Crazy Englishwoman Cooks!

I love gnocchi but, until yesterday, had never tried making them. Several years ago, friends bought me the pasta machine I had been lusting after. To date, I've used it once. I keep saying I will get it out and use it more, but it was so much hassle that using store-bought pasta was - well - quicker.

And so I always figured that making gnocchi would be a similar process.

How wrong was I? These ricotta gnocchi take a matter of minutes to make and cook. The results are soft, fluffy, and wonderful. Yesterday, I served them with oven roasted asparagus in a lemon thyme butter but they would be just as delicious with a marinara sauce. This gnocchi recipe will become a fixture in my kitchen.


Ricotta Gnocchi

250g ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients together into a soft dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a long sausage, about 12 inches long. Cut into little pieces - about 3/4 inch. Pop into boiling water for about 3 minutes and serve with your favorite sauce.

Seriously folks - I had no idea what I was missing out on.

Poppyseeds add such a pretty look to baked goods, and who can resist the taste of lemon...which is why I was a little disappointed with my Lemon Poppyseed Loaf today. The lemon flavor was definitely lacking. I've added several suggestions for bumping up the lemony taste next time.

Lemon Poppyseed Loaf

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oats
1 tbs poppy seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
2 tbs lemon juice

To add next time for more lemon flavor: Either 2 tsp lemon zest or 1/3 cup lemon curd.

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a loaf tin.

Mix together the flour, sugar, oats, poppy seeds, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, mix the milk, oil, egg, lemon juice and zest of lemon curd. Combine the two bowls.

Pour into loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes.

We rarely eat take-out pizza in our house because most of it is so horribly greasy. One exception that has recently opened in Lexington is Naked Pizza - after trying their pizza, we could really taste the difference. They use fresh, organic ingredients, and I highly recommend them.

When we do eat pizza, it's homemade. This weekend, we made a beef and jalapeno (to suit hubby's meaty needs) and spinach with mushroom (to suit my veggie desires).

We skipped any sauce for the beef and jalapeno, instead using sliced roma tomatoes. Top with roast beef, jalapenos, fresh basil, mozzarella and...voila! A darn good meaty pizza that you don't have to soak the grease off before you eat it.


For the second pizza, we spread the base with just a little sauce. Then we added sliced mushrooms, red onion, spinach, mozzarella, and some dollops of ricotta. Drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar before putting in the oven, and once it's cooked, give it a few minutes under the broiler.

Yum! And so much better than delivery.

I am reading the fabulous British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)a Christmas present from my sister.

The chapter on Anglo-Saxon cooking has been fascinating. There was clearly a much greater variety of foods than most of us believe, and there was much more of a connection with the earth. You had to eat what was readily available so food changed enormously with the seasons.

Reading some of the meals prepared for the richer landowners, I am amazed by the levels of gastronomy that were practiced back then: beef stewed in wine, honey, leeks, and fennel; scallops topped with minced chicken and egg, then steamed and served drizzled with wine and honey; sweet omelets; summer puddings filled with ripe berries; oyster loaf; sauces made from an extensive range of herbs, including many that would be considered little more than weeds now. 

I may need to do a little digging and see if I can find some of these old recipes to try.