It’s August and we were supposed to be going home to California for a month to see family and friends and take care of Business. But the Pandemic had other plans for us, just as it did for many of you who were planning trips and vacations that now are canceled
I enjoyed teaching an Online Cooking Class to make these yummy little Italian potato dumplings! The class had participants from Connecticut and three different locations in California: North, Central and South! All participants were successful in creating their own Gnocchi alla Sorrentino! I really enjoyed cooking with these beautiful ladies and a gentleman!
Sometimes in Italy I take a break from a italian food and enjoy another ethnic food like Asian! But often I cannot find all of the ingredients, in that case I make my own! That was the case with this Sweet Thai Chili Sauce, in Thailand its called nam chim kai. It is used as a dipping sauce, a marinade and for stir-fry’s.
“Uova da Raviolo” is a famous ravioli from the Emilia Romagna Region of Italy up north. The Northern part of Italy is famous for all filled pasta like ravioli. Actually, much of our favorite Italian things are from this region like Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and all filled pastas! This is a large ravioli with a whole egg yolk nestled in ricotta cheese.
The participants in my Gnocchi Cooking Class requested Pesto as the sauce for their Gnocchi. It’s a perfect fit this time of year when we all have Basil busting loose in our quarantine gardens! This is a great recipe if you are new at making pasta because it does not require any special ingredients and it’s fun for the kids to help. Basically it’s like playing with play dough as you roll out the “snake” that will become your Gnocchi.
In my Region of Italy (Lazio), it is not really common to make ravioli. But if they do make it, it’s always Spinach Ricotta Ravioli! I was shown how to make it during a fun Ravioli Making Party hosted by a very talented Italian cook. We made hundreds of these little ravioli for a party the next day. You can ready that article and how to make a large batch for a big group by clicking here,
Oh the memories I have of my dad standing as guardian over the smoking barbecue, I can still see him in my minds eye in his cut off denim shorts and a Coors beer tank top. He had a fly swatter in one hand and a water squirt bottle in the other to calm the igniting flames.
Gnocchi are a favorite pasta choice both in America and in Italy, who can resist those soft potato pillows of dough? Basically Gnocchi are potato dumplings that originated in Northern Italy where the conditions are better for growing potatoes than wheat. That explains why I love them so much, they are from my Region!
Homemade pasta is like anything else in the cooking world, terrifying until you make again and again. It seemed surreal and strange that you would mix the flour and eggs in a volcanic pile of flour on your bread board, crack the eggs inside the indentation of the “volcano” and whisk with a fork from the center, slowly adding more flour to the eggs with your fork as you work in the center of the volcano.
