Ricotta Gnocchi with Pesto

This month welcomes the birth of the Daring Cooks group. Linked with Daring Bakers, Daring Cooks is very much the same premise, but everyone cooks a specific meal rather than baking (which usually focuses on dessert). The selection this month was ricotto gnocchi, from Judy Rodgers' cookbook, The Zuni Café Cookbook. It didn't turn out quite as photographic as I had hoped, but it offered itself as a pleasantly light and delicious meal.

There's a nice Italian restaurant not too far from my house, and I've often ordered their gnocchi with pesto sauce. It's such a wonderful combination that I decided I'd try it out on my own. This gnocchi is different from the standard sort (using potatoes is standard, from what I've seen at least) in that it uses ricotta as the base, but I still figured the pairing would go well together. As far as the process went of actually cooking the formed gnocchi, I found that letting the gnocchi sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours really helped them hold their form. I was having trouble with them breaking apart, even after adding extra eggs and letting it sit for an hour or so in the refrigerator.

Gnocchi:
16 ounces fresh ricotta cheese
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 heavy pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 teaspoon salt
Flour to form the gnocchi

At least a day before you want to cook the gnocchi, place the ricotta cheese over a cheesecloth, placed into a wire mesh sieve, suspended over a bowl to catch the moisture. This will drain off a lot of the excess water that's held inside the cheese. If you skip this step, your gnocchi will fall apart easily while cooking. Once the water has been wicked away (about 24 hours in the refrigerator), place into a food processor and pulse a few times until smooth. Add the eggs, butter, nutmeg, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and salt. Pulse until everything is combined and smooth. Fill a shallow bowl with flour, and drop 2-3 teaspoons of batter into it at a time. Very gently roll it and shape it until it has an even coating of flour, then drop into a boiling pot of water. Once the gnocchi begins to float, boil for an additional 5 minutes, then gently remove from the water bath and set aside to cool. Do a practice gnocchi first, then if it holds up to the strain of boiling and removal, continue to cook gnocchi 5-6 at a time, such that the pot doesn't become overcrowded. If the gnocchi falls apart, try to add an extra egg white or allow the batter to firm up in the refrigerator. Once gnocchi are cooked, while still hot, serve with sauce of your choice.


Basic pesto sauce:
4 cups Italian (sweet) basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, process the basil until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and salt. Pulse until sauce comes together - it will be thick. Serve on top of the hot ricotto gnocchi.

I ended up keeping a lot of this for myself, but I was able to share a bit of it with a couple people, and the reviews were actually better than I had expected. I thought that I may have over-done it with the amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano, being in both the gnocchi and in the sauce, but it seems that it was a much-welcomed flavor. This first daring cooks challenge was interesting, and I'm looking forward for more to come.

Spinach and mushroom lasagne al forno

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make spinach lasagne (the pasta), then to create a lasagne al forno (the dish) using the homemade lasagne, along with a bechamel sauce, and additional ingredients of the cook's preference. The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. However, as usual, I made some adjustments (from sheer laziness? maybe) to make this dish my own.

Recipes:

Spinach Lasagne:
3 large eggs
10 oz. chopped spinach, thawed and dried
3 cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until everything comes together. Use your hands to incorporate any dry pieces that aren't going in. Attach a hook to the stand mixer, and knead the dough for 10 minutes, until satiny and elastic. Add flour if the dough is too wet, and water if it's too dry, each by the teaspoon to make sure you don't add too much. After it has been kneaded thoroughly, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. Cut the dough into quarters and slowly roll out until thin. I found it helpful to roll one side until it didn't seem it could stretch any further, then flipped the sheet over and rolled the other side. Continue rolling until the pasta is very thin, to the point that you can readily see light through it. Cut into 4-inch by 8-inch slices, then set aside until you're ready to assemble the lasagne.

Bechamel Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 2/3 cups milk
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a heavy pan over medium heat, then add flour and stir with a whisk until combined. Continue stirring until the roux begins to darken and releases a nutty smell. Add the milk, then bring to a boil and continue stirring until thickened. Add nutmeg, then salt and pepper to taste. I added quite a bit of pepper, giving the final Bechamel the appearance of country gravy.

