It has been a fantastic week out of the office excited about the opportunity to be in the kitchen and behind the stove everyday.  A wave of memories came rushing back this week of my younger days as a young cook in the Napa Valley.  My kitchen hasn’t seen this much activity since recipe testing for the ‘Authentic Volpi’ Italian cookbook.

Piles of vegetables have covered the butcher block island in the kitchen needing to be cleaned, diced and sliced in every way, shape and form. In addition, with all of the ingredients sandwiched into the pantry you would have thought I was operating a corner grocery from my home.  I can easily say that 95% of the Italian specialty meats available in local markets and deli’s have found their way into the final dishes during the process.

I would first and foremost like to say ‘Thank You’ to everyone that submitted recipes for the Authentic Volpi cooking contest; it is a joy as a cook to see all the diversity in cooking techniques, regional food influence and utilization of product.  The recipes that were submitted covered a wide spectrum from simple to complex, fresh and frozen ingredients, professional and homemade recipe applications even seasonality played a role.  The recipes turned out great and between testing, tasting and enjoyment of the final dishes, the one thing I hadn’t counted on was the pre-Holiday expanding waist line!

To keep the suspense no longer, the top 5 winning recipes are:

1.    Savory Cassoulet with Volpi Pancetta
2.    Volpi Prosciutto and cheese Soufflés
3.    Stuffed Pork Fillet with Truffles and Volpi Trio Set
4.    Volpi Milano Panzanella
5.    Peppered Goat Cheese Crostini with Roasted Red Grapes and Crispy Volpi Prosciutto

GRAND PRIZE WINNING RECIPE:

SAVORY CASSOULET with VOLPI PANCETTA

We’ll be featuring each of these recipes on the Volpi website for everyone to enjoy and acknowledge our winners.  Thank you to everyone that participated, this was surely a big success for us.

Grazie Mille,

Chef Michael