Last Friday Academia Barilla announced with an official press release some gourmet news we have partially anticipated here on Italian Food Lovers over the last weeks: the launch of a new series of authentic Italian gourmet food products that enrich the existing Academia Barilla Italian gastronomy food line.

As we generally do here at the Academia Barilla press office, we republish the content of the press release while taking advantage of the blog publishing features to publish also the product pictures, so you can easily recognize them when you’ll see them on top shelves at the top gourmet food shops across the United States and the rest of the world!

We’ll also add direct links to each of the new Academia Barilla products at Academia Barilla online store, where you can order your gourmet specialties and get them delivered home in just two days!

Here we go with the first part of the press release (note: we split the press release in two posts as it was getting pretty long with all the images).

Academia Barilla launches new Italian gourmet food products to expand its authentic Italian food collection.

After launching the Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet food celebrity collection, Academia Barilla presents a new range of authentic Italian regional food delicacies to bring to the gourmet table - the flavors and traditions of Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany.

Parma, Italy, September 12, 2008 - After the successful launch of the Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet product line, designed together with Italian Chef, cookbook author and TV celebrity Giada De Laurentiis, Academia Barilla announces a new expansion of its Italian gourmet food product collection with the release of a number of new food specialty products. These new products include rare regional extra virgin olive oils, tasty sauces and pesto, delicious green olives, an herbaceous herb mix and creamy cheese spreads.

Extra Virgin Olives Oils

The first two products added to the Academia Barilla specialty food collection are two Italian olive oils that enrich the already large collection of Academia Barilla estate bottled Italian extra virgin olive oils.

The new 100% Italian Unfiltered Extra Virgin Olive Oil brings to dishes a very fresh taste, with strong undertones of green grass, Pachino tomatoes and oregano. 

100% Italian Unfiltered is the most natural extra virgin olive oil produced in Italy with innovative methods that surpass traditional centrifuge processes, leaving the oil’s original flavors and properties intact, with no sediments or pulp.

Academia Barilla also added a 100% Italian Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, one of the few organic olive oils available made from 100% Italian, organic olives, that brings a mild taste to the table, with hints of ripe olive, grass and sweet almonds.

Sauces and Pesto

Academia Barilla’s Italian Tomato Sauce is made from premium quality, exclusive Italian Scarpariello tomato variety grown in the heart of Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s Food Valley.

With an incomparable fresh and sweet flavor enriched with extra virgin olive oil, this all-natural tomato sauce is a traditional, delicious recipe with an intense red color great for a variety of Italian pasta courses.

Another addition to Academia Barilla is a new Academia Barilla Pesto Genovese, a unique non-pasteurized fresh pesto made in the seaside town of San Remo in Liguria with the freshest basil of the Riviera, top quality extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano and whole pine nuts.

Introducing the new Academia Barilla’s bruschetta and pasta toppings!

Academia Barilla Spicy Sicilian Cherry Tomato Topping and its mild version Sicilian Cherry Tomato Topping are two delicious succulent blends of naturally sun dried cherry tomatoes and chili peppers, from the small Sicilian town of Pachino, made following the authentic Sicilian recipe with local sweet tomatoes, fresh basil and hot chili peppers for the spicy version.

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We split the press release here to announce all the other exciting new Academia Barilla gourmet products at the next blog post! For more info about Academia Barilla and the new gourmet food products, please contact Stephanie Sette in the United States by calling +1 847-405-7564, US toll-free 866-772-2233, or emailing ssette@barilla-usa.com.

Stay tuned with Italian Food Lovers and Academia Barilla!

The Italy-America Chamber of Commerce SouthEast started a series of Italian culinary events that will keep the Italian food love high this summer in Miami and Southern Florida.

The Italian Cooking Show, now at its second edition, opened its doors to all Italian food lovers in Coral Gables, FL, last Thursday May 22 for a journey through Italian regional culinary traditions.

Don’t worry if you missed the opening the Italian Cooking Show, as the culinary event has been already scheduled on other dates throughout summertime: June 19, July 17 and August 21, always on Thursday.

We really like the event description on the show brochure by the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce SouthEast, so we report it here below:

The Italian culture is rich in history, art, classic architecture and popular tradition, making it an influential part of the history of Western civilization. As a result of continuous historical, geographical, social and cultural changes taken place for centuries, our culinary heritage inevitably acquires an inestimable value.

In the last 50 years, the Italian culinary tradition has become a universal and distinctive trademark of the Italian country and culture. The wander through Italy’s countless marvels can begin with one of its most revealing treasures: cuisine.

