Broccoli Rabe & Provolone Ravioli with Pork Ragu, My Fourth of July Guest Post for Spicie Foodie

My good friend Nancy of Spicie Foodie is celebrating her third blogoversary, and to kick it off she asked me to contribute a guest post. If you don't know her, she is awesomeness personified,  and of course I was more than happy to oblige. I chose this broccoli rabe and provolone ravioli with pork ragu to share with her readers, so please go check out my post and say hello to her.

And for my U.S. readers, Happy Independence Day!

Linguine with Sweet Melted Onions for (Sort of But Not Really) French Fridays with Dorie

 

I'm pretty adventurous and open-minded when it comes to food (if I do say so myself). I rarely wrinkle my nose at anything, and I'm game to try just about any dish you'll put in front of me. That said, I also know that there are certain flavor combinations I'm just not wild about. 

Case in point: dessert for dinner. Just ... no.  Not for me.

So when I read the ingredients list for Beggar's Linguine in Around My French Table, this week's French Fridays with Dorie dish, I knew I was going to have to make some serious changes. All those figs and dates in my pasta just added up to an unpleasant cloying sweetness in my mental palate. I realize that there are some traditional pasta dishes that call for raisins - I've even made one - but for me, in a savory dish the sweetness should be the accent, not the focal point.

Viennese Gnocchi Baked in Pumpkin Cream, Plus my Very First Giveaway (and it's a good one!)

Regular readers of this blog may recall that last year I promised to share the recipe for the luscious Viennese gnocchi baked in pumpkin cream that I got from Chef Mike of Weinhof Wieninger, an upscale heuriger located in Stammersdorf.  I also promised to share with you his secret to a perfectly pillow-y potato gnochhi. And so, prompted by Poppa Trix's birthday, for which I cooked up a recreation of our heuriger feast, I am now finally making good on my promise.

My Gnocchi Came Naked to the Party: Nude Gnocchi a la Al Di La Trattoria

Welcome to the international gnocchi party! Hosted by Penny aka Jeroxie, my fellow guests and I have been tasked with bringing an umami-rich gnocchi dish to this virtual shindig. (There's a complete list of the other attendees, with links, and the bottom of this post.)  I took this challenge as the perfect opportunity to re-create a dish that has stuck with me for over 10 years: the malfatti, or nude gnocchi, as they are made at Al Di La Trattoria in my old digs of Brooklyn, NY.

When I first tasted these delectable pillows, I knew next to nothing about food or cooking.  I could tell something gastronomically special was going on, but I couldn't have pointed to the nutmeg, sage, Swiss chard, or brown butter as key players. I just knew I wanted more, more, more - but alas, I was broke and couldn't afford to eat out often enough to feed my malfatti addiction.  Plus I couldn't cook.

Homemade Fettuccine, Two Ways

 

The first way: with fresh basil and a sauce of roasted tomato, garlic, & thyme

 

The second way: with butter, Parmesan, salt & pepper

Don't worry, I don't think I invented homemade egg pasta: I realize that you've probably seen something like this before.  But, much as I did with my post about homemade gnocchi, I'm going to ask you to indulge me. This is my first freshly-made-at-home fettuccine, so it's exciting.  Well, to me anyway.

Not Just Another Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce Post

I know what you're thinking: Does the world really need another post about sweet potato gnocchi? Particularly, you may be saying to yourself,  a gnocchi with a brown butter, brown-butter-sage, brown-butter-sage-and-Parmesan, or any other permutation of brown butter sauce?

Rigatoni with Cauliflower: A Traditional Sicilian Dish with a Touch of Moroccan Influence

I've written here before about my unfortunate lack of culinary heritage or familial culture of food, and how I love to find and create meals that could have been cooked for me by my fantasy grandmother or imaginary mom.

Well, my friend Salvatore de Simone never had to worry about any of that.  He grew up eating this rich and comforting Sicilian pasta and cauliflower dish, a meal his grandmother used to make and one that his mother, Luisa, still cooks for him - with just a few additions of her own.  Yes, I am a bit jealous! 

Beets & Bowties

We got beets for the 4th (or 5th?)  time in just over a month  from our CSA last week. I'm not complaining, mind you - I love beets. But I've done beet salad (future post), beet burgers, and roasted beets with horseradish  butter (oops, forgot to take a picture!), and I didn't feel like doing any of that again.

Garlicky Beet Greens & Swiss Chard Orecchiette

Throwing a bunch of stuff together and mixing it with some pasta is a huge bang-for-the-buck meal, and it's the perfect dish when you just don't feel like making something complicated or time-consuming.