orecchiette, honeyed rosemary carrots, anchovy January 20, 2008

I have been poking around in the kitchen here and there, but I haven’t made a meal worth blogging in a while. This one is in celebration of my favorite vegetable purveyor (Golden Produce) opening their new grocery establishment — Golden Natural Foods!!! I truly love this family, and am very happy for their success. I also should note that I am grateful for the MLK holiday, and appreciative of what it took of others for me to be who I am today.

This new store is beautiful, and if you’ve never had the pleasure of visiting their produce market, GP, you should. That is, if you enjoy fresh, organic, low cost, high quality, abundant produce. I picked up some orecchiette pasta, some fresh parmesan, and anchovy fillets. There was rosemary in the refrigerator, and honey on the countertop. I spied a carrot in the crisper, and took all these ingredients as a sign. I sauteed the carrots in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, added the honey and rosemary, and seasoned with salt and pepper. When the pasta was done, I added it to the pan, along with the anchovies, and topped with peels of the parmesan:

By the way, have you ever tried Lindemans‘ lambic/gueuze called Cuvée René?

It is delicious, my new favorite beer ever. I mean ever. And I like many beer flavors. Long story short, it is available at GNF, along with a pretty nice selection of beer and wine. I was pleased. Go find out for yourselves!

PS. I love the GP family.

you are my favorite sweet potato gnocchi! December 1, 2007

You are!!

I’m back to my old self, and in the kitchen now that school applications are finished. Yay!!  Okay, these gnocchi were really good. I made approximately three dozen, and I still have half the dough. I read that once the gnocchi are cooked they can be frozen for up to six weeks. This is my plan of action.

These are sweet potato gnocchi in a brown butter and sage sauce. I usually don’t like cream or butter sauces, but this was perfect and simple. I likely will try another sauce with the leftovers – lots of options! First you make the dough. This was pretty straightforward, but I think my process could have been improved by a potato ricer or a food mill. Then you roll out ropes, cut bite sized pieces, and plop them in the salted boiling water. Finish the gnocchi in the pan with browned butter and sage.

I did find a helpful video online. Now I can finesse!