Making Gnocchi

This is my third attempt at gnocchi making.  First time was at a supper club with friends.  We used a traditional recipe and I think it turned out pretty well.  It was a challenge to cook for a crowd, to keep the gnocchi from sticking together and becoming mushy.  We still ate them with gusto though.   

As with most things in the kitchen, practice is required to get the hang of it and feel comfortable with the technique.  I've been practicing and it's getting easier.  I still wouldn't say I've mastered it.  I found a recipe that calls for ricotta cheese, instead of the cooked potato and because I had some cheese that I needed to use I thought I'd give it a try.  I found it to be a lot easier than the potato recipe.  Here's how it came together:

I mixed the ricotta cheese, egg, olive oil and salt and pepper in a bowl.  Then I added plain flour, a half a cup at a time, until the dough was soft and held together.  I placed it on a floured mat and kneaded it a few times, then cut it into six pieces.

I rolled each piece into a long rope,

and then cut them into small pieces.  

I rolled each little piece of dough over and down the back of a fork.

The ridges are for collecting the wonderful sauce that you serve with the pasta.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and drop the gnocchi in.  When they float, they are ready.  It only takes a minute or so.  Drain and serve with your favorite pasta sauce.  At the moment, mine just happens to be Giada De Laurentiis' marinara.  I'll blog that one soon.

I like these little pasta pillows!  I've learned that they need to be eaten as soon as they come out of the pot, which means sauce and anything else you want to have with them must be ready and waiting.  This recipe makes more than we can eat, so I've put some in the freezer (uncooked) and the next time I plan to try a copycat version of Olive Garden's Chicken and Gnocchi soup.  Yum!

The recipe can be found here.

*Take the Time Goals - #17 Eat less meat.  #20 Make pasta once a month.

My Most Favorite Meatless Meal Ever

Today is your lucky day.  I'm going to share my most favorite meatless meal ever!  I've been making this for years -even before I was interested in eating less meat. So, you might ask, what qualifies it for the best meatless meal ever in my book?  I will tell you.
1- It involves pasta, which I dearly love.
2- It's healthy.
3- It takes about fifteen minutes, tops, to prepare.  I can manage this one when I'm too tired to do anything else.
4- It can be made with pantry or fresh ingredients, which means I can make it year around, which I do.
5- It has feta cheese in it.  I heart feta...a lot.
6- It's super easy, yet tastes great!  Everyone I've ever served this to loved it, which takes me to #7.
7- It can be dressed up for company. (Although this changes it's meatless status).
8- It makes your house smell great! (it's the garlic and oregano)
9- It's a one pot meal.
10- It instantly transports me back to Greece, where I took a little trip once upon a time and fell in love with  all things Greek.  Any place that sells feta cheese in huge chunks from wooden barrels and has olive oil on every table is my kind of place.  Add to that ,a few sheep grazing on green hillsides, the bluest water you'll ever see and ancient ruins around each corner.  I'm telling you that place is amazing . See, just thinking about this recipe takes me back to Greece.

Now, are you in the mood for a little Greek food?

Start with tomatoes.  If it's summer and your kitchen counter looks anything like mine,

you'll definitely want to use fresh tomatoes.  This recipe is really the very best when you use fresh tomatoes.  But if it's not tomato season, you can sure get by with a couple cans of diced tomatoes, well drained.  The rest of the ingredient list is as follows: lemon juice, green onions, feta cheese, oregano, olive oil and fresh garlic. 

Today I decided to use some cherry tomatoes.  I halved those, chopped my garlic, green onions and parsley.  It's important to have everything chopped and ready to go before you turn on the heat in your skillet. This cooks in a flash.  

As soon as my pasta is almost done, I start the sauce on the stovetop.  In a skillet, I heat a couple T. of olive oil and then add my garlic and oregano.  This is when your house begins to smell really good.  Stir and watch closely that the garlic doesn't brown.  Browned garlic will ruin the recipe, so you might as well throw it out and start over if it happens.  I speak from a bit of experience here.  If you look closely, you'll see I almost messed up this time, but it turned out ok.

After a couple of minutes, add juice from a lemon, chopped scallions, chunks of feta cheese and at the very end, scatter fresh parsley over the top.  Stir and after a minute or two, turn off the heat.  You don't want the tomatoes to get mushy or all the cheese to melt.   And that is it.  I've been known to throw a few capers and kalamata olives in this sauce and even a handful of fresh spinach if I have it, but it's delicious without those things too.