Lasagne al forno:
1 recipe Spinach Lasagne
1 recipe Bechamel sauce
15 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 lb. Button mushrooms
1 lb. Crimini mushrooms
3 ounces basil, chiffonade
1 1/2 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 350ºF and butter a 5-quart baking dish. Bring at least a gallon of heavily salted water to a boil, then boil your lasagne pasta for 2 minutes (only do 4-5 at a time). Gently remove from the boiling water and set onto paper towels to wick away extra water. Repeat until all the pasta has been cooked. Spread a thin layer of bechamel sauce across the bottom of the baking dish, then add a layer of cooked lasagne, overlapping slightly. Top with 5 ounces of Ricotta cheese, and 8 ounces of mushrooms (you can mix them together, or keep the different varieties apart). Add 1 ounce of basil, 1/4 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 1/4 cup of the bechamel. Top with another layer of overlapping spinach lasagne, then press down gently, yet firm enough to make the surface relatively flat. Repeat two more times. To the top of the outer layer of spinach lasagne, spread the remaining mushrooms and bechamel. Cover with a generous amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Cover with a tented piece of foil, taking care that the foil doesn't touch the lasagne. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10. Turn off the oven and wedge the door open with the back of a wooden spoon, and allow to gradually cool down for another 10 minutes. Remove the lasagne from the oven and serve warm. Serves 8-12.

This dish could easily include different flavors, maybe with a ragu sauce and Italian sausage. Lasagne is one of the great dishes to play around with, so feel free to adapt this to however your tastes may be.

Spicy Sausage and Parmesan Risotto

I have found a new favorite recipe. This is the first risotto to make that list. This being a hypothetical list, I can't go back and check what else exactly makes it, but this one definitely does. This dish is pretty simple to put together, but the taste is magnificent. It has an aura of comfort food, with a little kick of spice, and everything comes together brilliantly in this meal.

Recipe - adapted from Bon Appetit, December 2007
4 tablespoons butter, divided
4 hot Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 small white onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup California chardonnay or similar white wine
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/3 cup parsley

In a heavy (I prefer cast iron) skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onion, breaking up any large pieces. Saute until the onions are translucent (4-5 minutes). Add rice and wine, then bring to a boil until all the liquid evaporates. Add the broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer until risotto is tender (15 minutes). Mix in the Parmesan cheese and top with parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

With a total preparatory time of about 30 minutes, this meal is fast to put together and sure to please. If you don't like spicy, you can substitute another type of flavored sausage to adapt the recipe to your own.

Spinach Lasagna

I was trying to think of something new to make with a friend of mine, but nothing was coming to mind. While at work, moowie suggested I try making a lasagna, and fortunately I took her up on that idea. This lasagna came out wonderfully, and will definitely be made again next time I'm in need of a large dish to serve.

Recipe - Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian, Episode EI1A10 "All About Lasagna"

Mixed Sauce:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
Salt and pepper

Layers:
1/2 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 pound ground turkey, browned and drained
salt and pepper
22.5 ounces ricotta cheese (1 1/2 [15-ounce] containers)
3 large eggs
1 pound lasagna sheets, al dente
20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
3 cups shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup fresh shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Melt 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a small pot over medium-high heat. Once completely melted, add the flour and whisk to make the roux. Cook this a few minutes to remove the flour flavor. Slowly add the milk while whisking and turn down the heat to medium. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and continue stirring over medium heat until nappe. Add salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat and set aside while you assemble the rest of the lasagna.

Place the ricotta cheese into a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add the eggs and stir until combined. Add a pinch each of salt and pepper.

