When you have matters pressing, and a whole to-do list of tasks, such as: writing wedding thank-you cards, prepping Green Card application documents, and putting away the ever-growing pile of clothes and crap that live atop my dresser – THAT, my friends, is when it’s time to make an elaborate dinner. You huff away in the kitchen, flour smeared on your face like some flustered child contestant in a cooking show about children cooking, creating a larger mess than necessary, and then finally, when it’s ready, you sit and eat, and then you go about cleaning up. And you get to feel tired and accomplished and very busy, all the while the tasks on aforementioned to-do list remaining.
Okay, anyway, point is: I made gnocchi. I’ve made it a few times before, but a few years go by between each gnocchiventure. I once made gnocchi at a singles’ event! Some person had assembled a group of 6 single men and 6 single ladies and we all cooked together and then ate. At the end of the night, we all had to submit a form, with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ written next to the name of each of the male attendees. I wrote ‘no’ next to all the names, except the name of the organizer. I wrote a ‘maybe’ next to his name, but I never heard from him. At first I was ‘hahah’ about it and then I was kind of 😦 about it but hey, who cares because I GOT MARRIED ANYWAY, and I also came away with gnocchi intel.
A not-superb photo of my dinner. It probably looks prettier on a plate, and with cheese, and in natural light.
Also, I make the same thing for dinner often (variations of macrowbowls, mostly, and then fancier stuff for my Shabbos dinners), and then on other nights, we order sushi, or we go out, or I have eggs on toast, or my husby cooks, and quite well, I might add, smugly. I rarely have the time or energy to come up with a whole new thing. I left work early last night, stopped by Brooklyn Fare, the most expensive supermarket in the world, although I do have a rewards card there, so for every $300 I spend, I get $10 credit, which gets me a packet of dried mango.
I used this Smitten Kitchen recipe (quelle surprise) as my guide, and ignored all the stuff about soup. Because it’s a carby dish, and because I was skimping on protein for the evening, I thought I might as well load it with veggies. I chose Crimini mushrooms and zucchini, and bought a beautiful box of wild arugula to toss through the whole thing.
I chose 3 largish Yukon Gold potatoes for my gnocchi. They were actually so delicious and sweet, just on their own. The most important thing is, you want to boil them with the skin on, and drain them ASAP, because you want to avoid excess water. The dryer, the better. I don’t have a potato ricer, so after I let them cool (I boiled and drained them, went for a “run”, and continued upon my return), I just mashed them to the best of my ability with a fork. Mash, mash, mash. I then added a teaspoon of salt (I know, it seems like a lot), and an egg. Keep mixing until very smooth. And then, half a cup of flour. Mix, mix. Another half cup flour; keep mixing and you’ll see a dough forming. Add a little more – you want a dough that is very soft and kind of delicate to touch, but one that won’t stick to your hands, and can be kneaded – which you’ll then do, on a floured surface, for just a minute. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each piece into a long rope. Cut it up to whatever size you want, and do that thing with the back of a fork where you get some ridges on your gnocchi. Then place them all on some parchment paper and put a pot of salted water on to boil.
While waiting for the water, I cooked up my veggies. I got some grapeseed oil nice and hot in a non-stick pan and tossed the mushrooms around, with a dash of salt and pepper, for a few minutes, and then transferred them to a bowl. Then I added my zucchini to some more hot oil, and cooked them until they were just done, adding a few rosemary bits and some tarragon leaves I had in the freezer. I added them to the mushrooms in the bowl. By then, the water was boiling, and I threw in about a 3rd of the gnocchi. Let them cook for about 2 or 3 minutes – when they rise to the top, they are ready! Remove them with a slotted spoon. I heated some olive oil, and I can’t believe this, but some butter also, in the pan I’d been using for the veggies, and I tossed the gnocchi in there, until a little golden, and THEN added it to the bowl with the mushrooms and zucchini. I gave it all a toss, and adjusted seasonings, and then tossed it with the arugula. I bowled them up, and added some grated asiago (on his) and an olive oil drizzle. It was all very impressive. We ate it on the couch and watched Breaking Bad, which is a show I have only just discovered. You can use potato flour instead of regular flour, if you want. If you wanted to add some protein, you could maybe throw a fried egg on top, or have it with some fish. Or, come cooler months, you could skip the butter and eat the gnocchi with a delicious bolognese or something. I cannot fathom a heavy, hot, meat dish on a summer’s day such the one I find myself in today. Anyway, I only cooked about half the gnocchi I made. I froze the other half, raw and on the parchment paper. After it’s frozen, you can just throw them all in a bag together and not worry about it sticking. I can’t think of anything that makes me more wifed up than having a supply of homemade gnocchi in the freezer.
QUESTIONS????????
Bury The Fork 