wine Bar Food that features Academia Barilla products in the book!!! They also are running a casual dining café-restaurant called Café Spiaggia that complements the recently launched exclusive shoreside Private Dining Rooms of Spiaggia. And there will soon be an event with Zagat next month!

Wait, wait, too much info, let’s start introducing both our new Guest Chef and wine expert.

Chef Tony Mantuano, as reported on his bio published on the Spiaggia Restaurant site, “loves green, fruity olive oil, rare Italian cheeses, woodsy porcini mushrooms and the riches of Italian gastronomy“, which he considers “every day specialties“.

After spending one year in Italy back in 1983, learning all he could about traditional Italian cooking and working at a number of Guide Michelin-rated restaurants near Milan and on the Tuscan coast in Viareggio, Chef Tony Mantuano learned to prepare regional specialties that few Americans had ever experienced.

When Chef Mantuano opened Spiaggia Restaurant in 1984, he was widely acclaimed as a trailblazer of fine Italian cuisine, with reviews from the Chicago Tribune calling Spiaggia “the best high-end Italian restaurant between the coasts” and describing the Italian restaurant as “a jewel” and the food as “spectacular“.

While operating also his family’s restaurant, Mangia, in his native Kenosha, Wisconsin, Chef Mantuano took Spiaggia for a new spin in 2000, reshaping the restaurant’s traditional menu into “an exemplar of contemporary Italian cuisine,” with signature dishes such as Crescenza Cheese-Filled Pasta Pillows with Parmigiano-Reggiano, Brown Butter, Rosemary and Garlic, or the Succulent Roasted Turbot with Sunchoke Puree, Porcini Mushrooms and Veal Mushroom Sauce.

Tony Mantuano is the author, with co-author and wife Cathy Mantuano, of “The Spiaggia Cookbook: Eleganza Italiana in Cucina” (Chronicle Books 2004, awarded as one of the twenty-five best cookbooks of 2004 by Food & Wine). He also has appeared nationally on CNN and PBS, is a regular contributor to the local ABC, CBS and FOX affiliates in Chicago, and has been a guest on popular food talk shows, such as “The Frank DeCaro Show” and “Food Talk with Rocco DiSpirito.”

In 2004, Zagat Survey awarded Spiaggia the “Best Italian Restaurant in Chicago” and the restaurant was named one of the Top five in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. Chef Mantuano also received Chicago Tribune’s “Good Eating Award” and James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: MidWest Award in 2005.

The recent launch of the fashionable Cafe Spiaggia, in the heart of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, brought the dimension of the neighborhood cafe sanctuary and casual dining room in the fast pace of Michigan Avenue, creating a new well-known neighborhood Chicago favorite.

Chef-Partner Tony Mantuano and wine expert Cathy Mantuano, their cookbooks and their restaurants get plenty of rave reviews from the likes of Forbes blogs, Chicago Sun Times, Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler on Concierge.com, Epicurious.com and OpenTable.com.

Spiaggia’s address is One Magnificent Mile (on the corner of Michigan and Oak) - 980 North Michigan Avenue, Level 2, Chicago, Illinois 60611 - Google Map for your driving directions here below.

For more info on Tony Mantuano please check Spiaggia’s and Cafe Spiaggia’s web pages.

If you are interested in the Italian cookbooks published by Tony and Cathy Mantuano, you can purchase them online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Wine Bar Food is also available at CrateandBarrel.com.

Or, if you live in the Chicago Area and can’t wait to catch up in person with Tony and Cathy, they have a book signing and demo scheduled on July 2nd beginning at 2 p.m. as part of the Taste of Chicago. They will be located outside the Zagat pavilion signing copies and showcasing recipes from Wine Bar Food - save the date!

This is getting quite long for a blog post, so we cut it here to introduce to you wine expert Cathy and Chef Tony Mantuano with their first gourmet recipe tomorrow!