Now if you want to dress this up, you can add peeled and cleaned shrimp at the end and cook a couple minutes longer until shrimp is pink.  Shrimp cooks really fast, so the sauce will still taste fresh when it's done.   Of course, it loses it's meatless status at this point, but it's mighty tasty and elevates the meal a notch or two.

Served over your choice of pasta - angel hair, spaghetti, linguine or even penne - it's ready in fifteen minutes flat.  Best meatless meal ever.  Go ahead and enjoy a little taste of Greece tonight!

Margarita Pizza

One of the loveliest things about summer is having fresh basil right outside my door.  I jumped the gun a little in the spring and bought some of those healthy "green house" basil plants at Lowe's, (knowing full well it was too early), along with all my other fresh herbs and then sure enough we had a cold night...and that was the end of the basil.  Everything else survived just fine, but basil is delicate.

After waiting a few weeks, I replanted and now I have a number of nice healthy plants.  In order to have basil all summer, I have to keep trimming it back constantly, otherwise it gets tall and lanky and wants to go to seed.  Constant trimming is a good thing though, allowing me to keep a glass of fresh basil in water on my kitchen counter and use it in all kinds of ways.  Later in the season, I will make pesto for the freezer, but now I'm using it in salads, on sandwiches and on pizza.

Being the pizza fan that I am, I would like most any kind you could set before me.  Veggie, meat lovers, cheese lovers, you name it- I like it.  But in the summer, I don't really need more than tomatoes, cheese and basil.  That combination is known as the Margarita pizza, thus named for the queen consort of Italy, Margarita of Savoy. The colors represent the Italian flag and custom has it that it originated in Naples.  I had the great opportunity of eating this pizza in Naples a few years ago and doubt seriously if I could ever replicate that taste.  But when I bite into this pizza, it reminds me of that time and makes me long to return.  In fact, one of the things on my bucket list is to rent a house in the middle of Italy and take excursions north and south,  eating my way from the top of Italy to the heel of the boot. Doesn't that sound fun?  Maybe one day.  For now I'll indulge here at home in Margarita pizza, as long as the basil holds out.

I start out with a good pizza dough, rising in the bowl.

Then I make a fresh pizza sauce that's simple and delicious.  I begin with whole tomatoes, processed in the food processor.  To a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat, I add crushed garlic, until the house smells like an Italian bistro and then add the pureed tomatoes, oregano, a little salt and sugar.  While this is cooking down on the stove and thickening a little,

I press out the dough and get ready to top it with the magic ingredients;

fresh tomato sauce, basil and mozzerella.

First I spread out the sauce,

 and then scatter the basil leaves and pieces of mozzarella.  You might be wondering if you can use the shredded cheese in the plastic bags from the store, and of course you could, but it won't taste authentic by any means.  This pizza really needs fresh mozzarella. 

And for good measure, I cover the top with freshly grated parmesan reggiano.  That's always a good thing, right?   Now it's ready to pop into a hot oven and in a few minutes it will be time to eat.

While I wait, I package the remainder of the pizza dough to put into the freezer for another time.  Making double portions and freezing one is a nice gift to give yourself.  I love having frozen dough ready to pull out on a busy day.

Now there's just enough time to throw together a quick salad and dinner's served.

You can see this pizza has a nice thick crust.  I make it that way because someone I love thinks that's the best part.

Pizza Dough

2 cups warm water

5 t. instant yeast ( I like SAF)

5 - 5 1/2 cups unbleached flour 

2 t. sugar

2 t. salt

4 T. olive oil

Place water in bowl.  Add oil, sugar, salt, flour and then yeast.  

Mix and knead 5 minutes.  Form into a ball and place in a greased

bowl, turning dough to grease all sides.  Put in warm place, covered

with a towel to rise for about 40- 60 minutes, until doubled.  Keep an
eye on the dough, because it make take less time than that. Instant yeast
is an amazing thing!   Punch dough down and let rest for a couple minutes.
 Spread onto greased pizza pan or cornmeal dusted baking stone.

