We love Wikipedia, maybe not as much as we love Italian food, but we really think Wikipedia is a priceless resource for all the Internet users, including us. We referenced Wikipedia sources and articles several times in our blog posts, and also pointed a link or two to a couple of topics we asked you to explore more in-depth.

Last month, while browsing the popular online encyclopedia, we realized that their editorial team always welcomes new contributors in many area yet to be fully covered - one of which is Italian cuisine.

We couldn’t resist the call and started by creating a basic profile for Academia Barilla, before started experiencing the pleasure of online collaboration and contributing to an article we linked to in recent times, right before Christmas.

Remember the Zuppa Inglese recipe we published as part of our Christmas Recipe Series?

In that blog post we actually used part of Wikipedia knowledge, when reporting about the origins of the dessert’s name. In order to pay back for the knowledge we got, we decided to publish the complete recipe of the Zuppa Inglese dessert on the same Wikipedia page, so that other Web users will be able to find it easily in the future.

We will definitely contribute more and more to the Wikipedia, and we’ll let you know when we do - but don’t worry, we made a commitment on sharing our premium content with you at Italian Food Lovers before sharing it with everybody else, so we’ll always be blogging here before publishing everywhere else on the web! Stay tuned with us!

Today we would like to introduce a couple of interesting publication that can be of interest for our Italian Food Lovers readership.
The first one is The New Regional Italian Cuisine Cookbook, written by Reinhardt Hess, Cornelia Schinharl, and Sabine Sälzer.

Reinhardt Hess is a Munich-based Bavarian food and wine journalist who has a special love for Italian and other Mediterranean foods and cooking styles. Cornelia Schinharl is a food editor at Graf und Unser, a major German book publisher, the author of several cookbooks, and an expert on Italian cuisine. She lives in Munich and visits Italy often to discover new foods and new wines. Sabine Sälzer is a world renowned cookbook editor.

When food lovers open this cookbook they’ll find themselves on a lively excursion through eight distinct and innovative culinary Italian regions. It’s an illustrated, recipe-filled cookbook and a coffee table guide to Italy’s people and traditions, from the Alpine Piedmont area in the north to the southern island of Sicily.

The book is structured into separate chapter for each of the eight regions, each opening with a landscape photo followed by several photo-filled pages describing the region’s people, their way of life, and their locally-produced foods and wines. The rest of each chapter is devoted to the region’s recipes.

Two dozen or more recipes per region are introduced, each of them illustrated with plenty of photos, and presented in the typical Italian style for hearty five-course dinners. The authors present great ways to prepare and serve meats, fish, pasta, sauces, fruits, vegetables, soups, salads, and desserts, and also offer suggestions for regional wines that go perfectly with each delightful Italian meal.

Among the several reviews for this cookbook, a couple of them caught our attention. Mat Schaffer at the Boston Herald reviewed it as “… A pictorial tour of Italy, its culture and customs. It’s like a gastronomic visit to Italy.”, while the internationally renowned Chef and restaurateur Mario Batali defines it “Definitive in a way that few books attempt, the recipes in this beautiful tome reflect the delicious diversity all dancing under the umbrella of Italian food. This beautiful book captures (Italy’s) entire boot in its mellifluous magnificence.”

Published by the NY-based publisher Barron’s Books for its Educational Series, the book is available at major bookstore worldwide, and also online at this link.

We really like this cookbook, even if it skipped our beautiful Emilia-Romagna region during the virtual Italian gastronomic tour - as our readers know, Academia Barilla and the Academia Barilla Culinary School are headquartered in Parma, the heart of the Italian Food Valley.

If you want to add to your virtual gastronomy tour Parma’s culinary traditions, culture and recipes, we also strongly suggest to check out world-renowed Chef and cookbook writer Giuliano Bugialli’s “Parma, A capital of Italian Gastronomy“, Academia Barilla’s first venture as a publisher.

Giuliano Bugialli’s cookbook celebrates the art, culture and tradition of the city of Parma, an extraordinary mix that you can find in our traditional plates. The Parma cookbook contains dozens of typical local recipes explained through stunning pictures and detailed descriptions, and infuses gastronomy tradition with culinary innovation, according to the true spirit of Parma.

The cookbook is available online at the Academia Barilla online store. Its luxury hardcover makes it a perfect gift - maybe the right gift idea for next Valentine’s Day?

The 1st Monday of the month at Palmieri Ristorante, in Brentwood, Los Angeles, is turning into a classic night for both LA residents and traveling gourmands. We already blogged about the gourmet menus prepared by Chef Ottavio Palmieri, but the Chef’s creativity never stops, so you can enjoy every week new dishes and a new menu concept designed by the Sicilian Chef.

Academia Barilla partners Palmieri Ristorante for the Wine and food pairing nights, that feature creative and traditional dishes put together by Chef Palmieri, with the help of Academia Barilla gourmet ingredients, every first Monday of each month including today, February 4.

