Italian Food Lovers

Academia Barilla is proud to partner the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southeast for the presentation of an Italian Cooking Show in Miami, Florida, dedicated to the legendary Prosciutto di Parma.

The show, scheduled on Thursday August 30, 2007 (from 6pm to 7.30pm) at MiaCucina, the famous Italian provider of fine Italian kitchen furnishing in Miami, will introduce Prosciutto di Parma as an essential ingredient of the Italian cuisine, and as one of the king products in Italian gourmet food.

The subtitle to the Italian Cooking Show is “Heaven in slices“, and sure the attendees will be in heaven at the end of the night, as an authentic Italian food and wine tasting session is scheduled immediately after the cooking show, where you can meet Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Costantino Cicchelli to get top gourmet tips on Italian food specialties.

Remember that the show is for a limited number of guest only, so we strongly advice to make your reservations in time. All the info for the Miami Italian food show are included in the event banner here below, and you can also call the event info line at 305.577.9868 for more detailed info.

The address for the event Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southeast show is: Mia Cucina, 105/107 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, Miami FL 33134 - the Google Map here below will also help you get all driving info.

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Remember that you can buy a whole leg of traditional boneless Prosciutto di Parma DOP at the Academia Barilla online store, and get it delivered to your door in just two days.

Another recipe from the cooking performances of the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend, the special gourmet event presented by Barilla USA and Academia Barilla at The Garden Chefs Series, the gourmet show hosted every weekend at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

After publishing two recipes prepared by Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, this time Italian Food Lovers is proud to present one of the other top Garden Chefs who rocked the scene at the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden’s open-air amphitheater of the Chicago Botanic Garden: Chef Gabe Rosado from Trattoria Bacci.

Bacci’s Trattoria, the Italian gourmet restaurant nestled in the heart of historic Downtown Waukegan, IL, is really a place Italian food lovers shouldn’t miss when visiting the Great Lakes Naval Station in Waukegan, in the Great Chicago Area. You will find excellent online reviews about Bacci’s, such as this one posted by an happy customer in a review:

“The restaurant is very cozy with a bar and plenty of seats. The kitchen can be seen from the restaurant which adds to its charm. It’s very romantic and dimly lit which I absolutely love. Our server was very knowledgeable of wines and dish ingredients; this is not your average Italian joint by any means”.

Chef Gabe Rosado, Chef the Cuisine at Bacci’s, was one of the highlights of The Garden Chefs Series at the Chicago Botanic Garden, presenting an easy but yummy pasta recipe that we are happy to publish today on our blog: Farfalle al Prosciutto di Parma.

FARFALLE AL PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA
Recipe by Chef Gabe Rosado
(serves two)

INGREDIENTS

- 4 tablespoons Academia Barilla extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 4 tablespoons Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma (minced)
- 1/4 cup halved ripe Academia Barilla cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoons minced shallots
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic
- 2 oz. white wine (dry)
- 2 tablespoons Italian parsley
- 5 large basil leaves chiffonade (roll the leaves together and finely cut across producing shredded basil)
- 2 oz. sliced Kalamata olives
- 3 oz. ground Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 16 oz. Barilla Farfalle pasta (8 to 9 oz dry, al dente cooked)

PREPARATION

Heat large skillet over medium heat, adding Italian extra virgin olive oil and the minced Prosciutto di Parma. Sauté until prosciutto is lightly crisp.

Add butter, garlic, shallots, sauté until fragrant.

Add wine and deglaze pan.

Add tomato, parsley, parmesan cheese, Kalamata olives, salt and pepper to taste.

Toss with pasta, topping the dish with fresh basil chiffonade.

—

Thanks Gabe for sharing your pasta recipe.

We suggest to all Italian food lovers that happen to be in the Great Chicago Area paying Bacci’s Trattoria, Chef de Cuisine Gabe Rosado and Executive Chef Robert Avila a visit, and discover more gourmet creativity in Italian food – here is the address to reach our friends in Waukegan:

Trattoria Bacci, 30 North Genesee, Downtown Waukegan (just south the Genesee Theatre), Illinois 60085.

