Gnocchi with pesto and wax beans

We finally rejoined a CSA after I get us kicked out of the very exclusive Be Wise Ranch CSA last year for (accidental) non-payment. This time we are trying out J.R. Organics from Escondido. The first box is interesting, really good lettuce and some other greens, excellent tomatoes, a whole bunch of oranges and a couple apples (weird time of year for both of them, but apparently that's what's growing right now), and among other things some really beautiful green and purple wax beans.

K reminded me of this great simple dish I used to get in Bernal Heights at (the very sadly closed) Valentina, which had spinach fettuccine with potatoes, green beans, and pesto. I decided to give it a try with gnocchi instead of pasta and potatoes, probably because I am obsessed with anything that involves making dough.

After the first batch that I murdered by boiling too long in too-hot water, the rest of the gnocchi came out pretty close to perfect, pillowy, and looking an awful lot like bay scallops. I had a good friend in college whose dad owned an Italian restaurant who pronounced it nacky or sometimes nee-yacky, so feel free to join me in pronouncing it like that, if for no other reason than to honor and make fun of Jim.

Ok actually I'm starting to get a little self-conscious about saying "gnocchi" so much; there needs to be some non-pretentious alternative, something with an s at the end... Potato dumplings maybe? The potato dumplings took about an hour and a half start to finish, which was maybe a little long for a weeknight dinner, unless you are someone who finds cooking relaxing after a long day of work :) Annnd now I need one more sentence here because of the ridiculous formatting of this post. How do those real food bloggers do it??

Here is the recipe for just the gnocchi. We steamed the wax beans with a pinch of salt and topped it with a dollop of pesto. I won't embarrass myself by posting a recipe for pesto. If you want to do it right, I'd predictably look here. If you want to do it like me just put all that stuff in the food processor (and skimp on the olive oil because damn, it is expensive).

Basic Gnocchi
About 1 pound of potatoes (supposed to be russet, yukon gold worked fine)
3/4-1 cup flour (supposed to be AP, bread flour worked fine)
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes whole with skin on for 30-45 minutes in salted water until they're very tender. Drain and let them cool a bit before peeling, which should be very easy with a small knife or your fingers.

Mash the potatoes with some salt and pepper. I used a wooden spoon but one of those wire potato mashers would work better.

Stir in half a cup of flour. Then add a little bit at a time and keep mixing until you can knead it into a smooth round dough. The goal is to add the least amount of flour possible that makes it a cohesive dough. You can pinch off a piece of the dough and place it in some water that is just shy of boiling to make sure it will stay together (if it doesn't, it needs a little more flour).

Roll a small piece of the dough into a snake about 1/2 an inch thick and cut it into small square pieces. Place a batch of the dumplings in almost boiling water. They will be done about a minute after they float to the surface of the water. I found the easiest way to handle the batches was to roll out all the strands first and then cut one strand right before adding it to the water.

They'll be best while they're still warm. Tossing with a little bit of olive oil in the meantime helped keep them from sticking to each other.

Mario Batali says that peeling the potatoes after you boil them is a big deal in Italy. He sounded a little dubious about the benefits of it but unwilling to mess with tradition, and so shall I be.

Zucchini pasta with watercress pesto

There is a special place in my heart for watercress on account of The Man Who Cooked for Himself (a children's story about ... well a shut-in who is out of food and goes foraging in the woods for himself and his cat, or an early introduction for children to the benefits of pescetarianism). Whatever your feelings about watercress, you must agree that it has the most appetizing name for a bitter lettuce ever!

Kristen found this clever recipe for zucchini "pasta" on Claudia Pearson's blog (you should click on that link, the recipe is very beautiful) -- shaved raw zucchini is tossed with a little salt and left to soften until it can be treated sort of like cooked pasta. I went for parmesan instead of blue cheese -- I'm sure blue cheese would have been good, but that's one of the few foods that I really never came to terms with... I can tell objectively that it should taste good, but if I'm honest with myself, blech.

We had a little white bean salad (with cilantro, red onions, and red wine vinegar) and a homemade baguette on the side

Heirloom tomato pesto pizza

I wanted to update my pizza crust recipe because apparently I learned a few tricks since the last time around -- this one turned out so much better: chewy and pretty evenly cooked (though I'm still going to strongly advocate generally for the rosemary + goat cheese + caramelized red onions).

The brilliant innovation came from our neighbor: cook the pizza in a 12" cast iron pan (had been using a cheapo cookie sheet). This forced me to roll out a thicker crust but more importantly kept the pizza from burning on the bottom.

Asparagus digest (ba-dum)

Here are a couple of really good asparagus dishes we made from the last week or so.

The first was a delicious spinach-asparagus-pesto pasta from Super Natural Cooking that Kristen made. The pureed asparagus gets a little bit lost in the spinach pesto, so we found it nice to have a few pieces of whole blanched asparagus on top, which also made for a pretty nice photo, if I do say so myself.

Next a super simple potato-asparagus frittata based loosely on this Bittman recipe. Mark used the microwave liberally in this recipe which is not something I am used to, but it definitely sped the process up.

Potato-asparagus Frittata
Serves: 3-4

6 medium eggs
2 red potatoes
large bunch of asparagus
1 medium onion
feta cheese (we used goat feta)

Preheat the oven to 400. Microwave (believe it or not) the potatoes for 4 minutes until they are nearly cooked through. When they've cooled, remove as much or as little of the peel as you want and cut into largish cubes. Brown the potatoes in a skillet over medium heat with a little bit of olive oil

Put the asparagus in a dish with a little water and sprinkled with a good amount of salt and pepper. Microwave (again?!) the asparagus for 2 minutes. Chop the asparagus into 2" long pieces and set aside.

When the potatoes are nice and brown, remove them from the pan, and sautee the diced onion (no need to clean the pan) for a few minutes until they start to turn translucent, then add the asparagus and continue to cook it until it's just cooked (a little bit tender). Add the potatoes, onion, and asparagus to a 8" pie dish. If you have a skillet that can go in the oven, transferring to another dish here isn't necessary.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a little salt and pepper, and then pour them over the potato and asparagus. Bake for ~15 minutes until a knife comes out clean. Top with a little bit of the feta and enjoy!

One thing I really hate about asparagus is that it seems like about one in three times I buy it, it costs $6 or more for a small bunch. Has everyone had this experience? By and large, I believe we should care more about food, and be willing to pay a little more for better food that isn't round-up ready or chemically ripened. And I am definitely a huge fan of organic foods and buy them whenever possible, but let me say this: if your budget gives you a choice between organic asparagus and conventional potatoes and organic potatoes and conventional asparagus, go for the organic potatoes!