Gnocchi all Sorrentina

Last August we spent two blissful – and very hot – weeks in Italy. For three nights we stayed in a tiny town called Seiano, outside of Sorrento, on the Gulf of Naples. Our somewhat remote 5-star hotel had a one-Michelin star restaurant, meaning when we got hungry we hiked it to the Trattoria “La Nave” up the road. One night we brought in a pizza and beers to enjoy the view of Mt. Vesuvius from our patio and had to march it through the lobby right past the restaurant’s  fancy lineup – Scusi!

The following day we went back for a late lunch. The potato “dumpings” on the menu had caught my eye and I wanted to experience gnocchi Sorrento-style.  They came swimming in a thick, spicy tomato sauce packed with big chunks of bufala mozzarella. Much to the owner’s disappointment, I was only able to put a small dent in the dish, following appetizers of prosciutto and melon and caprese salad. Nevertheless, it was divine.

Friday night I took my third and final piece of frozen gnocchi dough out of the freezer so that I could make it the next night.  Saturday morning, though, we made dinner plans with friends. There was only one thing to do with that thawed ball of dough. I dumped about a cup of flour onto the counter and immediately began rolling out gnocchi’s. We set a big pot of water to boil and got out our other ingredients: tomato sauce (leftover from pizza night) and fresh soft mozzarella (also leftover from pizza night).

As the gnocchi cooked (3 minutes per batch – I broke it into four batches to avoid sticking), I heated the tomato sauce on medium in a small saucepan. Once the sauce was very warm I transferred the gnocchi to it, and at the end added a large handful of the soft mozzarella, cut into small chunks.

Breakfast was served! Gnocchi all Sorrentina.

A note about tomato sauce:

For this recipe and for the pizza, I used Pomi marinara sauce. Generally we like to make our own tomato sauce – and I encourage you to do the same – but this Pomi marinara is delicious and particularly handy for times like when you’re making pasta for breakfast.

Thanks Umberto

My mom has been making a special pasta recipe for years that I’m told originates in some form from The Umberto Menghi Cookbook.  “Leek pasta” was a favorite growing up – I couldn’t even escape its delicious embrace during a short-lived no pasta phase. It’s a simple sauce that calls for merely 6 ingredients: a bunch of leeks (2 – 4), 2 cloves of garlic, butter, white wine, chicken stock, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese.

I once tried to made the same sauce with onion in place of leek and it was delicious. I’ve left out the chicken stock by accident and it still tasted pretty good – but needed a lot of salt. (Oooh on that note, rarely do I mention salt and pepper in a list of ingredients because I just assume that you, the reader, season responsibly.) You can even get away with not adding the cheese, but, in my opinion, life just tastes better with parmesan.

Note that the amount of chicken stock and white wine you add doesn’t have to be exact. If I have lots of time and lots of leeks, I’ll add more of both. If I don’t have as much time I’ll add a little less of each to save time as it all cooks off. Both ways work, though I do prefer the leisurely practice of sipping white wine as I wait for the liquid to cook off… Also, you can use any noodle you like, though my first choice is a spaghettini or angel hair.

So, if you want to wow your friends and loved ones, here’s the recipe:

Leek Pasta

1. Pour yourself a big glass of white wine.
2. Chop the white and light green parts of the leeks into 2-3 inch pieces and then cut those into long thin strips  (julienne).  Wash them thoroughly – leeks are dirty!
3. In a very large frying pan, melt one to two tablespoons of butter on medium heat and add the leeks (get your pasta water set up around now, too).
4. Cook, stirring, until the leeks are translucent.
5. Pour in 1/3 to 3/4 of a cup of the white wine you are drinking (a big splash).
6. Chop garlic and add to simmering liquid in pan.
7. When there is no liquid left, add one to two cups of chicken stock, bring back to a simmer.
8. Once the liquid has nearly all cooked away, turn heat to low. Depending on what kind of noodle you are using, it’s time to cook the pasta (it might have needed to go in sooner).
9. Pour a half cup of the cream into the sauce.
10. Finally, add the cooked pasta to the pan and toss. You can add the cheese now or simply serve it on top of your plated pasta.

This pasta tastes really good the next day, so make at least 4 noodle servings and take the extra for lunch!

Lately we have been trying to get more green vegetables into our systems, and since this is the only basic sauce recipe that I know really well, I decided to make it with less leek (I only had two little guys leftover from the salmon with lentils night) and added the following: chopped zucchini, (1 cup), a chopped onion, chopped asparagus, (1 to 2 cups) and baby spinach (as much as you want – it will really shrink down).

For this one we did not have any white wine, which we learned was not a problem. The flavor of the sauce survived fine without it.

The directions remain the same as above, only we added the onions along with the leeks in step 3. Since we had no white wine we went straight to the chicken broth step, adding our zucchini at this time. We covered and simmered on medium heat for 10 minutes before adding the asparagus and cooking for another 10 minutes. Before we added the cream the spinach went in. It was just a few minutes before it was wilted and the sauce was done.

