Lemon Thyme Ricotta Gnocchi

 

I've made gnocchi with ricotta before but this gnocchi was a case of 'use up ingredients in the fridge and don't go buy more' so I didn't do the one I usually do!  I was really happy with how this one turned out though.  I'm not sure on the exact measurements as I was sort of adding a bit here and there but it seems to be pretty forgiving!  So, if you are comfortable with that sort of cooking, here's where you could start ... 

This recipe didn't make a whole lot.  For our family of four, we were all full but we also had a veggie and some garlic bread.  There were no seconds ... and we were all wishing there were!  Next time, I'll double the recipe!

250g ricotta (I didn't have quite 250g as I was using up an open ricotta!) 

1 cup of flour, or more

fresh thyme, leaves picked off ... as little or as much as you like.

rind of one lemon

30g finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

I read somewhere that it's good to get as much moisture out of the ricotta as possible when using it for gnocchi so I spooned it all into a small colander/strainer and put that in a bowl in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour before I started making the gnocchi.  Don't know if it was necessary but a fair bit of liquid did drain out so I'd probably do it again next time.

Mix the flour, thyme, Parmesan cheese and lemon rind in a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre and add the ricotta and egg.  I used my fingers to mix everything together until it became a dough.  I did add a little bit more flour as I went because it was really really sticky!  Make sure you don't overwork the dough or it will become tough and no one wants tough gnocchi!

Put the dough onto a well floured surface and form into a square ... well, mine was more like a rectangle, but I was aiming for square!  (Add flour as needed so the dough doesn't stick to your hands or your work space!)  Cut that into four segments.  Roll each segment into a long snake ... you know, like you used to do with playdough?! Cut each snake into small pieces which can be boiled just like that or rolled out on a gnocchi board or back of a fork. 

Add gnocchi to boiling water and cook until they float.  Normally, we'd stop there but last night I tried frying them in garlic butter as well.  YUM!  I drained them in a little colander and then popped them straight into a fry pan with butter and three smashed but whole garlic cloves.  I shook the pan around and coated them in the butter.  It gave them a little extra flavor and a bit of a crispy coating!  So good.  I did half the gnocchi that way, half just boiled.  We liked them both ways. 

 

Top with your favorite sauce.  We love Craig's Bacon Mushroom Sauce and Winter Veg Sauce as two options!  YUM.  The one pictured above is a creamy roasted tomato sauce. 

Arancini

I originally posted this back in 2011 ... but I made it again today and thought it was worth revisiting!

**

Last year at Rory's company Christmas party, I chose arancini for my meal. I chose it because it was a food I had never heard of and I love trying new stuff that sounds yum. I am so glad I did! I loved it, but I haven't had it since. Well, the other night we made risotto. A delicious mushroom risotto that I will totally make again. It is on page 66 of Jamie's 30 Minute Meals cookbook. I highly recommend trying it. Make the whole meal! The salad was so yum (you can see the few leftovers in the photo below) and the dessert .... well, there weren't any leftovers of that!!

We had some leftovers of the risotto so I decided to try my hand at arancini. It was so stinkin' easy ! Here's how you can do it too ...

leftover risotto, I had enough to make 10 golf ball size arancini
flour
egg, beaten
panko breadcrumbs

Roll the risotto into a little bit bigger than golf ball size balls. Then coat with flour, egg and panko. (here's a little video if you want to see it done ... I watched this and decided to use the spoon like she did in the egg ... it was a good tip !)

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan to medium-ish heat (adjust heat as needed) and fry arancini until golden. I turned them onto every side ... they were actually a little more square than round by the time I finished ! haha

I served with leftover salad (it was a spinach/pine nut/sun dried tomato/cucumber with a lemon balsamic dressing salad) and I sprinkled grated romano cheese over the salad and the arancini.

Sooooooo goooooood !!

PS ... you can use ANY risotto you like.

**

Below: Original photo as posted in 2011.

Triple Tomato Sauce Pasta

Mom posted this a while back ... I'm re posting it because it had kinda gotten lost.
I just tried it tonight ... here's my photo.
It's delicious.
AND
SUPER EASY to make !
Try it ....

