Ricotta and Scallion Gnocchi

There are certainly perks to being single and not having a roommate.  One such perk is that nobody is around to judge you when you want to eat chips or popcorn for dinner, or when you eat pasta with butter and garlic salt for three days straight.  When things in my life get really busy, something has to give, and occasionally it's cooking.  These past few weeks I've been moving nonstop, working on a fundraiser, meeting up with friends, getting ready to start a new job, and preparing for the marathon this Saturday.  With all of that going on, my kitchen time has fallen by the wayside and I've enjoyed many atypical meals!  I also had a stellar brunch at Tilia and another one at Wild Acre Eatery, and had the pleasure of a few lunches at the food trucks in St. Paul.  So I haven't been a complete lost cause!

But things are settling down and I was feeling unbalanced.  I stole a friend's cookbook while babysitting her kids and realized I needed to get back into the kitchen and start eating deliciously again.  A recipe for gnocchi made with ricotta cheese and scallions sparked my interest and I figured it would be a great preparation meal for Saturday's marathon! The pasta turned out wonderfully.  The scallions added a little bit of spring freshness to what can sometimes be a dense dish and the ricotta made the pasta light and creamy.  Paired with a simple tomato sauce, you'll have a perfect springtime pasta dish. 

Ricotta & Scallion Gnocchi
from Simply Organic by Jesse Cool
serves 4

Ingredients
16 ounces full-fat ricotta cheese

7 scallions, minced

1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1 1/2 cups - 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Place the ricotta in a colander and allow it to drain over a bowl for 15-30 minutes.  Discard the liquid.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 

In the meantime, combine the ricotta, egg, salt, pepper, green onions, and Parmesan cheese in a medium bowl.  Gradually add the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, and combine the ingredients with your hands until the dough holds together in a ball and is no longer insanely sticky. 

Remove a teaspoon-sized piece of the dough and roll it into a ball on a floured surface.  Drop the ball into the boiling water.  If the dough falls apart in the water, add more flour to the dough by tablespoons until it forms into a ball.  Repeat the test until the ball holds together and floats to the surface. 

Divide the dough in about 6 equal parts.  Roll out each section on a floured surface into a rope about one inch in diameter.  Cut the dough into one-inch pieces and lightly press each piece with a fork.  At this point, you can toss the gnocchi in flour and freeze for later. 

If you plan to cook the gnocchi immediately, salt the boiling water generously, and gently drop the gnocchi in the boiling water in batches.  Stir gently to prevent them from sticking.  About 5-10 seconds after the gnocchi rise to the top, remove them with a slotted spoon and place into a serving dish.  Repeat as needed. 

You may serve these gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce or even with olive oil or butter.   

Pasta with Roasted Green Beans and Balsamic Butter Sauce

If I've learned anything during my four+ years of marathon training, it's that motivation may not always come to you the morning of a long run.  Once or twice a training season, I'll wake up in the morning with no desire to lace up my shoes and go for a three-and-a-half hour run!  It could be the weather, my attitude, my level of exhaustion...all I know is that I was slated to run 20 miles this morning and as soon as I woke up I knew it so wasn't going to happen!  The dreary, cloudy weather makes me want to brew another cup of coffee and cuddle with the kitties on my sofa instead.  Knowing that physical and mental breaks are an important part of any successful training (as long as they are kept in check!), I'm postponing my long run to next week.  Plenty of time before the Fargo Marathon!  But because I made a killer pasta dish last night and I don't want to waste the carbs, I will run later today.  For like an hour :) 

maybe later....

So now that I've written out my long excuse for not running 20 miles this morning, I'll get to the good stuff: this pasta dish with balsamic butter sauce.  I found the original recipe on Pinterest and it's been sitting on my food board for a few weeks now.  I went looking for a new pasta recipe and decided this would be a good one to boost my carbs on a Friday night.  I was a little worried that the balsamic vinegar would be overwhelming, but the smaller quantity rounded out with sugar and butter created this smooth, silky sauce that was mild and flavorful.  Plus, the whole dish came together with very little effort and in very little time!  I used green beans because they looked a little more snappy at the co-op that afternoon.  I also had to use some chevre in this recipe because I received my first container of homemade goat cheese from my CSA farm yesterday. 

Wow.  This chevre is divine.  In addition to using some to round out this pasta dish, I had a few small spoonfuls...you know...just to test it out!  I can't wait to get more of this amazing chevre from Little Flower Farm.  (You can also sign up for a chevre share with them!)  The chevre gave this pasta dish the extra bit of creamy, tastiness that it needed to round everything out and make me eat an entire second helping.  A very tasty pasta recipe to add into your dinner rotation -- Enjoy!

