Italian Food Lovers

The new Academia Barilla Tuscan Soup and its yummy lentils, wheat and spelt (farro) mix we introduced with our latest post can be appreciate either as winter dish as well as summer recipe.

Try this gourmet recipe for a salad with season vegetables designed by the Academia Barilla Chef Team!

GRILLED VEGETABLE SALAD
A recipe by the Academia Barilla Chef Team
(serves 6)

INGREDIENTS

- 10 oz Academia Barilla vegetable and cereal mix
- 34 fluid oz water
- Academia Barilla Toscano extra virgin olive oil, to taste
- 1 round eggplant
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper
- 1/2 re bell pepper
- 1 zucchini
- 5 cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 red onion
- 2 oz mozzarella cheese
- salt to taste

PREPARATION

Pour the entire content of the vegetables and cereal bag of the Academia Barilla Tuscan Soup and the water in a boiling pot. Cook for 20 minutes mixing regularly.

Wash and dry all the vegetable, and slice them vertically to obtain slices 0.2 inches thick.

Chop the mozzarella into small cubes.

Grill each vegetable slice a couple of minutes for each side. Chop the red onion in thin slices, and the cherry tomatoes in quarters.

When the vegetable and cereal mix is cooked, eliminate the excess water.

Using a salad bowl mix zucchini, eggplants, red and yellow bell peppers, grilled sliced vegetables, mozzarella cubes, sliced onions and chopped tomatoes, and the Tuscan Soup’s cooked mix of vegetables and cereals.

Add oregano, extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste. Mix well and serve.

Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla and the Academia Barilla Chef Team!

Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist and Iron Chef Judge Mario Rizzotti is back on TV for another educational session on how to recognize authentic traditional Italian cheeses from fakes.

TV Host Vince Gerasole invited Mario Rizzotti for a special extra insight on CBS2 Chicago’s popular food show Table for Two. You can watch the entire video segment from the TV show at this link - we couldn’t embed it, but we got some screenshots for you, and we can summarize the Italian food insight and tips shared by Mario Rizzotti at the show.

Mario started presenting Parmigiano Reggiano, the king of cheeses, as something totally different from what you get “in the green can”, as asked by Vince Gerasole. Parmigiano Reggiano, tells Rizzotti, has more than 900 years of history, as recorded by historic menus and publications. Parmigiano Reggiano is entirely made of specially-fed cows in the area of Parma, and shouldn’t be confused with “Parmesan cheese“, a sort of mass production product for the export markets.

To recognize the authentic Parmigiano Reggiano, as Mario Rizzotti reminds, it is enough to check the external part of the wheel, that must feature the “Parmigiano Reggiano” original print all around.

But the major revelation about the authenticity of the product comes with the tasting. Parmigiano Reggiano must be cut into blocks (chunks) to fully appreciate its crunchiness and sandiness, the latter created by the amino-acids released by the proteins of the high-quality milk used for its production.

The quality of the ingredients and its rich flavor make Parmigiano Reggiano a great choice for many applications: grated or shaved on pasta, as an aperitivo with a glass of wine and, as told by Mario Rizzotti, also as a “munchie” for young babies aged 6 months, because of the good milk, that carries great calcium and protein for kids.

Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti also introduced other Italian regional cheeses, focusing on all the varieties of Pecorino (Romano, Toscano, Sardinian, Sweet), the popular cheese made of sheep’s milk cheese.

To counterbalance the tasting of Parmigiano Reggiano, Mario Rizzotti invited TV Host Vince Gerasole to taste Academia Barilla’s Pecorino Gran Cru, which is the first sheep’s milk cheese produced with the same production technique and aging process used for Parmigiano Reggiano, making it… the king of sheep’s milk cheeses!

You can find Academia Barilla’s Parmigiano Reggiano (both in wedges or as a whole wheel) and Pecorino Gran Cru at the Academia Barilla online store, and at the best gourmet food and specialty stores in the United States.

If you want to catch up with Mario Rizzotti, you have two choices: check your local listing to see him in action as a Judge for Iron Chef America, or meet him in person for an Italian food demo at the Barilla Italian Cooking Weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden this weekend!