Makes 2 large pizzas

Pizza Sauce

3 T. olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 large can whole tomatoes, processed until smooth

1 t. sugar

1/2 t. dried oregano

1/4 t. salt

Heat oil over medium heat.  Cook garlic, stirring constantly so it doesn't 

burn- about 1 minute.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about

30 minutes or until thickened.  This sauce also doubles and freezes well.

Meatless Monday - Black Bean Burgers

So have you heard of Meatless Monday?   It's a national movement to help people eat less meat and improve their own health and the health of the planet.  Most of us eat too much meat and would be healthier if we would cut back and enjoy more veggies and grains.  I've been interested in this for some time now and we usually eat meatless three or four days a week.  I've been gathering some great recipes and thought I would begin to share some on the blog and help spread the message of Meatless Monday.

There are a ton of recipes for veggie burgers.  Some good, some not so good.  But this one is extra good if you are a fan of tex-mex food.  And I am.  I adapted this recipe for Black Bean Cakes from a Cuisine at Home magazine and serve them with mexican rice and slaw.  It's a tasty combination.  We don't eat them on a bun, but you could if you wanted it to be more like a burger.

I make the rice first and cook it in my ricer cooker.  Of course this can be done on the stove top, but I love my rice cooker.   Start off with chopped carrots, onions, celery and garlic. 

These are sauteed with tomato paste, a bay leaf and cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper.

While this is sauteing, I take the rest of the tomato paste in tablespoon measurements and put them in an ice cube tray.  I've found if I freeze these little cubes, it's easy to pop out one or two as needed and defrost in the microwave.  It's rare that a recipe calls for an entire can of tomato paste and if I put the remainder in the refrigerator, when I pull it out to use later, it's often growing fuzzy stuff.  Yuck!  I hate to waste food, so frozen cubes of tomato paste work much better.  I also keep pesto, lemon juice and chicken broth in the freezer in the same way.  Works great when I need just a little for a recipe.

I transfer the sauteed veggies to the rice cooker and add the rice, chicken broth and spices.  The reason I love my rice cooker is because at this point, I can totally forget about it while I make the cakes and slaw. Be careful to remember to take out the bay leaf before you serve it.  I am bad about forgetting that, and it would be okay if I were the one who ended up with it on my plate, but usually someone else gets that gift, and biting into a bay leaf isn't a nice surprise.

Into a bowl, I put the beans first and mash half of them with a potato masher or fork, leaving some beans whole.  This makes for a nicely textured burger.

I grind up tortilla chips in the food processor and use that as the binder to hold the cakes together.

To this I grate a little onion,  and add chopped red pepper, an egg and spices.

Shape into patties and fry in a skillet until they are heated through and lightly browned on each side.

 While they are browning, I make the slaw, by shredding the cabbage. 

The sauce for the slaw is made in the food processor with scallions, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice and

sour cream. This combination of flavors screams mexican!  I wouldn't be interested in eating this slaw on

it's own, but it's really good with the rice and bean cakes.  

With a few slices of avocado on the side, it makes a great meal and no one will be missing the meat!

Black Bean Cakes with Mexican Rice and Slaw

For the Rice:

1/3 cup each of onion, carrot and celery, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 T. tomato paste

1/2 t. each of salt, ground cumin and paprika

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup white rice ( I use brown - it takes longer to cook)

1 cup chicken broth or water

Saute veggies, garlic, tomato paste, spices and bay leaf in 1 T. olive oil in a saucepan for 2 minutes.

Stir in the rice and broth.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from

heat and let stand, covered until ready to serve.  Fluff rice and remove bay leaf.

For the black bean cakes:

1 can black beans, drained, rinsed and divided

1 egg

1/4 cup corn tortilla chips, ground fine

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced

2 T. onion, grated

1/2 t. each of salt, cumin and chili powder

Mash 1/2 cup beans and egg in a bowl.  Add remaining beans, chips, bell pepper, onion and seasonings.

Refrigerate mixture for 10 minutes if needed to firm up the consistency. ( I didn't have to do this)

Form into round cakes and fry in 2 T. oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat until heated through and 

browned on each side.  

For the slaw:

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced ( I used a little less than this)

10 sprigs of fresh cilantro

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

juice of 1 lemon

2 cups cabbage, shredded

salt to taste

Puree the first 5 ingredients for the slaw in the food processor; toss with cabbage and then season with

salt.