The ingredient of the month for February is Pumpkin, as suggested by our friends at the Academia Barilla Culinary School. Today Chef Matteo Carboni presents on video how to cook another simple but delicious pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Pennette with Pumpkin, Bacon and Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

Here is the transcription of the video recipe prepared by Chef Matteo Carboni, so you can print it to have it at reach while cooking.

PENNETTE WITH PUMPKIN, BACON AND TRADITIONAL BALSAMIC VINEGAR OF MODENA

INGREDIENTS
(4 servings)

- Barilla Penne Rigate pasta, 12 oz.
- brown onion, to taste
- pumpkin, 8.5 oz.
- smoked bacon, 7 oz.
- Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 12 years, to taste
- Academia Barilla Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- parsley, to taste
- rosemary, to taste
- garlic, 1 clove
- Academia Barilla Monti Iblei Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to taste
- salt, to taste

PREPARATION
(preparation time: 30 minutes)

Peel and remove the seeds from the pumpkin. Cut into cubes of about 1 cm/0.5 inch each side.

Place the discards of the pumpkin, the onion, and a little salt in a pan and cover with water until it boils. When the vegetable is cooked, whip until you obtain a cream.

First cut the smoked bacon into pieces of about 3mm in length and then cut in Julienne style. Mince the rosemary, garlic and parsley.

Put a pan on medium heat, add a drop of oil and fry the pumpkin adding salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the pumpkin from the pan, add the smoked bacon and cook until browned. Add garlic and rosemary to the bacon and pumpkin and after 2 minutes of cooking, add the pumpkin cream.

In plenty of salted boiling water cook the pasta, drain and add with the previously prepared sauce.

Add the minced parsley, plate the pasta and drizzle with Traditional Vinegar of Modena before serving.

Buon appetito from the Academia Barilla Culinary School!

And of course, here is the video version of this recipe.

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We introduced a new series of blog posts this month, dedicated to the Ingredient of the Month - Cauliflower, in its local Roman version Cavolo Romanesco.

In the previous video, Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School reveals how to easily clean the cauliflower separating all the florets, which allows for better cooking and presentation.

Today Chef Carboni demonstrates in a new video recipe how to cook a simple but yummy pasta dish using our ingredient of the month: Spaghetti with Romanesco Cauliflower.

After separating all of the florets, Chef Carboni suggests to chop them in halves, and to place them in boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Other ingredients used in this recipe are anchovies, garlic, thyme, Academia Barilla Monti Iblei DOP extra virgin olive oil and Academia Barilla Pecorino Cheese.

As a first step of preparation, Chef Matteo Carboni places the pasta into boiling water in a medium sauce pan. He immediately begins preparing the cauliflower-based sauce with a sauté of garlic and anchovies in a hot sauté pan.

Once the anchovies are melted Chef Carboni adds the cauliflower. Stir fry this for a couple of minutes while seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.

When the pasta reaches the “al dente” cooking time as described in the pasta packaging (here Chef Carboni uses Barilla Spaghetti), drain it and add it to the sauce for a final sauté, to which is added olive oil and Pecorino cheese.

The final touch before serving is adding some more Monti Iblei D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil, cauliflower florets and a sprig of thyme.

Buon Appetito from Academia Barilla!

We have introduced several times Academia Barilla’s Italian Culinary Specialist and TV Chef celebrity Mario Rizzotti, but we keep getting more and more content about his Italian food experience, and we want to share it with you.

Do you remember when we blogged about the “And they Came to Chicago: The American Italian Legacy”, the documentary produced by Chicago-based Modio Media? Now the documentary is available also on DVD and, if you are interested, you can order it online at the Modio Media’s site.

To better promote their documentary the guys at Modio Media published online some key video sequences, among which are a couple with our Mario Rizzotti, such as the one here below. Here Mario introduces Chicago Cooking instructors Dede Frank and Roseanne Pileggi, who teach a class on Italian-inspired cooking.

In this video Mario Rizzotti joins with them in the kitchen while they are preparing Linguine with Olive Oil, Capers, Lemon Zest and Anchovies - listen to the Chef tips from Dede and Roseanne, especially on how to make a perfect soffritto with the anchovies.

While hanging out in the kitchen, Mario offers his expert advice on how to taste extra-virgin olive oil, on avoid abusing garlic “not to kill food with it” as Mario says, or to pay attention to the cooking time of the pasta to make it “al dente”. Mario Rizzotti’s Chef tips include adding fresh Italian parsley and some bread crumbs at the end, “to add textures” as Mario explains.

Final note: the Italian extra virgin olive oil the Chef used in this recipe is Academia Barilla’s Monti Iblei, available also online at the Academia Barilla online store.

Buon appetito from Academia Barilla, and kudos to Modio Media for the great movie production!

We are pleased to introduce to you a new series of blog posts that we hope will entertain and inspire you across the entire year: The Ingredient of the Month.

You know Italian cuisine is all about fresh ingredients, and every Italian Chef will tell you that one of the most important steps in cooking actually starts outside of the kitchen, browsing local marketplaces and farmers’ markets in search of the freshest ingredients of the season.

With the support of the Chef Team of the Academia Barilla Culinary School, we’ll introduce to you each month a fresh ingredient that can be of inspiration for your culinary creations.

Today Chef Matteo Carboni will introduce the ingredient of the month for the month of January: a classic veggie of the Italian cuisine, the califlower, in a local Italian version called “Cavolo Romanesco“, a variety also available in the United States.

Chef Carboni shows us in this video how to properly clean the cauliflower, that doesn’t have to be cut with a knife. First step is to take the leaves off, then chop the bottom part and cutting away the inner core, so that it will be easier to get the flowers, by picking them from the bottom to the tip.

Chef’s final tip on cooking the cauliflower: you can eventually chop the biggest flowers in halves so that the flower pieces are more homogeneous and you can cook them all together.

Thank you Chef Matteo Carboni for the presentation of the Ingredient of the month. We will publish soon a cabbage recipe, so you can have a try with it.

We would like to hear from you about your experience, recipes and culinary creations using the califlower. Please feel free to send us your input using the comments of this post!

After publishing the first two clips from the documentary “And they came to Chicago: the Italian-American legacy” produced by Modio Media, here is the full food segment extracted from the documentary, starring Academia Barilla Italian Culinary Specialist Mario Rizzotti.

Enjoy the video, courtesy of Modio Media, and also available on the Academia Barilla channel on YouTube.

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Remember that the documentary is available online on DVD at the Modo Media website.