World cuisine Italy
There's no doubt that Italian food is popular among consumers, especially as pasta and pizza are some of the nation's favourite dishes. So how about capitalising on this and introducing Italian days or nights - or even weeks! The good news is that Italian food is easy to prepare. A simple menu is to offer different varieties of pasta and a list of sauces to go with them, then customers can choose the pasta and the sauce.
Italian pasta and sauces
Bar and Restaurant Foods' Classic Selection offers a wide choice from Creamy Mushroom Sauce, Stilton Cheese Sauce, as well as Alfredo and Napolitana.
Dolmio frozen filled pastas, pasta sauces, frozen pouches and pastes from MasterFoodServices.
Knorr's Collezione Italiana range of pasta accompanied by Italian style pasta sauces can be cooked from frozen or defrosted.
Pasta includes Ravioli al Salmone (smoked salmon); Ravioli con funghi Porcini (porcini mushrooms) and Ravioli con Formaggi (riccota, emmental and gorgonzola cheese); five tortelloni - Tortelloni alla Carne (beef and pork); Tortelloni all Ricotta e Spinaci (ricotta cheese and spinach); Tortelloni al Pesto (olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts); Tortelloni alla Patate (potato) and Cappelletti con Prosciutto Crudo (prosciutto ham and grana cheese).
The sauces include: Amatriciana (smoked bacon and chillies); Quattro formaggi (four cheeses); Mushroom, Pesto (olive oil, parmesan and pine nut); Pancetta carbonara (Pancetta bacon and Italian cheese) and Florentina (cream and fresh spinach).
Pastafesti is a new concept from Caterplan backed by a full support package. It features products from the Knorr and Napolina ranges. A bank of Italian style recipes can be created by combining any one of the 32 pasta shapes from the Knorr range with one of seven ready to use pasta sauces.
Point of sale material is available.
Wicearns Cearns & Brown - eleven varieties of pasta with plain, tricolor and verdi options from pasta shells, penne pasta and spirals to short cut macaroni and tagliatelle verdi. Available in 3 kilo packs.
The pasta sauce can be used on its own or added to cooked meat or vegetables. Available in 2 x 2.5 kilo slimline lamicon jars.
Lasagne sheets in plain, egg, plain verdi and egg verdi varieties with a choice of wholewheat and organic are available from Fazion UK. Packs range from 250g to 2kg.
Universe Foodservice, under the Meal Makers range: Tomato and Basil sauce in 2.2 litres and 1.1 litres.
Main meals
Plusfood, Fribo range: Tomato and Herb Pork Escalopes or Red Wine and Herb Turkey Fillets, both can be cooked in a few minutes by deep frying, shallow frying or oven baking.
Parma ham is classic Italian produce, which can be used to create recipes such as Parma Ham wrapped Sea Bass with Mixed Cannellini Beans, a simple recipe that only takes 20 minutes' cooking time. Genuine Parma ham, Prosciutto di Parma, is produced in the hills near Parma. More recipe ideas are available from the Parma Ham Information Bureau.
Brake Bros: Pasta, Broccoli and Tomato Bake, in boxes of 12.
HL Foodservice under the Hartley's brand: Pasta Conchiglia with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce; Pasta Rigatoni with Vegetables in Spicy Tomato Sauce and Pasta Fusilli with Tuna in Tomato Sauce.
Risottos
Brake Bros: Mediterranean risotto comprises rice combined with chopped tomatoes, spinach, onion, parmesan cheese and a blend of herbs and spices. Mushroom Risotto - whole button, sliced and cut mushrooms are blended in risotto rice. Both can be cooked in the microwave.
Universe Foodservice - Tosca risotto rice, which only takes 10 to 15 minutes to cook. In 1 x 5kg transparent bags.
Ready-made Italian meals
Jugg Foods offers dishes such as Tortellini alla Puttanesca combining bacon and sun dried tomato pasta parcels with a spicy tomato sauce.
Billy Boy: pasta dishes are quickly reheated in the microwave or conventional oven. There's Fresh Ravioli filled with porcini mushrooms covered in a mushroom sauce; Penne Pomodoro - penne pasta with a tomato sauce and Spicy meatballs in a pizzaiola sauce, served on a bed of spaghetti pasta.
Salads
Napolina - Tuscan Bean, Mediterranean Potato or Spiced Potato and Pea.
Larderfresh: range of salads such as Pasta with Pesto, Feta Cheese and Mixed Peppers and Pasta Cavatelli with Mediterranean Vegetables, both available in 1 x 2kg packs.
