World Pasta Day-part 5

A special thanks to everyone that came out to my book signing and ‘Holiday Dinner in Tuscany’ event at Whole Foods Market last night. It is always so nice to see familiar faces and great to meet new ones and hear how you are using the recipes in The Basic Art of Italian Cooking. There is another event coming up at a Whole Foods on November 8th….if you go to http://www.upcoming.org/ you will find it posted there, or email us at events@marialiberati.com
I was beginning to feel as if  I was the only person in the US celebrating World Pasta Day, but since beginning my blogs on World Pasta Day I have been flooded with emails from companies and people all over the world doing something special for World Pasta day.
For all of my friends in the San Francisco area if you are in or near the San Francsico, California area.Fuzio Universal Bistro, a ten year old San Francisco based restaurant company that made its mark in the industry by putting global toppings on all different forms of pasta (www.fuzio.com), is celebrating World Pasta Day with a high-end pasta giveaway.
In honor of World Pasta Day, Fuzio is giving Americans some “economic relief” with free macaroni & cheese. Every entree ordered at Fuzio on October 25th nets a free macaroni & cheese (a $6.95 value). Fuzio makes its macaroni & cheese with black forest ham and three cheeses – cambazola, sharp cheddar and parmesan. In these tough economic times when many restaurants are watching food costs, Fuzio is giving away a high quality, high value menu item (you don’t see that much these days).
World Pasta Day is celebrated at all of Fuzio’s ten locations – http://www.fuzio.com/location.html .
This  year’s celebration is the eleventh celebration of World Pasta Day — always on October 25th.
  The celebration is organized by the International Pasta
 Organization (IPO), an association of pasta manufacturers around the
 world.  (see www.internationalpasta.org for more information). This year’s event will be held in Istanbul and will also incldue, as it does every year, a scientific colloqium on the benefits of eating pasta.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog it will contain more info on World Pasta Day.  Here is another recipe to celebrate with using one of my favorites….orzo…….
ORZOTTO GAMBERETTI E CAVOLFIORE (orzo pasta, shrimp & cauliflower)
copyright, 2007,2008, Maria Liberati
The Basic Art of Italian Cooking
½ lb orzo pasta
1/2 lb cauliflower-cleaned, cut into florets and steamed
½ lb shrimp
1 pouch of saffron
2 scallions
3 tblsps extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable broth
Parmigiano-reggiano
1/ cup dry white wine
Fresh parsley
Place 2 tablespoons olive oil in sauté pan Chop scallions finely. Heat oil and place in scallions. Saute till they begin to turn golden. Add in ½ of teamed broccoli, uncooked orzo pasta to toast, stir with wooden spoon Pour in white wine let liquid evaporate. Then add in 1 cup vegetable broth and stir with wooden spoon. Using the same technique as cooking risotto, add in ½ cup of vegetable broth when liquid evaporates and repeat until orzo is al ‘dente’ (following cooking time directions on orzo package). Five minutes before cooking time is up- add in remaining steamed cauliflower, steamed, cleaned shrimp, packet of saffron. Stir until saffron is well blended in.
When finished cooking, remove from heat. Place 1 tsp butter on top, stir in. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmigiana-reggiano cheese, and finely chopped parsley. Stir. Let sit one minute before serving. For serving idea, serve in small glasses. Top with one whole shrimp and a cauliflower floret for decoration
Serve with a Spumante rose wine..
“Mangia Bene, Vivi Bene”
Maria
For more great recipes get your copy of the best selling book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking at https://www.marialiberati.com or for my  Holiday book on the Feast of the Seven Fishes go to  http://stores.lulu.com/marialiberati