Recipes

Ricotta Gnocchi

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I love Gnocchi!  My favorite place to have it is at Fiorini, a fabulous Italian restaurant on 56th between 2nd and 3rd.   And although I adore the standard potato version, when we had ricotta gnocchi at Filomena’s in Washington DC, I came home wanting to try and make them myself.   And with a little trial and error, I found a great recipe.  So thought I’d share it with all of you!   I will confess I haven’t managed the art of using the fork to crimp the little “pillows”, but they taste awesome just thrown straight into the pot right after cutting.

Gnocchi Di Ricotta (Ricotta Dumplings)

Ingredients:

1 pound ricotta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon melted butter

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mix well. Knead until a dough is formed (if too
 loose, add a little more flour).  Cover bowl and let stand one hour.
Sprinkle flour on your work board and hands; remove a tennis ball size of dough; roll gently with both hands to form a long rope about 1″ thick. Repeat until you have used up all the dough. Cut the rolls into 1″ long pieces and set aside on a cloth lightly sprinkled with flour (do not place on Formica or other hard surface).

Cook gnocchi in a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water. Water should not stop boiling. After they rise to top, boil gently 2-3 minutes more. Remove with slotted spoon to a large bowl.  Toss gently with  sauce .   Serves 4-6.

We use Alfredo with garlic.  But your favorite will do.   Filomena’s serves their ricotta gnocchi with a creamy tomato sauce.

It’s All in the Timing!

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Okay, so summer, in Texas is a time for grilling.  Hot Dogs, Hamburgers–and in the best Texas tradition, BBQ.   Unfortunately, Manhattan does not lend itself to grilling.  Although we finally do have a small terrace, we’re not allowed to have a grill.  So I’d pretty much resigned myself to heading for Hill Country BBQ  whenever I need a fix.  (They have Kretz’s saugages.)   Anyway, recently we discovered (and adapted) a fabulous recipe from teh NYT for making pork spare ribs in the oven.  And they’re so amazing I wanted to share the recipe with you.  Better than anything I managed on my old Falcon Grill, and that’s saying a lot!

Pork Spare Ribs:

2 spare rib racks (or cut ribs to equal that)

2 Tbs Canola oil

Kosher salt

2-3 tsps dried parsley

4 sprigs time

4 garlic cloves gently crushed

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread 24 inch sheet of heavy-duty foil, shiny side up, on counter.  Place one rack on top, rub it with oil and then generously season both sides with salt.  Place parsley and garlic under the concave side of the rack and two thyme springs on top.  Wrap the ribs in the foil pleating the edges to seal well.  Repeat with other rack.  Place rib packets in a large roasting pan.

Roast the ribs for 30 minutes at 350, then reduce temperature to 250 degrees and cook for 2 hours until the meat has shrunk back from the ends of the bones by ¼ to ½ inch and the ribs are tender enough to pull apart with your fingers.

Remove ribs from the oven and let them cool briefly, then open the foil, being careful of the steam.  Transfer the ribs to a baking sheet.  Raise the oven to 450 degrees.

Slather both sides of the ribs with BBQ sauce (we used Stubbs Mesquite sweet sauce  or if you have it use Salt Lick original BBQ sauce).  Back in the oven 8-12 minutes (we did ten)  Baste again with the BBQ sauce and serve at once with remaining sauce on the side.

These are some seriously good ribs.  Perfect for a summer meal (on the terrace–of course!)