The wholesomeness and genuineness of the Italian products sharply contrast with the qualities of the numerous products of a lesser quality currently circulating in the US market and often misleadingly promoted as Italian.

The Italian Cooking Show is hosted at the stylish MiaCucina Showroom (105 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, FL 33134, Google Maps below for driving directions) in Coral Gables, with top Chefs from renowned Italian restaurants demonstrating the different regional cooking methods used in preparing traditional dishes (pairing wines will be served too).

Each of the 4 Italian Cooking Shows starts at 6:30 PM with cooking demonstrations from top Chefs, who will engage in Italian regional cuisine preparations until 8:30 PM. Cooking demonstrations are followed by an open reception and free tasting session, until 9:30 PM. and each of the 4 Italian Cooking Shows will be dedicated to the culinary traditions of specific selected Italian regions, according to the following schedule:

Thursday May 22 has been dedicated to the cuisine of Northern Italy: Piedmont, Lombardia, Veneto, Trentino.
Thursday June 19 will be dedicated to the traditional regional cuisine of Central Italy: Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Marche.
On Thursday July 17 all the secrets of traditional regional cuisine from Southern Italy will be revealed, with an exploration of the cuisine of Campania, Abruzzo, Puglia and Calabria.
Last but not least, Thursday August 21 the Italian Cooking Show will focus on the culinary traditions of the Italian Islands: Sicily and Sardinia.

Academia Barilla will be of course participating to the event, and Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Costantino Cicchelli will be on site, offering free tasting sessions and culinary tips for getting the best out of Academia Barilla’s range of Italian traditional regional gourmet products, all of them available also at the Academia Barilla online store, if you cannot make it to the Italian Cooking Show in Miami!

Though the famous popular Acquacotta soup has a very mysterious and unusual name, it is a well-known soup dish that originates from the Maremma area of Tuscany. The Italian name of this soup literally means “cooked water”.

Legend has it that the inventors of this dish, the herdsmen and coal men of Maremma, were accustomed to frequent journeys, and thus normally traveled with stale bread, dried meat, oil, garlic, onion, and a few herbs, in order to prepare acquacotta.

A more poetic version of its origin can be traced in the short movie “La Zuppa di Pietra“ (Stone Soup) by Christian Carmosino, winner of the First Prize at the latest Academia Barilla Short Films Festival.

In the short film director Carmosino tells a story staged in the 19th century in a village in rural Italy, where the metaphore of a stone soup stands for the pleasure of getting around the table for a rich meal all together by sharing ingredients, big smiles, and a big heart.

You can discover more about award winning director Christian Ambrosino by browsing his online channels on YouTube and MySpace, from where we got the embed code (with Christian’s authorization) to republish the beautiful “La Zuppa di Pietra“ short film here below in full. Enjoy it!

Contrary to its origins as a peasant dish, made simply of water and a few flavors, acquacotta is a very hardy soup. There is an assortment of recipes for acquacotta amongst the different areas of Tuscany, yet acquacotta is distinguishable from other Tuscan soups due to its use of eggs and stale bread at the end of (and not during) its preparation.

We found several book tracing the origins and tradition of acquacotta at the Academia Barilla’s Gastronomic Library in Parma, such as “Cucina e vini della Toscana” by Flavio Collutta (1974 Mursia Editore), “Il grande libro della cucina Toscana” by Paolo Petroni (1991 Ponte alle Grazie), and Sara Vignozzi and Gabriele Ganci’s cookbook “Tuscany – Flavour of Italy” (McRae Books, 1999), from which we picked the traditional recipe here below (image taken from the same book).

ACQUACOTTA
(serves 4)

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour
Recipe grading: fairly easy

INGREDIENTS

- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 2 cups (10 oz - 300 g) fresh or frozen peas
- 1 and 1/4 cups (l7 oz - 200 g) freshly hulled broad beans
- 1 medium carrot, sliced
- 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
- 1 crumbled dried chili pepper
- salt to taste
- 12 oz - 300 g trimmed young Swiss chard or spinach leaves, washed and shredded
- 10 oz - 300 g firm, ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
- 6 and 1/2 cups (2 and 1/2 pints - 1.5 liters) boiling water
- 4 large fresh eggs
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup (2 oz - 60 g) freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino cheese
- 4 slices firm-textured white bread, 2 days old
- 1 clove garlic

Suggested wine: any dry white wine

PREPARATION

Pour the oil into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the onions, peas, fava beans, carrot, celery, chili pepper, and a dash of salt.

