I am going to have to be careful here, or this is just going to end up being a cooking blog. I make way too much fun stuff to concentrate only on cooking. But I don't have any making-stuff content ready to rock, so I'm going to give you a recipe for some savory, meaty pasta with a bunch of veggies snuck in, that will keep you in leftovers for (probably) days. This is a seriously versatile and flexible dish that you can mess with all day and not break it. You can cook this. I promise.
Here's what you'll need:
We don't have to do that here. Put the clove on the cutting board, then lay your knife (please tell me you have some kind of broad chef knife) flat on top of the clove, and whack it with a hand. You don't want to totally smoosh the thing, but you're not being gentle, either. The clove should be somewhat squished, and the peel should be split in a couple places. Get rid of that papery stuff, and chop the heck out of those cloves. Okay, so prep time. I believe wholly in getting as many of your ingredients ready to go before you turn on the gas. If you're easily distractible (like me) or you're not a pro on timing (like me), getting your stuff together helps a lot. So, before things get hot, do this:
Some variations, because I mentioned this stuff is versatile: If you need to sneak more vegetables into your kid's diet, this is a great way to do it. There' already one red pepper and one onion and some mushrooms, but you can jack the proportions a lot and still get something good. Add more peppers or more mushrooms. You can also add a whole bag of spinach to this stuff. I'd recommend chopping the stuff up before adding it. And for the love of crap, only use fresh spinach. Fresh will add the visual, uh, texture of little dark green specks all through the dish. Canned spinach will turn the entire thing a disgusting, pukey brown-green. TRUST ME ON THIS. Add cheese! We usually sprinkle a fair bit of pecorino romano over the finished thing, but there's no reason you can't toss a cup of grated parmesan or romano when you're mixing. The point here is that this is a nearly unbreakable recipe, and you can toss in whatever you want. It's got real food in it that you bought fresh, and it's so much more fun than spaghetti and Ragu. Try it, play with it, and let me know how it goes in the comments.
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No introductions. No lofty goals. I'm just diving right into my first post. Let's rock.
I am a husband and the father of a crazy little two and a half year old. Our schedules work out so that I am usually the one picking up the critter (a term of endearment, I promise) from day care, doing the shopping, and then cooking the dinner. Two years ago, the prospect of being the family's chef terrified me. The root of that fear came from the fact that I generally eat for sustenance, that is, I eat more or less on a strict routine to keep the tanks full, and I have very little trouble eating the same thing every day. My wife eats for variety and pleasure, and goes crazy if she has to eat the same thing for more than a few days straight. She's also a better cook than I am. So here I am, afraid that I'll be boring and bad at it, and getting silently judged by the wife that I'm just *terrible*. It took some talking-into-it, but I finally agreed to be the nighttime cook, with some recipe/theme/whatever advice from wifey. Fast forward two years, and I'm whipping up some pretty decent grub. Not gonna lie, some of it still comes out of cans. Some of it is the "easy version", but hey, it tastes good, gives wifey the variety she craves, doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and sustains the family for the day. Just a couple nights ago, I picked up the wee man from "school" and made my way home. There, waiting for me, was our whiteboard calendar where we coordinate our month's schedule and our weekly meal planning (hoo boy. More on meal planning in another post.) On the block for Tuesday was "Gnocchi with white beans". Lucky me, the ingredients were all laying around. Also lucky me: This is one of my favorite recipes to make AND to eat. It's hot, hearty, easy, and pretty cheap. Also lucky you, I'm going to tell you how to make it. Here's what goes into it all: 1 lb frozen gnocchi 1 big container/bag of some kind of spinach 1 white onion, roughly chopped 2/3/9 cloves of garlic (we're mostly Italian, so it's like, 12 for us), finely chopped or minced if you're fancy 1 can small white beans (habichuelas blancas) 1 can stewed & diced tomatoes A couple handfuls of shredded mozzarella A hunk of Romano or Parmesan cheese A splash of olive oil Here's how to make it: 1. Get that pasta water salted and heating up first thing. 2. Heat up a big, nonstick pan (over medium-high heat*) with that splash of olive oil. Get it hot and shimmery. 3. Toss in the garlic and onion, and get it sauteeing. 4. Open the can o' beans and rinse it out in a strainer. Once the rinse water is clear, set the strainer on top of the can to drain while you toss the onion and garlic around to keep it from burning. 5. Once the Onions are translucent (5-ish minutes) dump in the beans and toss it all around. 6. Once the beans are good and hot (another few minutes), dump in the whole can of tomatoes, juice and all. That's important, because you're going to immediately... 7. Drop all that spinach right on top and lid it tightly. The boiling tomato juice will steam the spinach. My wife tells me this is called "wilting." Sure. Wilt the spinach. It'll turn brilliant green and... 8. The water should be boiling by now. Drop in the gnocchi, and set a timer for 6-ish minutes (or whatever it tells you on the bag for firm or al-dente. It's going to cook more in a minute, and we don't want it mushy.) 9. Mix up that goodness you've got in the pan. It should look like a tiny, abstract, Italian pride celebration: All red, white, and green. That's how you know it's working. Turn the heat down to low-ish, and let it simmer while the pasta cooks. Stir it once in a while to keep yourself busy. 10. Once the pasta's done, drain it with a colander and slide it into the pan, and fold the pasta into the party happening in the pan. Be gentle. You want gnocchi, not potato mush. 11. Spread a couple handfuls of mozzarella on top, then grate some of that hard cheese on top of that. I recommend Pecorino Romano, just because I like it better than Parmesan, but it's up to you. If you don't have a goat to milk and 2 years to age your hard cheese, then store bought is just fine. 12. Lid all that for another 5 minutes until the cheese is melty and bubbly, and you're done. If nobody is headbutting you in the hip or insisting that you put out an imaginary fire, take this quiet opportunity to clean some things. The cutting board first to free up counter space, and your knife, because TAKE CARE OF YOUR KNIVES (oh, that's so going to be another post.) Then, whatever else. The pot, the strainer, and toss the cans. The idea here is to use the time you've got to get done something you HAVE to get done, before the kid gets loaded up on food and goes crazy before bed time. And you have to do a bedtime routine. And that routine is exhausting and before you know it, it's 10PM and you really, really don't want to do dishes now. Anyway, call the fam, cuz soup's on. Scoop, scarf, and sigh, cuz you just made something delicious. Good for you. Let's do it again soon. *You should never run hotter than medium-high on nonstick cookware, it chowders the coating all up and makes it into non-non-stick. I learned this after we bought a new nonstick pan because I destroyed the last one. Also: Don't flambé in nonstick. It's bad. |
AuthorI'm Dan, and I make things. Jewelry, food, carvings, Viking knotwork, and at least one child (so far). This is where I document all that stuff. Archives
May 2017
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