Google Maps directions here below; if you need Bacci’s telephone number for reservations, dial 847-623-3121.
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Last week we started our virtual Italian gourmet cooking and opera tour, on the path of the Ultimate Italian Travel Experience, the original travel package proposed by Academia Barilla to enjoy the Opera Festival dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi, while discovering the food culture of Parma and the Italian Food Valley.

Here is part two - after the arrival of our tour guest on day one, day two starts with a guided cultural walking tour of the city centre. Now you will learn more about the places you explored the previous day, and will get immediately into the opera mood visiting the Farnese Theatre, the first theater in the world supplied with movable scenery entirely made of wood.

The group will explore then another pearl of the opera tradition of Parma, the precious Teatro Regio, a true temple of the lyric music with one of the best acoustics in the world. Teatro Regio has been home to Arturo Toscanini, the famed Italian and Parma-born orchestra leader from the 1950’s, when he directed the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Teatro Regio will also be one of the official concert venues of the Verdi Opera Festival.

Following the opera trail, the next visit is to the Arrigo Boito Conservatory, where it’s still possible to view Niccolò Paganini and Toscanini’s studios. The morning cultural guided tour will be concluded at lunchtime, when the group will be treated to a full lunch in a in a delightful local restaurant in the most historic part of the city.

The group will later head to an afternoon at the Academia Barilla Culinary School, the world’s premier Italian culinary facility, where tour guests will engage in a hands-on cooking class based on the traditional recipes of the time and territory of Giuseppe Verdi. The gourmet cooking class will be conducted by one of the Academia Barilla Executive Chefs Group, who will also organize the group dinner based on the yummy recipes the group prepared.

Such intensive day two of the Academia Barilla’s ultimate Italian travel experience meets a perfect ending in a theater, with the first of the two opera concerts at the Festival Verdi 2007 – the show will be based on the Festival calendar and ticket availability, and will include Verdi’s classic operas such as Luisa Miller and La Traviata.

After the show, our guests are free to return to their 4/5 star hotel or to have a night walk in the magic Parma, while possibly whistling opera’s arias.

The next day, which we’ll cover soon with another post, will be a very exciting gourmet tour in the land of Giuseppe Verdi, in the heart of the Italian Food Valley. If you can’t wait to discover what’s in the agenda on day 3, or want to know more details about the tour and its booking, just follow this link.

Explore Parma and all the featured locations of the guided tours from above, with the help of interactive Google Maps and the Academia Barilla blogging team, who spent weeks enriching Google Maps with photo, videos, descriptions and links of interest, to offer you the best Parma virtual guided tour experience.

Click on the image below to interact with the tour destination in Parma, and stand by for more Google Maps for all the other locations touched by the Academia Barilla gourmet opera tour.

Also check out our Parma photo album on Flickr.com to explore all the places you will visit during the Parma guided tour, and to discover new ones.

Remember also we provided a couple of online slideshows of these pictures at Big Huge Labs and Slide.com. Enjoy our Parma slideshow and remember you can download it as free screensaver from Slide.com, just click on the slideshow below!

Choose the slideshow you like, and import/embed it in your blog, website, of social networking web page.

And don’t forget to stay tuned with Italian Food Lovers for more virtual tours in the heart of the Italian Food Valley!

During the last weekend of July the Academia Barilla and Barilla USA teams had a great time at The Garden Chef Series, an annual gourmet event held at the Chicago Botanic Garden, a beautiful garden in Northwest Chicago, Illinois.

Barilla, whose US headquarters are in Chicago, has been the host and the Presenting Sponsor of the Garden Chef Series for the last few years.
The Garden Chefs Series runs a long calendar, starting on May 26 and ending on October 7, with culinary performances every Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.