Sauté for about 10 minutes until tender and lightly browned. Add the chard or spinach and the tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.

Pour in the boiling water and leave to simmer gently for 40 minutes, adding more salt if necessary.

Using a fork or balloon whisk, beat the eggs with salt, pepper, and the grated Parmigiano or pecorino cheese.

Toast the bread and when golden brown, rub both sides of each slice with the garlic. Place a slice in each soup bowl or in individual straight-sided earthenware dishes, and pour a quarter of the beaten egg mixture over each serving.

Give the soup a final stir and then ladle into the bowls. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and add a pinch of pepper.

Serve immediately and enjoy acquacotta sharing it with others, as in Christian Carmosino’s award winning short movie!

CHEF TIPS

Our Chefs at the Academia Barilla Culinary School suggest to use Academia Barilla’s products such as Toscano IGP extra virgin olive oil, Peeled Cherry Tomatoes, and Academia Barilla’s traditional Parmigiano Reggiano or the Sardinian Pecorino Sardo Gran Cru, which you can all easily find at our gourmet online store. also, try Mantecarlo Bianco as dry white wine for better recipe results.

Buon appetito from Academia Barilla and Italian Food Lovers!

Over the last couple of weeks Academia Barilla partnered and sponsored a couple of gourmet events in New York and in Tuscany, and will participate to a third event in Los Angeles, California, scheduled for the month of July.

The fil rouge that connects the three events is Italian wine, at its more elevated expression.

The first event has been the presentation of a book by author Sergio Esposito at the Italian Cultural Institute in NY. The event, held on May 5 in collaboration with Italian Wine Merchant, of which Sergio Esposito is Owner and funder, was centered on the recent release of the book “Passion on the Vine - a memoir of food, wine and family in the heart of Italy”, and had a few gourmet tasting moments on the side, to which Academia Barilla’s Italian Food Specialist Rosario Procino participated with a gourmet food tasting moment in favor of the event participants.

Last week Academia Barilla took part of an high-profile charity gala event at Corte del Vino, an event held at Fattoria Le Corti in San Casciano Val di Pesa (in the countryside outside Florence) to fund research on children’s tumors (through the Milan-based Association 7° piano and the Meyer Children Hospital of Florence) through a charity gala lunch and auction of very precious items.

Among the items on auction donated by top Italian collectors were precious Italian wine bottles with more than 20 years, a 6-liters bottle from 2005 serigraphed in gold (auction base: 5,500 Euros), the famous 3-liters bottle of Sagrantino 1997, awarded as one of the 12 best bottle of the historical last decade of the 20th century, or the famous 9-liters bottle of Apparita 2004 (both auction base: 1,500 euro), the 5-liters Zonin Acciaiolo, with the label engraved in gold by a Venetian glass master, or the Contini Bonaccossi Vin Santo di Capezzana 2000, awarded as best dessert wine in the world by the International Wine Challenge, in a 3-bottle box created specifically for this charity auction.

Beside the top section of the wine auction, other prizes has been part of the Corte del Vino charity auction. Four Seasons Firenze donated a spa treatment weekend at their location among the Franciacorta Vineyards in Chianti, and another signed by Henri Chenot in a resort previous residence of Prince Corsini in Maremma, southern Tuscany.

Academia Barilla supported the charity event by donating for the auction two days of dedicated cooking classes at the Academia Barilla Culinary School in Parma, Italy. Other top auction items as jewelry pieces and fashion exclusive clothings were donated for the auction by private donors.

From Chianti hills to Hollywood hills with the LA Wine Festival, scheduled in Los Angeles, California for the next month of July. The LA Wine Festival, today at its third edition, takes place at the Raleigh Studios right in the heart of Hollywood, and is organized by wine expert and celebrity Joel M. Fisher, PhD.

Professor Fisher, among other top wine expertises and qualifications, is wine columnist for the Culinary Connection of the Chefs de Cuisine Association of California, professor at Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, wine instructor for the Culinary Arts Department of the Art Institute of California, sommelier for the Escoffier Association of Southern California, and wine host for CRN’s What’s Cooking Show.

We will be blogging more about the LA Wine Festival, as Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Expert Francesco Zimone already scheduled his presence at the Los Angeles event; so save the date if you live in southern California: July 12 and 13 at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, LA. See you there!

Remember to drink wine responsibly and, most of all, to make sure to pair good wines with good gourmet food - we will surely talk soon about the wine and food pairing subject.