We used a Gemelli noodle and made such a massive batch that the next night we decided to eat it for dinner again, only this time my husband layered it in a baking dish with gruyere and cream, sprinkled it with breadcrumbs and baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. It turned into a tasty mac’n’cheese-esque pasta treat that I couldn’t wait to finish the next day for lunch.

A few nights later we still had cream, zucchini and asparagus leftover so I made essentially the same sauce. We had some fresh rosemary so that got chopped and added. I also had a leftover ball of frozen potato dough from the gnocchi night so I quickly shaped some tender little dumplings and in they went. In my hungry haste I rolled the gnocchi a little more haphazardly than usual and found they tasted just as good as the perfectly shaped ones of last week, if not better.

Following the gnocchi night I also invested in a gnocchi board so out that came and what ensued was a lesson in why the little notches are key – the creamy sauce gets stored in them meaning more makes it to your mouth! Yum.

Don’t gnoc it til you try it

The first time I tried making gnocchi from scratch was last summer. It just seemed so simple, and I was delighted to find that it was! So simple. The only part that takes any real effort is shaping each little dumpling, but eventually you’ll find a style and a rhythm that work.

Gnocchi go great with many sauces. When I was traveling in Peru, and not quite comfortable yet with the fact that guinea pig was on the menu, I ordered gnocchi with basil pesto for dinner almost every night.  In Italy one of my most memorable meals was ricotta gnocchi in a light cream sauce with pancetta and zucchini. Unbelievable.

Gnocchi with four-cheese sauce is a meal that once I decide to make I cannot get out of my head.  I have to have it. As in Peru, if I could have this dish every night I would.

The gnocchi part is easy. You peel and steam or boil a pound or two of potatoes, depending on how much dough you want. When they’re cooked, you mix in flour, a bit of salt, and one egg.  Any recipe you read will warn you that too much flour will make the gnocchi hard and not enough will make them fall apart. Do not panic. If your potato and flour come together in a dough that’s not sticky or brick-like in its firmness you’re fine.

Once I have a nice big dough ball, I’ll break off a smaller ball, roll it into a long snake and start shaping my gnocchi’s. I roll them with a little a fork to get the notches in. I’m not sure this is a necessary step but it feels good to just go with it.

The Four-cheese sauce we seem to mess up every time, but eventually it comes together.  I haven’t found a proper recipe for it either. We start with a roux, slowly add a bunch of grated cheese (this time we used gruyere, provolone, fontina and cheddar) and keep on stirring. If it’s too thick a bit of warm milk goes in.

We try to time the cooking of the gnocchi so that the sauce doesn’t sit at all. It’s best served as soon as it’s done. The gnocchi need maybe 3 minutes in hot water – until they float – and I do them in batches so they don’t stick together.

The result this time was amazing, though we did have to throw out our first sauce attempt. Luckily very little cheese had made its way in.

After dinner the strawberries in the fridge and the chocolate in the cupboard came together in true date night fashion.

There’s nothing wrong with eating any leftovers for breakfast. Nothing.

The trick is knowing where to look

So far we are finding New York expensive. One way we figure we can keep costs down is to cook dinner in instead of going out.

On Tuesday I discovered Big Apple Meat Market (9th Ave and 41st) on my way home from Central Fish Market, where I had purchased a piece of Tilapia for that evening’s dinner. The Meat Market appeared to be simply a discount supermarket. Once inside, it took me one full lap before I discovered the meat area, a big refrigerated room lined with shelves of sausage, fillets, grounds, and cuts I had never heard of.  There was so much reasonably priced meat that I simply grabbed $4 worth of Veal and split (I had my Tilapia already for that evening’s meal), not before noting, however, that the same pound of bacon that retails for $7.99 elsewhere was there priced $3.99, and that two plump juicy chickens could be purchased for $5! In case you don’t buy many plump, juicy whole birds – we’ll build to that – this is an amazing deal.

For the Tilapia we followed a tip from the April 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, which suggests dusting one side of your thick-cut fish fillet with sugar. This way, when you sear the one side, it browns up perfectly, allowing you to flip and finish in the oven (at 425 degrees) and ensuring a nice moist interior. We steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes to complete the plate. The leftover broccoli and mash went into my husband’s lunch along with roast chicken sandwiches (leftover from Sunday’s dinner).

I wanted to make the Veal Milanese-style to summon memories of our trip to Italy last August.  An end piece of a sourdough loaf became bread crumbs after a few pulses in the Food Pro. We pounded out the cutlets between layers of saran wrap, then seasoned them with salt and pepper, dusted them with flour, and soaked them in egg before covering each one in bread crumbs.  When they went into the oil the meat shrunk and the coating puffed up like fried chicken.

those babies are ready to flip!

The result, though not 100% authentic Italian, was delicious. We made a simple tomato pasta to accompany the veal and washed it all down with cabernet sauvignon, that of course had to be opened for the tomato sauce. Tasted like Italy.

"Veal 2 ways" - thanks honey

Big Apple Meat Market 575 9th Avenue, New York, NY‎ – (212) 563-2555

Central Fish Market 527 9th Avenue, New York, NY – (212) 279-2317

Cooks Illustrated “How to Pan-roast thick-cut fish fillets”