Pour 2 cups of the mixed sauce into a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish, move it around to coat the bottom evenly. Place a layer of the lasagna sheets on top of the sauce, then cover with the ricotta mixture. Spread out evenly, then add the chopped spinach evenly on top. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets, then spread the meats on top of this. Top the meats with 1 1/2 cups of mozarella, then pour another 2 cups of the mixed sauce on top. Cover with the final layer of lasagna sheets, top with the remaining mixed sauce. Mix the remaining mozzarella with the Paremesan and add this on top. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in microwave with 1 tablespoon water. Brush this along the edges of the baking dish, concentrating on the corners, to make sure it doesn't dry out while baking. Tent with foil and place into the oven with a baking sheet underneath. Bake 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbling, remove foil, and then bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes to let everything set up. Serve warm, yields 12 servings when accompanied by side dishes.

This keeps in the refrigerator, covered, for about a week. I've always found that pasta tends to be better the next day after all the flavors have been absorbed.

Braised Involtino

I wasn't quite sure what to call this dish, but whatever its name, it is definitely a roulade. I still have a lot of that tomato sauce to use up, and have made this recipe in the past for friends with great success.

The reason for the confusion in the name - in Italian American cooking, a braciola is essentially what I've made. However, in Italian cuisine, a braciola is just a thin piece of meat fried in its own juices with a bit of olive oil. On the other hand, in Italian cooking, involtini pretty much look like what I've made, but they are normally pan-fried, not braised. That's why I decided to mix and match, then settled on calling this a braised involtino.

It's pretty easy to put together, and can be impressive when served showing the spiral. I ended up serving this with some leftover pasta and a simple salad.

Recipe:
1 1/2 lb. flank steak
2 large eggs
bread crumbs (varying amount)
parmesan (varying amount)
1 handful basil
1/2 onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
tomato sauce

Flatten the flank steak with a mallet. To help get it flat, place on top of a piece of saran wrap, spray lightly with water, then top with another piece of saran wrap before starting to whack at it. This step, along with making your strokes go into outward angles instead of coming straight down, will help spread the meat evenly (the saran wrap decreases friction for your angled hits). Take your time so the meat flattens evenly - you don't want any holes in the meat. Optimally, you can get the meat to an even 1/4-inch thickness.

Mix the eggs together, then slowly add bread crumbs until it reaches about the same consistency as cookie dough. Spread this layer onto the meat, leaving a small gap at the top so the final roll can close completely. Grate the parmesan, then sprinkle on top - as much or as little as you want. Follow this with a layer of fresh basil, then onions and garlic.

Roll as tightly as you can, then tie up with some butcher's twine, being sure that both ends are tightly sealed. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the butcher for some twine, and I never got around to buying any, so I just rolled it up and let it be. If you have it all wrapped up and tied, you can sear the meat to add some flavor.

I cut the meat in half so I could fit it into a small baking dish, but if you can, try to avoid this - it's always better to leave it whole until the end.

Place into a baking dish, then cover liberally with tomato sauce until the dish is almost full. Top with a tented piece of foil. Bake at 350ºF and braise until done inside. You can leave the involtino in for extra time without much damage, but continue to spoon tomato sauce on top so the meat doesn't dry out. I have no clue when mine was complete (my probe thermometer died on me), but I baked it for approximately 2 hours, spooning sauce on top about every 10 minutes.

When the meat is done, remove it from the sauce, then use this sauce in the pasta being served alongside it. Let the meat sit for 30 minutes before cutting it into thin slices. If you feel it needs extra sauce served with it, spoon the sauce on the bottom of the plate and then place the spirals on top - you don't want to cover the spirals with sauce, or it just looks like any other cut of meat.

Rustic Pasta

After making that last batch of tomato sauce, I figured it was about time I tried making some noodle pasta. Since I don't have a pasta cutter, I just did it by hand and called it rustic - why not? I ended up with pleasantly thick noodles. The idea was inspired by the Sugarlaws blog, though I used all-purpose flour instead of wheat, because the only wheat flour I had on hand was bread flour.

Recipe:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 large pinch, salt
2 large eggs
water

Mound the flour and salt and dig a small hole in the middle of it. Add the two eggs.

Mix this together by hand, and you will end up with a very crumbly dough. Add water one tablespoon at a time and knead until the dough comes together nicely. If the dough becomes sticky (mine did after 5 tablespoons of water), just add more flour. Once the dough is finished, roll out as thin as possible (I maxed out my largest cutting board, so they didn't end up too thin), and dust the top with flour. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a jelly roll shape, then slice to desired pasta thickness.

