How to Make Gnocchi at Home

The first time I tried gnocchi in a restaurant I absolutely loved it, and couldn't believe these heavenly little pillows of dough were made with just potatoes and flour. Wasn't there cheese hidden in there somewhere?

Turns out no: with freshly made gnocchi, all you need is a little red sauce, pesto or Gorgonzola sauce to make a delicious, comforting dish.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to recreate the dish properly with store-bought gnocchi. Every time I've tried, the result is a heavy pile of starchy rocks that sink right to the bottom of your belly.

But here's the good news: they're relatively easy to make at home, and you can customize the dish by substituting spinach, sweet potato, ricotta or butternut squash for some (or all) of the potatoes. Here's the basic recipe, adapted from similar ones by Smitten Kitchen and Mario Batali:

Basic Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4

1 lb starchy potatoes (like Yukon Gold)
3/4 C flour, plus more if needed
1 tsp salt
1 egg yolk, beaten

Boil the potatoes until well done and drain, rinsing with cold water. Peel them when cool enough to handle with a towel. 

Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer, grate them over the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl, or grate using the grater blade of a food processor.

Transfer grated potatoes to a large bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg yolk and the salt to the potatoes and mix well.

Add half of the flour to the potatoes and stir. Continue adding flour, using only as much as you need so that the dough will not stick to your hands. How much you need depends on how wet the potatoes are.

Form the dough into a ball. On a floured surface, knead the dough for about three or four minutes, folding the dough in half and kneading with the heel of your hand.

Now it's time to make the pillows! Take a portion of the dough (about 1/6 or 1/8 of the ball) and roll it out with your hands on the floured surface so that it forms a rope about 3/4 inch thick. Cut the rope into 3/4" pieces: 

 

Repeat with the rest of the dough, placing the formed gnocchi in a single layer on a lightly floured sheet pan so that they don't stick to the pan or one another. They can be kept this way in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, if desired, but already you can tell the difference... Just look at these delicious little pillows!

 

To cook the gnocchi, place them into a pot of salted, boiling water. Cook until the gnocchi float to the top, plus one minute more. Drain the gnocchi in a colander, the return to the pot  Add 3-4 T of prepared or homemade pesto sauce and stir gently, then divide amongst 4 bowls. Top with grated Pecorino, Romano or Parmesan cheese and a pinch of hot pepper flakes, if desired.

If you are not serving your cooked gnocchi immediately, toss them with a glug of olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. Another option is to brown the cooked gnocchi in butter and sage, which is more of a Parisian style. Either way, freshly made gnocchi are a perfect dinner for a cold night! 

Put An Egg On It!

Is seems like chefs are putting eggs on everything lately... Is this a New York thing, or are people just becoming comfortable with eggs again?

Dry salad? Put an egg on it!
Boring burger? Put an egg on it!
Sad soup? Put an egg on it!

It reminds me of this episode of Portlandia. It's a lot like "put a bird on it," except the baby version.

But I promise you, it's not that difficult and it really does make a big difference on a ho-hum salad, especially when it's cold outside and a chilly bowl of lettuce is the last thing that sounds good for dinner. This recipe was inspired by a fancy dinner at A Voce in New York City.
 
Peppery Fall Salad with Egg
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 T sherry vinegar
3 T olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 fresh pasteurized eggs
4 C fresh, peppery greens like frisee or arugula

Mix up the mustard, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a cruet, or by whisking with a fork in a small bowl or using a tiny whisk - everyone has a tiny whisk at home, right?

Poach the eggs: Place a square of plastic wrap in a small bowl and spray it with just a tiny bit of cooking spray. Crack an egg into the wrap, so that it sinks down into the bowl. Then twist up the plastic wrap to make a little egg package, winding the closure as tight as you can. Repeat for each egg, then carefully place all the egg packages into a small pot of boiling water, being careful not to leave any portion of the plastic wrap hanging outside the pot. (Just trust me when I tell you that you don't want plastic melting down the side.) Boil for 4 minutes until the egg is just set, and carefully remove the egg packages from the boiling water with tongs.

