marina di chioggia gnocchi

Thanks to Nevermore Farm for the half Marina di Chioggia squash in our first CSA box of 2012!  As suggested, I ventured to make gnocchi... pretty much for the first time in my life.  For the recipe and directions, I followed BOLDO'S THOUGHTS ON FOOD:

I first cut up the half squash into ~palm-size pieces. Roasted them @400F in the oven  for ~1.5hr. Even after that length of time, there were still several pretty firm pieces; probably due to how much I bunched them up on my standard-sized roasteing dish (which in the world of giant squashes is pretty small).  

I made the dough with ~ half the roasted squash (i.e. 1/4 of the total squash) and ~1 cup of whole wheat flour.  For each eighth of the dough, i rolled it up into ~3/4 to 5/4 inch diameter ropes, then cut them into ~1" intervals. 

A quick internet search provided several good YouTube videos of how to roll gnocchi  with a fork.  I eventually got the hang of it after about ~50... 

The total dough made 300-350 gnocchi. I was fairly liberal with the flour to keep them from sticking. 

With the first meal, we had them with a red sauce which I made simply with two cans of fire-roasted tomatoes and 1/2 bag of frozen veggies; I know, not very inventive...   But I made up for it with the second meal where I topped it with saute Hedgehog Mushrooms w/ heirloom carrots. We've been having Hedgehog mushrooms w/ carrots since the mushrooms came into season three weeks ago.  We're hoping to see these little delights again at the Farmer's Market next Saturday (fingers crossed!).

random fusilli

Motivation: to consume the random assortment of veggies in the refrigerator.

Finding: discovered the yellow summer squash was bitter! Apparently, summer squash, being of the Cucurbita genus may sometimes cross-pollinate with other cucurbitacin-containing cucurbit to produce a bitter-tasting summer squash. Cucurbitacin is a natural plant herbicide and its effects on human health is debated: it is known to be cytotoxic but many are hopeful of it potential as anti-carcinogenic properties. We decided to pick them out mainly due to our lack of knowledge in the matter and because it was really bitter (not different to bitter melon which belonging to the same family (Cucurbitaceae) but different genus (Momordica) also contains cucurbitacins.

Serves 4.

Ingredients
8oz. or 230g whole-wheat fusilli
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 summer squash, diced (your choice of bitterness)
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
~5 asparagus, chopped
~ 10 long beans, chopped
~5 white mushrooms, diced.
2 roma tomatoes, diced


3/4 cup (3 oz or 85g) ground pork, marinated in
1 clove of crushed garlic
1 tbp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
pinch of S&P

Procedures
1. Cook pasta according to manufacturer's instructions until al dente, drain, toss in some extra virgin olive oil, set aside.
2. Brown pork over medium to high heat. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, saute mushrooms, zucchini and squash over s dash of olive oil and the crushed garlic, until just tender.
4. Add beans and asparagus and cook briefly (~2mins).
5. Add browned pork and diced tomatoes with ~1/4 cup water. Simmer over low heat until much of the water has evaporated.
6. Toss in the pasta. Turn off heat. Grate and stir in some pecorino romano.
7. Serve immediately preferably with a glass of red wine (we recommend the 2005 Wingnut Zinfandel).

Enjoy.

campanelle alla boscaiola

So here is my second attempt at the boscaiola pasta. First of, it tasted much better this time ;-)

Few things I did differently:
1) In addition to the porcini, I also used half a cup of each white and maitake mushrooms;
2) I used three fresh roma tomatoes plus three table spoons of Muir Glen's Portobello Mushroom pasta sauce;
3) Campanelle was used instead of fenne or cavatappi (which I have yet to find in Davis!).

In regards to the first two points here are my two cents:
1) Addition of fresh mushrooms really adds flavour. There is not doubt that porcini is extremely aromatic, but its taste is less conspicuous by comparison. I think this is mainly because the fragrance is so powerful that one naturally expected something of an equal par on the palate. The maitake definitely hits the right note. On top of the nutty taste, the meaty texture of this mushroom also help to improve this dish nicely.
2) I do not mean to sound like a snob, but I am generally adversed to premade pasta sauces. This is mainly because I believe one can easily make simple sauces at home that can taste as good or, more likely, much better than prepackaged ones. The key is to always have the right ingredients on hand. And that was my problem: I had hoped three roma tomatoes would have been juicy enough but they weren't and I didn't have extra tomatoes and I had ran out of tomato pasta (pure ones with nothing added). Instead there was a bottle of MG's pasta sauce in the fridge (we won't dwell on how it got there). Three table-spoons was enough with about 1/4 cup of water to dilute it then simmered down.

Like I said, it turned out great!

I haven't mentioned wines in past posts, but I thought I should start. We paired this dish with a 2005 Cline Cashmere. It is a decent wine with lots of berries and a very subtle finishing which together made it a good pair with the pasta.

angelhair pasta with hedgehog mushrooms

We were at the farmers' market on Saturday and found some wild hedgehog mushrooms. Never even heard of them before, so of course, we bought some to try =) The mushroom guy suggested sauteing with garlic or using them in a risotto amongst others. I decided to cook it with pasta ;-)

People have described hedgehog mushrooms as having an earthy taste. I would agree as there were definitely hints of mineral and dirt flavor (not in a bad way). My first impression, however, was stale water (again, not in a bad way..). Hehe, okay, I guess you just have to trust me or find out for yourself that this mushroom is actually not bad. And, honestly, this pasta dish was very refreshing yet flavorful.