Pasta with Roasted Green Beans and Balsamic Butter Sauce
adapted from Food & Wine
serves 4

Ingredients
3/4 pound of fresh green beans, washed and ends trimmed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of tube pasta
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1 stick of butter (1/4 pound), cut into pieces
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons goat cheese
Salt & pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Toss the green beans in a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet and roast until tender, about 12 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add a small handful of salt and then the pound of pasta.  Cook until al dente according to the package directions.  Drain the pasta and put into a large bowl.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the balsamic vinegar to simmer.  Continue to simmer until the vinegar has reduced to about 3 tablespoons.  Stir in the brown sugar and 1/4 tsp ground pepper. 

Combine the green beans, pasta, balsamic vinegar, and butter.  Top with the Parmesan cheese.  Taste and adjust salt & pepper as needed.  Serve and top each serving with a tablespoon of goat cheese.  Stir in the goat cheese and enjoy!

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Creamy Tomato Pasta Bake

Every so often, I am completely thrown by how easy it can be to make an amazing dish.  If you know just a few basic cooking points, it's a snap to build off of things you've eaten in restaurants or read about online and create something of your very own.  That's what happened to me this weekend.  Using a simple recipe for a roux from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I whipped up a creamy sauce and added some grated cheese that I just happened to have in my refrigerator.  It needed a little something else, so I opened a can of crushed tomatoes from my pantry and added it by 1/3-cups until I was satisfied with the taste.  I had read a recipe earlier this week about a baked pasta dish from Giada DeLaurentiis, and thought that the added texture of baked, crunchy noodles would be a nice change from my traditional pasta-sauce dinner combination.  Throwing all of those ideas together resulted in this creamy, cheesy, and very easy pasta bake!  And the whole dish began with reading a few recipes online and deciding to make a béchamel sauce.  It can really be that easy!

Tomato Cream Pasta Bake
serves 4

Ingredients
2 tbls unsalted butter
3 tbls flour
2 cups milk
1/3 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus another handful for topping
2/3 cup canned crushed tomato
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 pound short pasta noodles (I used fusilli noodles)
1/4 cup chopped basil
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

In a small pan, heat the milk until it just starts to boil.  Remove from heat. 

In a larger pan, cook the pasta according to the package directions, but cook it just shy of completely cooked.  The pasta will continue cooking in the oven.  While the water is boiling/pasta is cooking, start to cook the sauce. 

In a large sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter and whisk to combine and cook the flour.  Once the flour and butter has combined into a paste (a roux), remove the pan from heat and add the milk.  Whisk continuously until the rue has dissolved into the milk, then put the sauce pan back under medium heat and whisk occasionally until the sauce just starts to boil.  (Now you've made a béchamel sauce - fancy!)  Add the cheeses, crushed tomatoes, and garlic powder, to the sauce.  Whisk to combine.  Taste and add salt & pepper as needed. 

Add the cooked pasta to the tomato cheese sauce.  Pour the pasta into a shallow 9x9-inch baking dish and top with a handful of Parmesan cheese.  Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the top has some crunch and is browned.  Top with the chopped basil.  Serve and enjoy!

Pasta with Toasted Bread Crumbs

Last week I attended my first Minnesota Food Bloggers event at Heidi's restaurant in Minneapolis.  I was so excited to meet some of the people who write blogs that I draw inspiration and recipes from.  The Twin Cities has a lovely community of food eaters and writers, which makes absolute sense considering our extraordinary restaurant and food scene.  Heidi's graciously hosted this event and it was a treat to wander around the restaurant, see the behind-the-scenes work in the kitchen, and taste some of the delightful Heidi's fare.  I also tried some ginseng-infused whiskey.  Refreshing!  I met some wonderful people and I cannot wait for the next food blogger event.

tasty bites from heidi's

So finally this Friday I returned to my kitchen to prepare a lovely diner of .....wait for it.....training run pasta!  That's right internet friends.  I have started training for my fifth marathon.  I never thought I would see the day.  So much like this summer, I will be using the next four months of training to search out and cook new varieties of pasta dishes.  I get to expand my culinary horizons and carb load at the same time.  Loves it!  Tonight I made an insanely easy pasta dish of pasta with toasted bread crumbs.  The bread crumbs toast up and stick to the pasta spirals, making them crunchy and flavorful.  It's almost like a tasty sauce, but in bread-crumb form.  Carbs on carbs?  I'll take that for a training run pasta!

Pasta with Toasted Bread Crumbs
serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 pound of short pasta, like fusilli or bow tie
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add in a handful of salt.  Cook the pasta in the salted water according to the package directions.

In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large skillet (large enough to fit the pasta).  Keep the heat to medium, and add the bread crumbs, tossing to incorporate.  Once the bread crumbs have soaked up the oil, add the spices and continue to toss the bread crumb mixture so it does not burn.  If it starts to get dark, turn the heat off.  Taste the bread crumbs and add salt & pepper as needed.

When the pasta has cooked, use a slotted spoon and add the pasta to the bread crumb mixture.  Toss the pasta in the mixture until the pasta is coated.  Add a tablespoon of the pasta water if needed in order to make the bread crumbs stick to the pasta.  Top with the grated cheese and readjust seasonings.