Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I just handed in my final assignment of my sophomore year (a review of the Blue Valentine screenplay for my film class...have you seen that movie? It is depressing! I'm sure it would be a lot better to actually watch the movie because then I could stare at Ryan Gosling and everything would be alright).

But anywho, I am officially halfway through college! What?? When did this happen? I'm so old.

I get to stay home and relax for a few weeks before returning to Boston for the summer. So hello Grey's Anatomy reruns and bag after bag of banana chips! And I get to cook again! I missed my kitchen probably more than anything (except for my mother of course!).

My first night home I decided to try something that I've been wanting to try for forever now: gnocchi! It is a little time consuming, but actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. All we had were sweet potatoes, so I used those and used whole wheat flour to bind it all together. Delicious, healthy, and fancy! Your family will be so impressed!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4

Gnocchi

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 (approx.) cups of whole wheat flour

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups of fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Directions

1. Cook your potatoes however you'd like. I baked mine in a 375 degree oven for an hour, but you could also boil them. (Side note: remember to poke holes in your potatoes with a fork before you bake them. I may have accidentally forgot and came very close to having exploded bake potato all over my oven.)

2. Remove the skins and mash potatoes in a bowl and let cool.  Add salt, pepper, cinnamon and egg and mix together.

3. Add the flour. I would start with about 1 1/4 cups and then add more as needed. You don't want it to be so sticky that you can't handle it, but don't add too much flour.  I think I added too much and it made the gnocchi a little tough and took away from the sweet potato flavor.

4. Roll the dough into a ball and then cut into 4 sections. Each section will be a serving. Roll out each section onto a floured surface into a skinny snake and cut dough into one inch nuggets. (If you aren't making 4 servings, this is when you can freeze any extras for later.)

5. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Reduce the water so that it is just on the edge of boiling, but not a roiling boil.  Add the gnocchi, one serving at a time, and cook until they float to the top. Wait another thirty seconds and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Continue cooking the rest of the gnocchi. And set aside.

6. Empty water from pot and add 1 Tbsp of butter. Sautee the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

7. Add gnocchi and cook until golden on the outside.

8. Add spinach and cook until just wilted.

7. Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese over top. And enjoy!

We ate it with some garlic bread and my mom's delicious, garlicky broccoli. Yum! It is going to be a delicious few weeks! 

Antico Forno

Hello all and Happy Friday!! (aka 2 days until the most important day of my life thus far....i'm not exaggerating)

But anywho...luckily an old friend from high school is going to college in downtown Boston so I finally had an excuse this semester to go downtown and walk around and eat delicious food! After some online research, I decided we should try out Antico Forno in the North End on Salem St. Aside from getting yelled at seconds after walking in the door for wearing a Giants hat, I would have to say it was overall a great experience! And this mostly stems from the price! For two of us, the total came to $24!!! And the food was delicious! And it was perfect portions. My friend...a male...finished it all of course. But I have enough leftover to enjoy for dinner as well. Not bad for $11! I really don't think you could possibly find cheaper Italian food in the North End that tastes that good!

I got the Gnocchi di Patate.

It was very good! The sauce in our dishes was still bubbling when it got to our table and it stayed hot throughout the entire meal. (A plus when it's 25 degrees outside). The gnocchi was perfect consistency..my friend didn't believe me that gnocchi was made from potatoes. The tomato basil sauce was was great and you can never go wrong with mozzarella cheese melted on top.

My friend got the Rigatoni with Sausage (only it had some Italian word for sausage that I can't remember).

He claimed it was the best sausage he'd ever had in his life, however, I would disagree. It did have a lot of flavor but it did not have any heat to it. Maybe it's just me..but I think sausage should be at least a little spicy. Also, I thought it was weird that it was topped with ricotta instead of mozzarella, but again that's probably just a preference of mine. His sauce however, was probably the most delicious tomato-based sauce I have ever had in my life. For rizzle.

After we left there, all fat and happy, we decided it was time that we both lost our gelato virginity. I had passed places selling it in the North End all the time but had never tried it. So alas, we went into the first place that we found that sold it and ordered a cup of tiramisu gelato. It was very very good! (And it better be for $5 for this tiny cup).

And I apologize for the lack of picture, but once I took the first bite this was the next moment that I was not shoveling gelato in mouth long enough to take a picture. And look at how adorable those spoons are!!!! Like little mini shovels. I died. But then again, it doesn't take much.

Overall, a very good day! I did get accosted in the street quite a bit for the Giants hat I was wearing. (And I'm pretty sure someone through a bottle cap at me, but when I looked around they had disappeared). But the one person who looked and said "GO GIANTS!" made it all worth it. So to quote my new best friend from downtown Boston...GO GIANTS!!!!

One Week Until Christmas!

Happy Sunday! Now I would usually be too distracted with football to post right now, but the Giants are sucking it up big time, so I need something to distract me from this depressing, pathetic excuse for a game on my TV. And what better way than to talk about food?? Italian food nonetheless!

For dinner in NYC we went to Pietrasanta, on 9th and 47th thanks to the recommendation of my friend Vic. And let me tell you, we weren't disappointed! Food was very fairly priced...between $16 and $20 an entree. We started out with some yummy Italian bread and a delicious tomato basil hummus.

For our entrees, I ordered the Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto. Now, I have never had a risotto that I didn't love, but I wasn't really impressed with this one. It wasn't quite creamy enough for me and there was something, perhaps the Pecorino Cheese, that gave it an odd, almost bitter, taste. There were, however, giant pieces of mushroom which really impressed me. 

Delaney settled on the Fettuccine di Spinaci con Melanzane. This was very delicious, but it didn't have any roasted eggplant in it as promised in the description, but was still very tasty.

And what I thought was the most delicious entree...the Gnocchi Torrese. Oh my goodness I can't even describe how good this was! I was so jealous that I didn't order it, but luckily Vic let me have a bite...or four. The gnocchi itself was so soft and creamy and just overall amazing!

Then, even though our stomachs could not possibly fit another bite, Vic convinced us that their chocolate mousse would be worth any puking that it may later cause. And that was all the convincing we needed. And again, it definitely did not disappoint!

Just look at it...it tasted as good as it looks. Enough said. And trust me, I am very picky about my chocolate mousse, and this was close to perfect. Bravo Pietrasanta, Bravo!

From here, we took a long walk up to Columbus Circle and around Central Park in a pointless attempt to work off some of that food. Then we kind of ran out of stuff to do. I know what you're thinking...in New York City? But we were too cheap to go see a show and none of the movies were playing at good times. So naturally, we went back to Times Square to take more ridiculous pictures, but this time...at night!

Have a great rest of your weekend! And Giants...GET IT TOGETHER!