Unboxing Italy with Chef Craig Harding & S. Pellegrino

In an online culinary experience with an extra tasty at home add-on, La Palma Celebrity Chef Craig Harding, S. Pellegrino and Sobrii brought foodies and cocktail fans from across Canada together, and the results were Italy Unboxed.

Named a Toronto Life Best New Restaurant, La Palma has not only won Chef Harding multiple accolades since opening, but it is also one of the city’s most Instagrammed restaurants, and that doesn’t even include the pictures of the amazing food!

Chef Harding himself is also known for his appearances on hit TV series including Opening Canada and Chef’s Bar on TLN plus The Food Network’s Chef in Your Ear. Chef Harding was also named a Torontonian to Watch by Toronto Sun.

Photo Credit: Solmaz Khosrowshahian

While the Italy Unboxed event featured free admission, registered guests were given the opportunity to order a special meal kit to coincide with Chef Harding’s real-time demonstration of making a 3-course meal, as inspired by his own popular La Palma menu.

“The Italy Unboxed virtual event not only allowed me to interact with food and restaurant lovers across the country, but it also gave me the opportunity to provide that old fashioned chef’s table experience, a display of the passion, thought and inspiration that goes into our food at La Paloma. It was a great combination of old school techniques and new school technology,” said Chef Harding.

The kit also included ingredients for use alongside an additional demonstration in S. Pellegrino & Sobrii mocktails, presented by mixologist Monica Carbonell of @liqculture.

Once the event concluded, special guests including Anna Napolitano, Christian Dare, Danielle Firestone and Solmaz Khosrowshahian inspired others to attempt and share their own creations by posting the delicious results derived from their own Italy Unboxed meal kits.

● Give your target markets a proper taste from the comfort of home.
● Increased engagement, impressions, reach, followings, video views and consumer experiences across numerous geological locations and demographics.
● Create a fully branded experience in one including safe, real-time guest interaction, educational moments, Q&A’s, giveaways, etc.
● Conversion of event footage and photos into repurposed content for your brand’s website and social channels.

Ingredients

½ pound of your favourite short noodle pasta, Cavatelli, Orecchiette, Penne, etc.
1-2 sausages depending on how meaty you like it
Soffrito – ¼ bulb fennel (diced), ¼ onion (diced), 2 garlic cloves chopped, ¼ cup olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup of butter
2 handfuls of your favourite bitter greens, raw dandelion or lightly blanched Rapini are my favourite
½ cup of grated cheese, we used Piave but Parmigiano is great too.

Method

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, for every 4 L of water add 2 Tbsp of Kosher salt

Remove your sausage from the casing and in a large pan brown your sausage meat in a little bit of olive oil. Make sure that you use a wooden spoon and break the sausage into small pieces

Set sausage aside in a bowl and on medium heat in the same pan add the soffrito ingredients and gently cook down until translucent. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to help soften the veg.

Next step is to get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan by adding the wine (de-glazing) and using the wooden spoon to make sure nothing is sticking.

Add the pasta to the water and cook with a rolling boil to your preferred doneness. Save a few ladles of pasta water before draining to add back into the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking add the greens and cook for one minute. Set pan aside.

The final step is to add the pasta, its cooking water and the butter back into the pan and cook on low for 1-2 minutes.

Divide into 2 bowls and top with grated cheese