Have a bit of flour on the side, and unroll each noodle. Keep your fingers powdered with flour so the noodles become lightly coated, that way they are less likely to stick to one another. Get a big pot of salted water boiling and add the pasta. Mine was complete after 5 minutes, but cooking time will vary on thickness of the noodles. They are done when all the noodles are floating at the surface of the water.

After draining the pasta, I put it back in the pot and added some of the previously made tomato sauce. I stirred it around a bit to coat all the pieces, then served. It looks like it should be enough for about 3 servings. The noodles ended up pleasantly tender. When I make more pasta in the future, I will likely try to add some herbs or spices just to change things up, and I will probably roll out only half the recipe at a time so I can get thinner noodles.

Basic Tomato Sauce

So after my roommate pointed out to me that my pizza was missing tomato sauce, I decided to make one of my big batches and store it for later. I tend to use this sauce for various purposes - braising a nice roulade, as pizza sauce, or simply pasta sauce. I'm sure there's much more to do with this, but that'll come in another post.

Ingredients are simple:
2 large cans, tomato sauce
1 small can, tomato paste
2 medium white onions, chopped
1 head of garlic, minced
1 handful fresh basil, chopped roughly
1/2 bottle merlot
I also added 3 medium tomatoes because I had them lying around, and pictured is a handful of assorted greens, but those ended up getting cut before the end of this. They'll come up in a later post.

Throw the onions in a large pot with a small amount of olive oil. Over medium heat, sweat them until tender. Add garlic and continue heating for another 2 minutes before adding fresh tomatoes and basil.

Add the tomato sauce and paste, then stir well to bring everything together. Bring to a simmer and add merlot to taste. If you don't particularly like merlot, you could try adding a bit of vodka, or try another wine. The idea is to have some sort of alcohol in there to pull out the alcohol-soluble flavors hiding in the tomatoes. I use about half a bottle, and it gives the sauce good flavor and consistency.

Also note, in many recipes the quality of wine tends to affect the overall quality of the end product. However, in this case, the merlot is definitely a background player. Go ahead and use something cheap! If this were to be a wine-based sauce, then things would definitely be different.

Keep it simmering for 2-3 hours, so the flavors have plenty of time to meld. Yield is approximately four 20-oz mason jars (I overfilled mine a bit). Should keep well in the refrigerator for a while, but I usually end up using it all within a couple weeks.

Tuscana Soup

I had a request from a friend several weeks ago that, the next time she come over for dinner, I'd make her some Tuscana Soup inspired from the Olive Garden. Having never had it myself, I didn't have too much to work from, but I was able to easily find out what goes into it by surfing a bit online.

After whipping it together, my friend was shocked - she said I'd have no need to go to the Olive Garden to try it, since I perfected it in one go. It's a mildly spicy dish, with lots of flavor in every slurpy bite. It probably took about an hour total to throw it all together, including another pizza we made to go with the soup (see last post).

Very simple overall, pretty damn cheap, and definitely going to be something I make again in the near future.

Recipe:
1/4 large white onion, diced
2 slices prosciutto, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
3 t. chicken bullion powder
1 quart, water
5 small red potatoes, cubed (1 cm)
1 c. mixed small greens (Trader Joe's package)
3 spicy Italian sausage links (about 1 1/2 c. total)
2/3 c. heavy cream

Heat sausage over medium heat until cooked all the way through. In the meantime, place onions and prosciutto with a bit of olive oil (about 1T) in a 4-quart or larger pot, cook over medium-high heat until onions are nearly translucent. Add garlic and heat for another minute before pouring in the water and adding the boullion powder. Add the potatoes, then simmer for 15 minutes. Chop the greens up into medium pieces (approximately 1 cm) and cut sausage links along a bias for presentation (or, if you prefer, you could ground them up so they're more homogenous in the soup). Throw the greens and sausage into the soup, along with the cream, and simmer for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 5 bowl-fulls, but that was only enough for 2 of us because it was so delicious! We barely even bothered with the pizza, and all the attention was on the wonderful soup. It could have used more greens, and I'd probably add another cup-full in there next time, but aside from that I wouldn't change a thing about this.