Here is a super easy recipe I tried last evening. It was yummy! It took only the time needed to cook the pasta. A side caesar salad and dinner was ready!

Penne with Triple Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
1 pound penne
2 medium tomatoes (5 ounces each), cut into 1-inch dice
4 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons tomato paste (I had half a can, so used it all...then needed an extra drizzle of olive oil to make the blender whirl it all)
4 large basil leaves
1 garlic clove (I of course used more!)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the penne until al dente.
Meanwhile, in a blender, combine the diced tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, garlic and olive oil. Puree until smooth. Drain the pasta, put it back into the hot pan. Pour the sauce over it, add the salt and pepper, and toss well to coat. Serve the pasta piping hot. (If you are going to serve it in a bowl, I'd suggest heating the bowl in the oven first.)

I grated lots of fresh romano cheese to lavishly sprinkle on as it was the only protein of the meal. Good call, I thought!

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/august-2007-penne-with-triple-tomato-sauce This is the site where I found the recipe...I'll visit there again!

Pastina in Brodo

This is a favorite from my childhood.
I hated soup as a child.
I loved this soup.

I don't know if I made it the way my Mom made it but I loved this.
Alia requested it for her night ...

I started with a 2L box of salt reduced chicken stock. Added to that 4 cups of water (next time I think I'll add about 6 or 8 cups ) and 3 tsp of chicken stock powder (you could use boullion/stock cubes too). Threw in a carrot, 3 big cloves of garlic and a quartered red onion. Salt and Pepper too. Brought that to the boil and then let it simmer til I had finished the other parts of dinner ... 30 minutes ? an hour ? I then removed the veggies, added the pastina (tiny star shaped pasta that I've found in whole wheat !) and boiled til the pastina was cooked. Served in bowls, topped with parmesan cheese.

Cannelloni

What you will need:
Uncut strips of pasta made according to
these directions
(For tips on how to made the pasta without
a pasta maker, see the video at the end)

Mix together cottage cheese
parmesan cheese
one egg
pepper and italian seasoning

Cut pasta strips into sections
add filling
roll and seal with a little water

Place in lightly greased glass baking receptacle
Cover with spaghetti sauce of your choice
Cover THAT with mozzarella cheese
and a wee bit more parmesan.

Bake at 375 F
for 30 minutes.
Or until cheese is brown and bubbly
and you're dying of hunger!

Let rest a few minutes
or risk burning your tongue
most severely.

Serve with garlic bread

Home-made Pasta

What you'll need:
*A pasta maker (we picked one up at a local thrift store and it just so happens to be an authentic Italian pasta machine. Sweet action.)
*Flour
*Eggs
*Salt
*Clean towels
*An assistant (it's probably not impossible to make this solo, but it sure is a TON easier to do with help)

On a clean counter top, measure out 1 and 1/4 cups flour (we haven't experimented with any type of whole wheat flour so I can't say how it would do in this). Make a well in the center and shake in a bit of salt. Add two eggs (if you have tiny eggs, you may also need to add a little bit of water, but most likely you won't. Resist the urge to overwet this!). Using a fork, mix the eggs into the flour. At this point it's nice to have an assistant to help you throw flour at any escaping egg. Be sure to shout "Dam it [assistant's name]!" at every opportunity.
When it gets too difficult to continue mixing with the fork, switch to hands. Knead the dough until it is smooth like a baby's bottom. Your hands may fall off. If you feel this might happen, make your assistant knead a while. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces. Take one of the pieces and run it through the widest setting on your pasta machine. Fold in thirds and run through again. Repeat this until it seems good to move on (seriously, I can't really describe how I know when it's done being kneaded by the machine. You'll just have to figure out what "right" feels like). Run the dough through the machine (without folding) setting the machine to the next narrowest setting each pass. Here is where you DEFINITELY want help. We have found with our machine that the second to skinniest level is the stopping point - any thinner and the pasta gets hard to cut.

Lay out the giant noodle on a clean towel and let dry for about 10 minutes (it will darken slightly). Repeat the flattening with each piece of dough. You can now do whatever you want with your noodles. We have an attachment that makes fettuccine, spaghetti or ravioli. You can also roll it up and cut it to the desired width with a very sharp knife (I've never done this, but I saw it on the travel channel).