Check out today’s menu, with the dishes’ names in Sicilian:

Pani (breads)

Semolina and Sesame seed bread

Pi N’Cuminciari (starters)

Brusciuvia
Vegetable soup with Fava, Garbanzo and Pinto beans, lentils, peas
Drizzled with “Academia Barilla” Sicilian extra virgin olive oil

Carpacciu di Pisci Spada chi Finocchi e Aranci
Smoked Swordfish “ Carpaccio”; Fennel and Orange salad sprinkled with Academia Barilla Orange sea salt from Sicilia

Wine pairing: Donna Fugata Anthilia 2006

Primi Piatti (pasta entrees)

Involtini di Pasta chi Milinciani
Spaghetti, smoked mozzarella, tomato sauce, Almond-basil Pesto, wrapped around sliced eggplant and baked in the wood-burning oven

Pasta ca’ Buttarga
Spaghetti with chili flakes, garlic and Academia Barilla Sicilian extra virgin olive oil, “Bottarga” and “Mollica”

Wine pairing: iGurrida Triumph Grenace 2002

Pisci (fish)

Involtini di Pisci Spada
Rolls Swordfish, “Piacentino Ennese”, bread crumbs, herbs, salmoriglio and caponata

Wine pairing: Sedaca 2005

Carni (meat)

Viteddu
Braised Veal medallion with eggplant, mozzarella, in a tomato and herbs sauce

Wine pairing: Tancredi Donna Fugata 2003

Cosi Duci (dessert)

Cannoli
Chest ”Mamma Dorotea” Tangy Orange flavored ricotta cheese and Pistacchios

Wine pairing: Ben-Rye 2006

Academia Barilla Italian Culinary specialist Francesco Zimone will be available on site for Italian culinary tips; ask him about the several ways to use the Academia Barilla Natural Sea Salts from Sicily, or other Academia Barilla products.

The dinner cover is $55.00 per person (+ tax & gratuity) and you’ll better book your table in advance by calling the Palmieri Restaurant at (310) 442-8446, as seats are limited.

The address is Palmieri Ristorante, 11650 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, Los Angeles CA - we provide a Google Map here below, so you can get accurate driving directions to the restaurant.

We really like interactive stuff, especially when it’s related to Italian food, of course. So we couldn’t help but notice that our friends of Barilla USA published a nice interactive minisite called Discover Barilla, that you can easily find at www.discoverbarilla.com.

The website, with catchy graphics that remind of Italian traditional cookbooks and authentic popular cooking, presents a virtual gastronomic and culinary tour of some among the top gourmet (and cultural) destinations across Italy. An itinerary that will take the online book readers on a trip starting in Parma to proceed to Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Verona, Tuscany, Umbria, Naples and Amalfi.

At each destination the book will unveil local gastronomy traditions, and reports local traditional recipes as well as a review of local restaurants where you can surely enjoy traditional local gourmet cuisine.

We explored for you one of the gourmet itinerary, and of course is… Parma! The Discover Barilla book gives an overview of the city in a page that includes slideshows of images and videos, before introducing to local specialties such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma, and presenting two local recipes (two new regional recipes are provided at each destination of the Discover Barilla virtual culinary tour).

The Discover Barilla recipe we explored for you is Barilla Farfalle with Prosciutto and Green Peas.

BARILLA FARFALLE WITH PROSCIUTTO AND GREEN PEAS
(a traditional recipe proposed by Discover Barilla)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 box Barilla Farfalle
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups prosciutto, cut into strips
- 1 1/2 cups green peas (may use frozen)
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 cups half-an-half
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
- salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Cook Farfalle according to package directions.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes

Add the prosciutto and peas, sauté 3 minutes.

Add white wine, simmer until mixture has reduced by about half.

Stir in half-half and heavy whipping cream, season with salt and black pepper; simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Drain pasta, toss with the sauce.

Stir in Parmesan cheese before serving.

—

Thank you Barilla USA and DiscoverBarilla.com for the recipe. We invite you to browse them all, and also have a look at the final section of the Discover Barilla online book, which is of course about discovering Barilla, its family, history and traditions.

Enjoy the virtual Italian gourmet trip, and stand by for a calendar of the real gastronomy and gourmet tours offered by Academia Barilla - we’ll publish soon our 2008 calendar of gourmet events!

Last December a group of American students from NY Universities (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, NY) spent some time in Parma to study Italian Cuisine at the Academia Barilla Culinary Center .

The group of students were headed by Giacomo Berselli, President of the Marco Polo Foundation, the organization who sponsored the students’ trip to Italy. After spending 7 weeks in Otranto (Puglia) and 3 weeks in Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna), the students attended cooking classes at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma for additional 2 weeks.

During their Parma residency the US students of the Marco Polo project studied the typical products of the Parma region, and attended classes of olive oil tasting, Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma tasting, as well as Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and wine tasting. After theory and tasting classes in the morning the young Chefs spent some time researching Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library, with the support of the Library Curator Giancarlo Gonizzi and his team.
The afternoon were generally spent in the kitchen, trying dishes and recipes containing the ingredients the students have been working on all day, under the guidance of Academia Barilla Executive Chef Nicola Bindini and his Chef team.

To complete the students’ full immersion into the art of Italian gastronomy, Academia Barilla organized also culinary and gastronomy tours for the students, allowing them to discover the secrets of producers and farmers of authentic regional products, and to meet the countryside traditions and history of the Emilia-Romagna region, that certainly is a key ingredient of our traditional recipes.

At the end of the 2 weeks of classes the Academia Barilla Culinary School released to each student a certificate of completion of studies that, join with the other certificates awarded by the students at the other learning locations across Italy, would have grant them the formal recognition of the exams and classes by their respective original colleges (Monroe College and Paul Smith College, both in the NY State).

Here below a couple of testimonial notes from the Marco Polo students, as written on the Academia guest book, pictured here above with more Marco Polo testimonials:

“Thank you Barilla for such an informative 2 weeks. I enjoyed myself thoroughly would tell my family friends about this wonderful place. Thank you so much.”

“Ciao, this school has taught me that food to the Italian is religion and the kitchen is their church. Thank you Academia Barilla.”

To know more about the student program we interviewed Marco Polo Foundation President Giacomo Berselli who firmly says that “Academia Barilla is state-of-the-art of the Italian Cuisine“!

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