Gnocchi with Pesto

Gnocchi and pesto are two of my favorite recent discoveries. I had gnocchi for the first time last summer at a little cafe in Brooklyn - unbelievable. How had I never tried them before is beyond me. A few months later I decided to try to make them on my own with pesto, and now I can't imagine my life without pesto. I seriously can eat it by the forkful. It grosses the boyfriend out, but yummmm. I kinda wing it when I make gnocchi and pesto. The recipes are pretty easy and very very tasty - and I love eating the leftovers for the next few days!




Gnocchi

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe

4 big potatoes
2 eggs
Flour

Wash the potatoes and chop into big pieces so they will cook faster. Bring enough water to cover the potatoes to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain and let cool. Once cool, the potato skins should peel off easily.

After the skins have been removed, mash the potatoes however works best. I use my hand mixer but if you have a ricer or a masher that should work too, as long as you get rid of all the chunks you possibly can.

When the potatoes are smooth, crack in 2 eggs and some flour (I start with a cup or so). Knead until everything is incorporated. The mixture needs to get to the point that its not sticky any more, so keep adding flour by the cupful and kneading in until your mixture is not sticky.

When the mixture is smooth, grab a big handful and roll into a rope just like you used to to with Play Doh when you were a kid. I like big fat gnocchi so i roll big fat ropes - but not too big, because you want them to cook through. Cut into bite sized pieces. Drop by the batch into a pot of boiling water; the gnocchi will sink. When they rise to the top they are done; remove with a slotted spoon.

This recipe makes a LOT - enough for dinner and 2 lunches for the 2 of us PLUS more to freeze. Adjust accordingly.




Pesto

1 pack basil
Garlic (I used the chopped stuff)
Olive oil
Parmesan Reggiano cheese

I don't use pine nuts because they are too expensive. I grab a big sharp knife and chop everything together until its a nice paste. Garlic to your taste; I like lots of it. Add enough olive oil so that you form a coherent paste, but not so much that its oozy. Enjoy!!

Incoming!

I haven't been good lately... I've been cooking, just not posting :) I'm still getting the hang of this take-pictures-of-your-food-so-it-can-go-on-the-internet thing. So weird. But I have a big week of baking coming up... a cake for a friend's birthday on Thursday AND pie for 3.14.2009. I don't know what kind of cake I'm going to make yet... thinking something with an obscene amount of chocolate... and the pie will be Boston Creme. Yum! But, long story short, things should be picking up around here verrrrry soon!

Rugelach: Fail. Then Redemption.

First of all... I like Jews. I think they are great people. I love Paul Simon. I love my Jewish boyfriend, and I love love love being around for his holidays, because if its one thing Jews like to do, its eat. My kind of people. I can go on and on about the merits of a good kugel, or what I think makes latkes perfect, or why challah really does make the best french toast. One thing, though, that I think is sorely lacking in Jewish cooking is dessert. I'm a chocolate lover, and things like honey cake and hamantaschen and mandelbrot just don't do it for me. Le sigh.

One dessert I had really enjoyed was rugelach. Rugelach has been floating around the food blogging world ever since the Tuesdays with Dorie group made them, and I thought they would be a perfect way to get rid of the extreme amount of jam I had sitting around my house: 1 jar of blueberry, 2 strawberry, 1 blackberry, 1 orange, and 1 grape. Sheesh, and I don't even really like jelly!

Let me tell you... it wasn't pretty.

I followed Dorie's recipe for the cookie exactly. It came out perfectly... a little flaky, with a delicious cream cheesey flavor. The filling I just kinda made up as I went, mainly because I wanted to get rid of as much jelly as possible so I wasn't wasting any time with nuts or fruit!

4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and mix, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide into half. Shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

Shape the cookies: On a lightly floured surface, roll 1 round of dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle.

Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and spread with jam.

Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or triangles.

Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent.

So this is where things started to go wrong... I definitely did not spread "a thin gloss of jam over the dough." I slathered it on there. I wanted this jelly out of my fridge! Bad move.

Bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350F.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden.

Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

The first batch was a MESS! The dough had unwrapped and all the jelly had come spilling out all over the place.




This guy was the worst... he was literally a flat cookie with some jelly in the middle. Arg!




But, like any good cook, I tried to learn from my mistakes. With the next round of dough I was MUCH more careful with my jelly application, and they came out great!



Yum!

Banana Bread

We all have one: a go-to recipe for Banana Bread. Whenever I see a few sad looking bananas browning on my countertop I know I can dig through my mom's recipe folder and find my family's recipe, the same one that my grandmother taught my mom how to make. Except this time, with these sad looking bananas, that tattered piece of paper was about 2500 miles away (and my mother is notorious for not picking up/returning phone calls) and I had to go looking for a new recipe.

I had a few important constraints when looking for a recipe, namely in ingredients. I had 3 bananas, half a stick of butter, and absolutely no motivation to go to the store. Besides the normal cast of characters this recipe calls for plain yogurt - genius! - giving it a nice moist texture.






Banana Bread



Original Recipe found here


2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray


Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended.
Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.