Cooking demonstrations are free (normal parking fees apply) and reservations are generally not needed; we advise Italian Food Lovers to get to the Chicago Botanic Gardens anyway, as seating is on a first come first served basis, and the amphitheater, venue of the cooking event, holds approximately 125 people. Click on the Google Maps image below to get driving directions to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Last July 28 and 29, the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden’s open-air amphitheater hosted the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend, a special event included in The Garden Chefs Series.

During the weekend a group of top Chefs prepared gourmet recipes with garden-fresh ingredients, of course using Barilla and Academia Barilla Italian food specialties.

The event was crowded, as you can see from the picture below.

The schedule of culinary performances at the Chicago Botanic Garden has been pretty packed too, for the joy of the Italian food lovers who attended the gourmet event.

Here is the Chefs line-up for the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend::

Saturday, July 28
11:30 - Ken Chaffin, Sunset Foods
12:30 - Oil and vinegar, Mario Rizzotti, Academia Barilla
1:30 - David Teichman, Bluegrass
2:30 - Oil and vinegar, Mario Rizzotti, Academia Barilla
3:30 - Lorenzo Boni, Barilla USA

Sunday, July 29
11:30 - Art Smith, personal Chef to Oprah Winfrey
12:30 - Oil and vinegar, Mario Rizzotti, Academia Barilla
1:30 - Robert Avila, Trattoria Bacci
2:30 - Oil and vinegar, Mario Rizzotti, Academia Barilla
3:30 - Lorenzo Boni, Barilla USA

In the picture above, award-winning Chef Art Smith, Barilla USA Executive Chef Lorenzo Boni, and Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti in a moment of relax at the Chicago gourmet show. In the picture below, you can see Chef David Teichman of Bluegrass while performing his gourmet recipe.

Another moment of the gourmet weekend, with an happy Italian food lover winning the survey raffle organized by Academia Barilla.

After the event, Barilla USA received an email from Karen Nicolopoulos, an Italian food lover who lives in Park Ridge, IL, and attended the Garden Chef Series at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We received a copy of the email from Barilla USA, and we want to publish it as it is to share with you Karen’s excitement about the Chicago gourmet event:

Hi! I attended the Barilla Italian week end at the Botanic Gardens in Glenco, IL on Saturday. Thank you for the wonderful presentation and “goodie bag.” I love Barilla pasta… it is all we use in our home. The Barilla Plus is hands down the best high fiber pasta on the market!

Mario Rizzotti shared so much information and we learned so much. His personality was charming and endearing as he maneuvered thru the audience to share a seat with others as the guest chefs were presenting. We quickly went to the gift shop to buy both olive oil and vinegar!

Chef Lorenzo Boni was also extremely delightful and informative. His two pasta dishes were fantastic! I am delighted to have the hot pasta recipe for Zucchini Onion pasta. Although I watched him make the pasta salad, I was wondering if I could get a copy of the recipe. It was oven dried cherry tomatoes with parsley, Parma salami and cheese. It was the best pasta salad I have ever had. I loved the tip of cooking the pasta al dente and then spreading it out on a cookie sheet.

Thank you in advance,
Karen Nicolopoulos, Park Ridge, IL.

Dear Karen, thank you for your nice comments - we promise you we will surely publish the recipe from Lorenzo Boni tomorrow here on our blog! And yes, we know our Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti has a great personality and excellent Chef’s and demo skills.

We blogged several times about Mario Rizzotti’s TV performances as both Chef on Channel Fox8, Judge at the popular Iron Chef TV competition, or about his involvement with Food Network. Here below a picture of Mario during one of his four culinary performances at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

A note about the “goodie bag” mentioned by our friend Karen: The Great Chefs Series attendees took home a free bag of presents that included Sweet Genovese basil seedling, a packet of Italian flat-leaf parsley seeds and a copy of the Kitchen Garden Newsletter, with helpful tips for growing and cooking seasonal produce, all kindly provided by the Chicago Botanic Garden.