Simple Pizza

I was in the mood for something simple tonight, so I decided to make a quick pizza. After a quick scan of Epicurious to get a recipe for the dough, I settled on a recipe from Bon Appetit, March 2007. I ended up doubling the recipe, figuring I'd be making another pizza soon enough, plus I remembered a hint from Dorie that larger batches of doughs using yeast tend to work out better.

Recipe:
1 1/2 c. warm water
4 1/2 t. active dry yeast
4 c. flour
2 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
3 T. olive oil

Mix the yeast and warm water together, then let stand for 5 minutes or until creamy. With the dough hook on a stand mixer, add sugar and salt, then flour one cup at a time. After it has all come together, knead 5 minutes. If dough is still sticky, add small amounts of flour. Pour olive oil into a bowl, spread along the sides, and then add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in volume (approximately 1 hour). Punch down, then cut in half and form the pizza, working from the middle out (mine ended up being approximately 14 inches in diameter, but you could make yours as thin or thick as you'd like).

For toppings, I went with tomato, onion, fresh basil leaves, hot Italian sausage, prosciutto, and goat cheese.

I layered with the meats on the bottom, covered with onion and tomato, followed by basil, and topped with the goat cheese.

I forgot to assemble on top of parchment paper (I don't have a peel), so when I finally tried to move the pizza it got sort of lopsided and sloppy. At least I'll know better for next time. Some of the edges of the parchment paper got burnt, so I'd suggest trimming close to the pizza if possible. The oven was preheated to 500ºF, then the pizza was slid onto the pizza stone (which had been in throughout the preheating) and baked for 9 minutes before I pulled it out. All in all, everything came out well, and I'm sure I'll be making this again - especially since I have the extra dough.

Gnudi

After seeing this recipe on Enza's blog, da grande, I had to give it a try. If you want to try authentic Italian food, where better to go than an actual Italian kitchen, right? It is a regional dish of Tuscany, and might be classified in the same family as gnocchi.

This was also my first time making a pasta sort of dish from scratch, so that was exciting. Also, good news: I finally got a camera. Bad news: I bought the wrong sort of memory card for it. I'll need to go beg Costco to take it back...how was I supposed to know it only takes SD if they don't let me open the box first? Anyways, the camera only holds 11 pictures at a time (!!), so I'll probably get that taken care of tomorrow.

Recipe:
7 oz. ricotta
3 oz. parmigiano-reggiano, shredded
11 oz. chopped spinach, squeezed dry
1 egg
flour

Simply mix together all of the ingredients, and gradually add flour until a dough forms that is no longer sticky. I started this out by hand, but eventually my fingers got tired so I moved to the stand mixer and used a dough hook. Once the dough is at a good consistency, roll the dough into long strips (think play-doh snakes), approximately 1.5 cm thick, then cut into pieces.

After all the pieces are cut, throw them into some gently boiling water. As they reach completeness, they pop up to the top. It was pretty entertaining watching them launch up one at a time. Once all of them are floating, drain, and your gnudi is done.

Enza then served hers with fresh tomatoes warmed in a pan with olive oil, basil, and a garlic clove. I still had leftover onions from before, so I sliced up the garlic and onion and threw it on the stove over medium heat with some olive oil until nice and tender. Then I sliced up 5 medium sized tomatoes (dried via salad spinner), and heated those on top until everything was nicely warmed through. While I was picking up the ricotta cheese, I saw some turkey sausages with spinach and parmesan in them and knew I just had to add them. Hey, all the flavors already matched, how could I turn that down?

I spooned some of the gnudi onto a plate, spooned on some of the tomato mixture, added a little sausage on top, and served with sliced baguette pieces. Simple dinner, but oh so tasty. You could also throw on top some parmesan, but I didn't see much of a need for it.

Thank you, Enza, for the wonderful idea for a meal.