Around the world in 80 meals
This week I’ve made Thai, Chinese, Irish, and Italian dishes. What’s next?
Actually what’s next is Cuban food, but not of my own making. I’m heading to Cuba for a week on Friday, so I’ve been trying to eat everything in the fridge that I figure my housemate won’t use. That effort’s been going well…so well that yesterday I peeked into the crispers and found only a few bits of kale, three beets, two scallions, a couple mushrooms, some basil, and half a turnip. A scan of the rest of the kitchen turned up a container of cherry tomatoes that were just a little bit soft. The beets would last a week. The kale I had other plans for. That left turnip, scallions, basil, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Don’t ask me how I connected those dots to form this picture, but I did:
That’s fresh turnip gnocchi with a roasted tomato sauce. No, I’d never made gnocchi before, let alone turnip gnocchi. It was a grand experiment. I basically followed these helpful instructions for regular gnocchi. In place of potato, I took my half turnip (roughly a pound) and roasted it (because boiling would have made it too moist), then mashed it. From that point I approached it like regular potato gnocchi, though adding salt and pepper and parsley for extra tastiness. (I subbed egg replacer for the egg.) I did find that the mixture needed much more flour than the potato gnocchi recipe called for — around double! I’m not sure whether that was because I was using something other than potatoes, or whether there was a flaw in the original potato gnocchi recipe, or if I just don’t grok what gnocchi dough is supposed to feel like. The resulting cooked gnocchi were subtle and tasty, but a little chewy. I think this was due to overkneading, though, as I frantically added more and more flour to make my sticky experimental mess turn into dough. I’ll know to use more flour and knead less next time. It may be a while, though — this probably made enough for 6 or so servings, and 2/3rds now happily occupy my freezer. Yay, gnocchi on demand!
The sauce was divine. Have you ever roasted cherry tomatoes? They’re exquisite. Roast’em, then sautee briefly with fresh basil, scallions, garlic, and a few mushrooms. Voila, one very simple, very tasty sauce.