Snacks
WIOASTERS Oasters: the Vegetable Frittata sandwich filling is based on the classic Italian omelette recipe, light in colour and moist. It is cooked in rectangular tins, making it the right size for sandwich slices. Each weighs 100g and is supplied individually frozen in bags of ten, with six bags to an outer and a shelf life of six months.
Accompaniments
Sapori D'Italia - olives; vegetables like Pomodori Secchi, Insalata Mediterranean; pesto; creams and pates.
R.H.Amar: Filippo Berio organic olive oil in 6 x 1.5 litre, 250ml and 500ml glass bottles.
Olives et Al: smoked olives; virgin olive oils.
iB Food: Tornatore Extra Pesto, an authentic Ligurian extra virgin olive oil with basil and pine nuts. The oil can be used as a condiment to flavour fish, meat soups and sauces, as a dressing ingredient for salads, vegetables and pasta or to add a finishing touch to cheese dishes and risotto. Available in 750ml bottles.
Also from iB Food is Parmigiano-Reggiano, a rich, dark oil with a variety of culinary uses.
Universe Foodservice: a quick spray of Olive Mist will add pizzazz to salads, pasta and pizzas.
Desserts
Brake Bros offers a wide selection such as Banana and Amaretti Freezer Cheesecake; Passionfruit Freezercake; Bella Dolci Frutti di Bosco and Tiramisu.
Ice cream is also very traditional so serve Carte d'Or ice cream from Wall's in flavours such as Vanilla Toffee Crunch and Vanilla Chocolate Cookies Ice Cream or a Pineapple Sorbet. Brakes now has its exclusive Nestlé Cremeria brand of Italian ice cream in range of traditional flavours plus Rollo flavour. Delicious!
Drinks
Castello Italian beer; Peroni beers and San Pelegrino mineral water. Or there's Peroni Nastro Azzurro, the UK's leading Italian imported beer.
Coffee
Italian coffee at the end of a meal is a must so cappuccino and espresso comes into its own. The Rombouts Individual Filter Coffees gives the option of serving Italian style coffee alongside traditional filters one cup at a time. The new Italian Style Filters are made from specially roasted ground Continental beans and make a visual impact complete with Italian style filters and lids in red and green.
There's no doubt that Italian food is popular among consumers, especially as pasta and pizza are some of the nation's favourite dishes. So how about capitalising on this and introducing Italian days or nights - or even weeks! The good news is that Italian food is easy to prepare. A simple menu is to offer different varieties of pasta and a list of sauces to go with them, then customers can choose the pasta and the sauce.
Italian pasta and sauces
Bar and Restaurant Foods' Classic Selection offers a wide choice from Creamy Mushroom Sauce, Stilton Cheese Sauce, as well as Alfredo and Napolitana.
Dolmio frozen filled pastas, pasta sauces, frozen pouches and pastes from MasterFoodServices.
WITUSCAN, WINAPOLINA, WIPENNE
Knorr's Collezione Italiana range of pasta accompanied by Italian style pasta sauces can be cooked from frozen or defrosted.
Pasta includes Ravioli al Salmone (smoked salmon); Ravioli con funghi Porcini (porcini mushrooms) and Ravioli con Formaggi (riccota, emmental and gorgonzola cheese); five tortelloni - Tortelloni alla Carne (beef and pork); Tortelloni all Ricotta e Spinaci (ricotta cheese and spinach); Tortelloni al Pesto (olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts); Tortelloni alla Patate (potato) and Cappelletti con Prosciutto Crudo (prosciutto ham and grana cheese).
The sauces include: Amatriciana (smoked bacon and chillies); Quattro formaggi (four cheeses); Mushroom, Pesto (olive oil, parmesan and pine nut); Pancetta carbonara (Pancetta bacon and Italian cheese) and Florentina (cream and fresh spinach).
Pastafesti is a new concept from Caterplan backed by a full support package. It features products from the Knorr and Napolina ranges. A bank of Italian style recipes can be created by combining any one of the 32 pasta shapes from the Knorr range with one of seven ready to use pasta sauces.
Point of sale material is available.
WICEARNS Cearns & Brown - eleven varieties of pasta with plain, tricolor and verdi options from pasta shells, penne pasta and spirals to short cut macaroni and tagliatelle verdi. Available in 3 kilo packs.
The pasta sauce can be used on its own or added to cooked meat or vegetables. Available in 2 x 2.5 kilo slimline lamicon jars.
WIFAZION Lasagne sheets in plain, egg, plain verdi and egg verdi varieties with a choice of wholewheat and organic are available from Fazion UK. Packs range from 250g to 2kg.
Universe Foodservice, under the Meal Makers range: Tomato and Basil sauce in 2.2 litres and 1.1 litres.
