trailer trash gourmands Last night, Joe and I made gnocchi for diner. We had heard from a friend that it was easy to make and tasty as heck, and besides, we wanted to give my new Martha Stewart Cookbook a whirl. (Joe got me the cookbook for Christmas. I suppose I could have gone all "Father of the Bride" about it, bugging out like Annie after Brian Mac-KIN-sie gave her the blender, but whatever, I wanted a cookbook, so sue me.) The recipe we followed was for gnocchi in a mushroom cream sauce. What we ended up making looked more like regurgitated chunks of rendered pork fat. Gnocchi, if made correctly (preferably by a restaurant that knows what the hell they're doing), can be quite nice. But what we made was a sodden mess of misshapen lumps, covered over by a light brown sauce with floating darkish masses. It tasted OK...I guess...but the consistency of the pasta bits along wit the pure, unadulterated starchiness of the mess made for an unappealing dinner. It may have been our most unsuccessful recipe to date. And besides, we made way too much of it. So now we're faced with about four extra servings of ugly-ass gnocchi. Neither of us really wanted to eat any more of it (in the near future or ever again...EVER), but just to make ourselves feel better about our efforts, we threw half of it into the freezer anyway. That left us with two extra servings. Mushy, doughy, uneven, like a fat man's ass. It was hideous to behold. So I decided to deep fry it. It couldn't hurt, right? It was already ruined. And besides, there's something charmingly white trash about deep-frying pasta. Or deep-frying anything, I guess. It turned out OK. Deep-fried gnocchi, as you might imagine, tastes something like a cross between french fries and bread. Sprinkle on some salt and you've got some good eatin'! Honestly, it's not all that great, but it sure tasted better coming out of the oil than going in. (The golden crust was also a great improvement on pasty white goo.) I feel like an Iron Chef. Now if only I could figure a way to make ice cream out of gnocchi. xo Michelle |
Wednesday . January 15 . 2003 . 1:21pm |
trailer trash gourmands Last night, Joe and I made gnocchi for diner. We had heard from a friend that it was easy to make and tasty as heck, and besides, we wanted to give my new Martha Stewart Cookbook a whirl. (Joe got me the cookbook for Christmas. I suppose I could have gone all "Father of the Bride" about it, bugging out like Annie after Brian Mac-KIN-sie gave her the blender, but whatever, I wanted a cookbook, so sue me.) The recipe we followed was for gnocchi in a mushroom cream sauce. What we ended up making looked more like regurgitated chunks of rendered pork fat. Gnocchi, if made correctly (preferably by a restaurant that knows what the hell they're doing), can be quite nice. But what we made was a sodden mess of misshapen lumps, covered over by a light brown sauce with floating darkish masses. It tasted OK...I guess...but the consistency of the pasta bits along wit the pure, unadulterated starchiness of the mess made for an unappealing dinner. It may have been our most unsuccessful recipe to date. And besides, we made way too much of it. So now we're faced with about four extra servings of ugly-ass gnocchi. Neither of us really wanted to eat any more of it (in the near future or ever again...EVER), but just to make ourselves feel better about our efforts, we threw half of it into the freezer anyway. That left us with two extra servings. Mushy, doughy, uneven, like a fat man's ass. It was hideous to behold. So I decided to deep fry it. It couldn't hurt, right? It was already ruined. And besides, there's something charmingly white trash about deep-frying pasta. Or deep-frying anything, I guess. It turned out OK. Deep-fried gnocchi, as you might imagine, tastes something like a cross between french fries and bread. Sprinkle on some salt and you've got some good eatin'! Honestly, it's not all that great, but it sure tasted better coming out of the oil than going in. (The golden crust was also a great improvement on pasty white goo.) I feel like an Iron Chef. Now if only I could figure a way to make ice cream out of gnocchi. xo Michelle |
