New Recipes

McDonald's boy ate ricotta gnocchi with sage-butter and carrots...and liked it. We're making progress. Of course, he still ordered a Papa Johns pizza after. I was probably the last person left in LA whose number was not in the system at any fast-food pizza joint. Calling around for a pizza delivery, we got a lot of confused workers asking over and over, "can you repeat that please?" I think we've got just about all of them covered now, so bring it on over Dominoes.

I've been cooking a few things out of the Zuni Cafe cookbook Sam bought me a while back. So far, the recipes have been simple and successful. A difficult, but useful combination to find.



I made the ricotta gnocchi (this is a photo of the page because I did not take a picture of mine). I did the little carrots just the same (and they were really good rolled in the sage-butter) and I used sage instead of chervil cuz that's what I had. The recipe's simplicity depends on getting good ricotta, which I can, but I doubt it would work with the stuff in those little tallish plastic containers at the grocery store. So if you have a good Italian market nearby, I highly recommend making these.

1 pound ricotta (blended until smooth)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup grated parmesian
a bit of nutmeg

Whip it all for a bit with a whisk or in a kitchen aid, then shape ovals using two spoons. Coat them in flour and cook them in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drop them in a pan of melted butter with herbs. Serve immediately. The carrots I just blanched and shocked and then rolled them in the same butter.

The other recipe I tried got really good after it sat in my refrigerator for a few days. Slice two pounds of sweet onions (like maui or vidalia) and put them in a bowl. Add olive oil, a little white wine, some salt, very thinly sliced lemon rounds (with the rind still on), chopped fresh mint, and olives. Lay that in the bottom of a large baking dish. Arrange artichokes cut in half and trimmed then doused in olive oil and salt among onions. Cover the whole thing with parchment paper and then with foil and bake until artichokes are tender, about an hour and a half at 375. I trimmed my artichokes a lot thinking I'd be able to eat them without using the "scraping" method, but I still had to scrape, so I recommend not going to all the trouble to trim them that much. Here's mine:



And here's the book's: