Welcome back to Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Culinary School who, after telling us about the different variety of table grapes in an Academia Barilla video last week, will share with us his Chef advice on how to make Grape Must Jelly, and how to prepare Sugoli, a traditional Parma gourmet dessert. Enjoy the video chef tips!

As recommended by Chef Matteo Carboni in the video above, results are better when different varieties of grapes are mixed, which will result in a richer flavor. In the video recipe, Chef Carboni uses Sultuna, Pans and Moscate, which he introduced in his last video here on Italian Food Lovers.

Before proceeding with the grape hand-pressing. Matteo advises to use 4 pounds of table grapes in order to obtain 4 cups of table juice for 6 servings.

Not an easy job! You will surely need some strength to do this. Chef Carboni suggests to begin pressing the grapes with your hand, then to proceed crushing the remaining grape berries one at the time with your fingers before filtering the grape juice and giving it a final hand-squeeze to get as much juice as you can.

For 4 cups of grape juice we will need 4 oz of all-purposes flour that must be mixed with the grape juice in a bowl. Start with a little bit of juice. Mix with a whisk ensuring there are no lumps. Add the rest of the juice and keep mixing for a few more minutes until all the lumps disappear.

Put the mixture in a pot and bring to a boil, constantly stirring it. Keep boiling for 2 minutes before placing the mixture into molds while it’s still hot. Chef Carboni uses two different molds based on the servings he desire to prepare. Place the molds in the fridge, allowing them to rest for at least a couple of hours.

The first recipe prepared by Chef Matteo Carboni, Sugoli Grape Jelly paired with Pecorino Cheese and hazelnuts, is a dish that you can serve at the end of the meal as a dessert, or before the dessert. 

Chef Matteo Carboni concludes the video with a final dessert preparation, using the bigger Sugoli Grape Jelly molds that have been in the fridge for a bit longer. For the dessert presentation Matteo simply adds fresh cranberries, fresh mint and ground dark chocolate to the Sugoli Grape Jelly.

Chef Carboni also suggests trying a glass of Moscato wine (Muscat wine), to enjoy with this delicious Italian gourmet dessert.

Thank you Matteo, we can’t wait for your next video recipe!

Welcome to a new installment of our ingredient and recipe of the month series of blog posts.

The ingredient for the month of July is eggplant (or aubergine, for our Commonwealth readers), and the video recipe presented in the video below by Chef Matteo Carboni of the Academia Barilla Culinary School is Tuna fish with Caponata.

As Chef Carboni explains in the video, Caponata is a Southern Italian traditional recipe, typical side dish in the Sicilian cuisine. The main ingredients are eggplants, bell peppers, onions, and zucchini, cooked with mint, garlic, capers, pine nuts, white vinegar, pistachios, dried sultanas, sugar and vinegar.

The recipe has a long preparation time. Chef Carboni starts chopping all the ingredients in small cubes while soaking the dried sultanas in water. Chef Carboni’s advise on quantities is that the amount of vegetables should equal the amount of seared tuna fish - for two servings 1 pound of tuna and 1 pound of mixed vegetables.

In Caponata, eggplants are traditionally deep fried to gain more flavor. Deep fried eggplant cubes are added to the other ingredients only at the end.

In a frying pan Chef Carboni pours a little bit of Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Sicilian extra virgin olive oil, and start sautee the red onion first, then red pepper and, at last, the zucchini.

After a 3 or 4 minutes minutes we can add the other ingredients: capers, sultanas, pine nuts, sugar, white vinegar, pistachios, and the deep fried eggplant. Once the Caponata is ready, Chef Carboni puts it at rest in a warm place, and moves on to the Tuna steak.

The tuna steak should be at least 1 inch thick to be correctly seared, advices Chef Carboni. To prepare the steak, season the steak with salt and pepper.

In a frying pan Chef Carboni puts some Italian extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic (to be removed later) and sears the tuna steak with 1 minute cooking time per side approx. When the tuna steak is seared, it can be served as a whole steak, or cut into slices, as in Chef Carboni’s serving suggestion.

As a final preparation and serving tip, Chef Matteo Carboni suggests to use a tin stamp to serve the caponata on the side of the dish, while serving the sliced seared tuna steak on the other side, not before giving a final touch with Academia Barilla Monti Iblei extra virgin olive oil, Academia Barilla Natural Sicilian Sea Salt flavored with Blood Orange Zest, and freshly ground pepper. Academia Barilla products are available at the best gourmet food stores, and also online at the Academia Barilla online store.

As a final presentation touch, Chef Matteo surprises us adding few deep fried basil leaves - bravo, Matteo! See you soon again on Italian Food Lovers!

As you have seen from our latest post activity, we have been very busy both at Academia Barilla and at the Italian Food Lovers blog team. We didn’t forget about it, we are only late - so let us introduce you the ingredient of the month… for the month of June: strawberries!

Don’t worry, we won’t skip a month just because we are late, so expect another ingredient and recipe of the month post this month of July.

As usual, Chef Matteo Carboni from The Academia Barilla Culinary School offered to show how to make a gourmet dish, in this case a dessert, using a video recipe - we love this! So welcome today Matteo with a step-by-step preparation video on how to make a Strawberry Mousse with Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

As Matteo tell us in the video, the ingredients we will need are about 1 pound of fresh strawberries for 6 servings, plus fresh cream, mint, icing sugar, food gelatin and Traditional Balsamic Vinager of Modena (Matteo here uses Academia Barilla’s 25-years Balsamic, which you can find at the Academia Barilla online store.

After cleaning and cutting the strawberries, Chef Carboni put them in a blender, while preparing the gelatine using a bowl of warm water and food gelatin (1 pound of gelatin for 1.3 pounds of warm water approx).

While the gelatin soaks, Che Matteo heat on a stove a third of the strawberry puree, then simmers, adds the gelatine and waits to completely melt before adding the rest of the puree. 

While the strawberry mixture cools down, Chef Carboni whips the cream, then mix it with the pure and finally filles single serve molds with the final cream. Chef Carboni suggests to prepare the mousse in advance,as the molds need to refrigerate for at least one day.

Final presentation and tasty details: some slices of strawberries, mint leaves and the final Chef touch, a few drops of a Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 25-years!

Buon Appetito from the Academia Barilla Culinary School and the Italian Food Lovers blogging team - Strawberry Mousse Forever!