This is all for now, but we promise Karen and all our Italian food lovers friends that we’ll be back tomorrow posting at least a couple of gourmet recipes from Chef Lorenzo Boni and other great Garden Chefs who rocked the Chicago Botanic Garden with the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend.

Since we are getting more and more inputs and collaborations from Chefs around the world who enjoy cooking with Academia Barilla products, we decided to start a new line of posts presenting gourmet menus and gourmet recipes from our Chef friends at Creative Restaurants.

Today we are introducing an old friend of Academia Barilla, Chef Ottavio Palmeri, a Sicilian Chef who’s rocking the LA gourmet scene. We have already posted about Palmeri Restaurant in Los Angeles, California, as Academia Barilla partners the LA gourmet Italian restaurant for a now classic “first-Monday-of-the-month” dinner, regular monthly gourmet evenings dedicated to Italian organic Wines and food pairing.

Chef Ottavio Palmeri designed a gourmet menu that integrates the Academia Barilla Italian food specialties that our readership already know - Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist Francesco Zimone is also present at the Palmeri/Academia Barilla evenings, so you can count on the guidance of a true expert for the Italian food tasting part.

Just to tempt you a little more, here is the 4-courses gourmet menu designed by Chef Ottavio Palmeri for next Monday’s dinner. Our guest can choose between two choices for each of the 5 courses.

FIRST COURSE: Antipasti

Burrata
Academia Barilla Prosciutto di Parma Burrata, with sliced pears and Academia Barilla aged balsamic dressing

OR

Granseola
Dungeness crab wrapped with cucumber, served with tobiko caviar and yogurt dressing

Wine pairing
Savian Pinot Grigio DOC 2005

SECOUND COURSE: Pasta

Tortelli
Tortelli Amatriciana with Academia Barilla Pecorino Sardo Gran Cru, asparagus, baby spinach, and black pepper

OR

Pappardelle
Homemade pappardelle pasta with savory duck ragu

Wine pairing
Luna del Rospo Barbera d’Asti 2004

THIRD COURSE: Main course

Gamberone
Grilled Wild Prawns wrapped in paper thin swordfish, oregano, salmoriglio, and farmers market’s arugola

OR

Vitello
Braised veal cheeks with root vegetables and Sangiovese sauce, served with Sardininan Fregola

Wine pairing
Del Bondio Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

FORTH COURSE: Dolce dessert

Panna cotta
Citrus scented panna cotta

Wine pairing
Late Harvest Muscat House of Hafner 2004

Palmeri Restaurant offers this incredible gourmet dinner for a very reasonable price: $45 per person (plus tax and gratuity). As for the restaurant atmosphere, here is an extract from an article we found on the LA Times:

“A few doors down is the two-month-old Palmeri. Walk in the glass doors and you may encounter chef-owner Ottavio Palmeri speaking rapid Italian on the telephone a few feet away from the long granite bar and wood-burning grill and pizza oven. With its sleek, spare aesthetic, Palmeri is attracting urban sophisticates and native Italians, who linger over $12 pizza and cocktails at the bar, or who snuggle into a corner banquette for spaghetti with bottarga (Sicilian cured tuna roe), homemade cannelloni or unusual Sicilian wines.”

In addition to the “urban sophisticates” and “native Italians” mentioned by the LA Times, it is not unusual to meet local LA celebrities enjoying Ottavio’s homemade cannelloni or Sicilian cannoli such as movie star Harrison Ford, a regular at Palmeri. Other regular customers wrote good reviews about the Brentwood, LA restaurant, as you can find out at this link.

So save the date for the next Italian organic wines and food pairing soiree at Palmeri: Monday August 6 (and all other first Mondays of the month).

The address is 11650 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, Los Angeles - you can click on the Google Maps image below to get driving directions, and call 310-442-8446 to make your dining reservations for the Italian gourmet soiree.

Stay tuned with Italian Food Lovers, as we’ll publish here soon also an original gourmet recipe from Chef Ottavio Palmeri, and we’ll introduce to you more gourmet Chefs from the top creative restaurants in the world.