Carefully unwrap one egg onto the center of each salad, but wait to break the yolk until just before serving. The uninitiated dinner guest may be a little hesitant about mixing in the egg, but the resulting warm yolk offsets the peppery bite of greens, mustard and vinegar creating something entirely new.

Oh yes, and you can certainly add bacon to this. We do. (To everything.)

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We have met the salads, and they are ours

Rare is the dive bar that serves good food, which is why most people don't eat in bars unless they're very drunk or not very discerning eaters. (It should be noted that the latter often follows the former.) But there's one special bar in Brooklyn with a vague nautical theme where I make an exception. The food there is delicious, far better than it has any right to be considering the whole bar looks like someone's basement in the Midwest. I'd tell you where this wonderful place is, but then I'd have to fight you for a seat.*

Now think: what's the sketchiest thing you could order in a bar? A salad, hands down. But I promise you, this bar's green salad with cheddar, onions and pickles is one of the best salads I've ever tasted. And I wasn't even drunk.

We recreated it at home recently and added bacon - because, why not? And so I give you...

Green Salad with Onion, Pickles and Cheddar

Serves 2 as a first course

4 C chopped green lettuce
2 oz. white cheddar, sliced wafer-thin
2 green onions, sliced thin (or 1/4 small red onion)
4-6 T sliced cornichons or dill pickles
6 T olive oil
3 T sherry vinegar
Pinch of salt
Fresh ground black pepper
3 slices of thick-cut bacon (optional)

To make the dressing, whisk the olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. If you're substituting red onion like we did, I'd recommend mixing that in too so that it has a chance to soften a little while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. You could even pickle the onion if you're feeling fancy.

Cook and drain the bacon until it's crisp; set aside to cool and then crumble into bite-size pieces. (If you're vegetarian, feel free to skip this step.)

Place the lettuce in a large bowl and mix in the dressing. Add the pickles, bacon and onion and mix well. Add the cheddar once the salad is plated. This last method is a tip from Healthy Appetite chef Ellie Krieger: adding high-calorie toppings at the end makes it seem like you have more and you'll feel more satiated than if they're hidden in the dish.


*Oh FINE. There's a clue in the title of this post. Just keep it between us when you figure it out, okay?

Ramen Burger - Is it the Noodle Bun?

Ramen, the staple food for all frugal college students at one time or another. Barely any nutrients, high in sodium but comes in a variety of flavor, not to mention its dirt cheap for a pack.

Which leads me to the question, why is people lining up every weekend at Smorgasburg for Ramen with patty on it? Is the bun the main reason? If so, why not try to recreate the special bun so we can all have our own Ramen Burger?

While there's many variations of the recipe online trying to recreate this noodle bun, I find this one to be the best out of the ones I tried out.

The Ramen Burger Noodle Bun

Makes 1 Ramen Burger Bun

1 Pack of Instant Noodles (Any brand will do, for added flavor)
1 Egg

1. Cook the Instant Noodles according to the directions on the packaging. For added flavor to the bun itself, add the flavor packages into the water when your cooking the noodles and allow them to soak in.
2. After cooking till firm, extract the noodles and place them into a boil of cold or ice water to stop the cooking process.
3. After a short dip remove them from the water and place them into a big mixing bowl. 
4. Crack open the egg and mix it briskly, then add it into the bowl of noodles and mix till the noodles are nicely coated, the egg will serve as our bonds for our noodle bun.
5. Prepare two small bowls (flat ones for the best results) and place equal poritions into them. Gently push down on top of them to compact the noodles into a nice uniform shape. Refrigrate for 10-15 minutes and let it set.
6. In a small frying pan, prepare a small layer of oil sufficient enough for pan frying, allow it to heat up for 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Carefully flip over the bowls containing your noodles bun into the frying pan and pan fry the buns to your liking.

Finish off by cooking the patty of your liking, let it be beef, pork, turkey or even veterinarian. Afterwards, pat yourself in the back for not having to line up for hours at Smorgasburg for this!

You will never eat Ramen the same way again with the Ramen to the Rescue Cookbook: 120 Creative Recipes for Easy Meals Using Everyone's Favorite Pack of Noodles