Once the noodles are cut they can be thrown immediately into a giant pot of raucously boiling water. The noodles are done when they float. This will take approximately 4.7 seconds. No, seriously, they are done in a heartbeat.

Top with a simple sauce and enjoy!

One recipe feeds 2 adults. Three of this recipe feeds 7.

Foods of The World - March 2009

Ok people. India was not a huge success. I don't know why. Maybe we can just keep posting Indian recipes as we make them and label them using the 'Foods of the World - India 'label so we can find them easily. Speaking of which, I've added buttons to the side bar for each of the Foods of the World countries. If you click on them it will show you all of the recipes labeled with that country. Keep 'em coming, even if that month is finished !! I will still be posting recipes from Spain ... I can't believe I've taken so long to post them ! I've just been a total slacker when it comes to this food blog. I've been cooking some amazing food ... and so want to share the recipes with you ... and I will ... soon ... I promise hope.

How about the rest of you ? What have you been cooking ? I'm sure that you've all been cooking heaps worth sharing ...

I thought I might do something a bit easier. Maybe Indian food was a bit labor intensive ! I don't know ... but let's move on ! Let's cook ITALIAN FOOD this month !! Woo Hoo !!!

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. Ok, it's not a secret. Who cares ? It sounds better to say it is ! My sister, Ellie, one of the authors of this blog is ITALIAN ! I'm serious. She was born in Italy. Yep ! My brother and I were born in Spain. She was born in Italy and our youngest sister Hannah was born in DC. My parents love to tell people that none of their children were born in any of the 50 States ...

Anyway ... I'm hoping to see some great Italian posts from my great Italian sister ! That's her in the photo above ( it's not in Italy though ... it's in Spain) ... isn't she cute ?

I know I said this last month, and I didn't do it, but I'm going to try and cook one Italian meal a week and post the recipe !! My first one this week is an experiment, in the crock pot, I'll tell you how it turns out !

OK ... get cooking ! Get posting ! Get linking !! (in the comments section)

See you tomorrow for Menu Plan Monday ...
Anyone else planning menus ?
I'd love to know what you're cooking ...

Spinach and Tofu Lasagna

I'm not convinced that Italians would put tofu in their lasagna and therefore cannot vouch for the authenticity of the Italian-ness of this recipe. I can vouch for it's deliciousity and at the very least will claim it to be some sort of Italian-Asian fusion and therefore close enough to post as Italian.

The inspiration for the recipe came out of a cookbook on my mother's shelf many many years ago. I do not remember the name of it and have made so many adaptions over the years that I think by now it is pretty much my own ...

Here's how I make it ...

1 (big) jar of Pasta Sauce - I like Bertolli Five Brothers Oven Roasted Garlic and Onion !!
8 ounces lasagna noodles
10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach ... thawed and drained

Mix the following to make the tofu/cheese mixture.
1 cup tofu
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese

Mozzarella cheese, grated - to put on top

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Assemble ingredients in a 9x13 baking dish in the following order. Small amount of pasta sauce, noodles, 1/3 of the spinach, 1/3 of the tofu/cheese mixture, pasta sauce. Repeat. And repeat again ! Finish with sauce and then top with moz cheese. Bake for about 40 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Oh so easy asparagus alfredo pasta

(Edited later by Bonnie to add photo...)

This recipe claimed to be fast and easy.......it truly only takes as long as takes to boil the pasta! Dinner on the table in 30 minutes just can't be beat! Here is the link to the original recipe that I found on line, and following is how I now make it!

Ingredients
1 pound asparagus
1 pound fettuccine
4-5 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Directions
1. Snap the tough ends off the asparagus and discard them. Cut the asparagus spears into 1-inch pieces. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the fettuccine and asparagus stems until almost done, about 8 minutes. Add the asparagus tips; cook until it and the pasta are just done, about 4 minutes longer. (Don't worry about the longer cooking time...the addition of the asparagus slows the process)

2. In a large saute pan, heat the butter, cream, salt, pepper, and parmesean cheese till hot and bubbly.

3. Drain the pasta and asparagus. Toss into the sauce. Serve with additional Parmesan.