I used angelhair pasta because we had some at home, but it turned out to be perfect as the flavor of the dish is quite light so the skinny pasta was a good match. Also, this dish will end up with a little sauce (due to prior soaking of the mushrooms) and angelhair will pick that up when eating. Of course, other pasta that picks up sauce well will probably do fine too. By the way, we soaked the mushrooms in a bowl of salted water for a couple minutes to get out any bugs that may have been hiding. This was necessary because the mushrooms were wild; luckily, no critters were discovers =)

Oh, I also made this dish with a really nice olive oil from UC Davis. We had tasted this olive oil before at various places, but it had taken us over a month to finally walk over to the bookshop to get a bottle!! And this is the first time we used it at home. Apparently, they launched a centennial blend which is not the ones that we have had before, but it did not disappoint. It has a grassy taste (which I think really complimented the hedgehog mushrooms) but it is not overpowering. I highly recommend it (though I think it was a little pricey).

Without further ado, here is our recipe:


Makes 2.

Ingredients
150g angelhair pasta
1/4 lb (115g) hedgehog mushroom
1/2 yellow heirloom tomato
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper
olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano

Preparation
1. Cook pasta per instruction. Once al dente, drain and return to pot with some good olive oil. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic and mushroom in a good drizzle of olive oil over medium heat for 2-5 mins or until all moisture has evaporated.
3. Toss in diced tomato and stir for 1-2 mins. Do not let it dry out or burn.
4. Season with salt & pepper. Turn off heat.
5. Toss in prepared pasta & grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Enjoy.

Spaghettini Aglio e Olio

I chose this recipe tonight for a couple reasons: 1) I had (still have) a bunch of parsley that I want to use up, and 2) apart from the parsley, I don't have much else at home. The only other ingredients this recipe calls for are dried chili, garlic, olive oil, and salt; I have ~1/4 of a bulb of garlic and I a bunch of Thai chili drying in my kitchen =)

As I was rummaging through my kitchen, I also noticed chanterelles, so I also included this even though it wasn't in the recipe (I know, I know.. I have a tendency to embellish unnecessarily). Since the recipe asked for the ingredients to be chopped finely, I decided to do the same with the chanterelles, which I cooked at the same time as I sauteed the garlic in olive oil. The garlic and mushrooms gave off a good fragrance, though it was nowhere near as enticing as the porcinis of the previous recipe. 

I added the parsley & chili once the moisture from the mushrooms evaporated and the garlic started to brown. It took less than a minute for the parsley to wilt, at which stage I tossed in the spaghetti (I didn't have any spaghettini on hand). 

All in all, the dish was very simple to make. The flavour was also very simple: a good hint of garlic with a good kick from the chili. It is not difficult to see how this would make a great side dish or snack in summer. Unfortunately, it was only a mediocre dish in winter (though it still beats biking to the shops in search of other ingredients in the cold, chilly wind!). 

Strozzapreti ai Porcini e Peperoni

My first endeavor was decided upon by Aaron's (my bf) love of mushrooms, and on this particular day, it was porcinis. There are only three recipes in the book using porcini, and we settled on the one on page 128. I particularly like this recipe because it was really flavorful and because the ingredients list was relatively short (always a plus for me-- a strong believer in simplicity).

Although we could not find any fresh porcinis at the farmers' market we were happy to get some dried ones from the shops. I soaked the mushrooms in quite a bit of water to rehydrate them; this concerned me a little as the recipe asked to cooked the mushrooms with the water it was soaked in (after filtering) until the water completely evaporates. For a while, I was sure the water would never dissipate! But, at last, it did, and the mushrooms did not get over-cooked (probably not possible to overcook porcinis..?).

The treatment of the herbs was a novelty for me. Three herbs were called for: garlic, sage, and rosemary. Aside from slightly crushing the garlic, all should be intact (I should have read the instruction beforehand =P). The idea is to cook the herbs in olive oil until the garlic browns then discard the herbs, leaving the oil with a lovely aroma of infused garlic, sage, and rosemary, to which the porcinis were added. The fragrance remained in my kitchen for a good long time-- it was mouthwatering.

Another novelty from this recipe, for me, was the peeling of the capsicums (that's bell pepper for you yanks). I don't know about others but I have never peeled my capsicums before (the skin will generally come off it I bake/roast them). So, for fellow newbies out there, I would recommend purchasing ones with few ridges and peeling them before coring & de-seeding.

A final comment about the making of this dish is on the amount of seasoning. This dish is really aromatic and flavourful, so I would recommend using the salt and pepper sparingly.

All in all, I think my first endeavour was very successful. So successful that Aaron ordered an 8oz bottle of dried porcini from the internet! I guess we'll be coming back to this dish =)
They arrived a week later ::