Cooking time

Yesterday was 29th, and in my country (Argentina) all 29th we have an italian dish: Gnocchi (Ñoquis in Spanish). When I was a child we had them for lunch on the 29th of each month, my mom and grandma used to make lots of them, a huge amount because we were 4 kids and 3 adults at that time in the house. I remember helping by putting the gnocchi on a floured surface to dry a few hours before cooking them, I had to be careful and make sure they were separate from each other to prevent sticking. The exciting thing about the 29th was not only the main dish but also the coins our parents put under our plates. We had to eat them all to get the money. It was a good trick now that I think about it... it always worked! Now a days at my parents homes we don´t have gnocchi as frecuently as we did in the past... maybe because we don´t need to be tricked with the coins under our plates anymore but I miss all that cooking together time... but I try to make them every month in my home. This time I didn´t make the gnocchi just brought them on the grocery store, they are not so good as homemade but they were not bad, and besides I have to make lunch the day before, the 28th and was a Thursday and I had not enough time to make them from scratch.
What I did from scratch was the sauce. I saute a yellow onion on olive oil, added a clove of garlic, sliced half a pound of mushroom, cooked them until they were tender and added a 3/4 cup of evaporated milk and 1/4 cup milk, salt and pepper to taste and I let it simmer a few minutes. At the very end I added 3 chopped dryed tomatoes and basil.
I boiled the gnocchi until cooked (just a minute after they go to the surface), put them in a plate and cover them with the sauce and sprinkled a bit of parmesano cheese on top.
They were really good... but because until march we won´t be having them again I might do myself the gnocchi next time and share the recipe.

Saturdays are usually share-the-load cooking days, so my fiance and I made lunch together .  He made the meat and I did the side dishes

the meat is pork sirloin that we cut and put some bacon and mustard on the cuttings, and added salt and pepper, then we oven roasted until done.
For the first of the side dishes I sautéed in olive oil onion, red bell pepper and italian green pepper. And the second side was just cooked potatoes that I drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled parsley before serving. I love when we cook together, it does us so good....

2 comments:

Gina Lindsay said...

I have never tried making gnocchi from scratch before, we used to have a friend that did though and I loved it. Your sauce sounds wonderful and I love the pictures of your food.

Pattie G said...

Ileana, I love gnocchi and my grandmother used to make them. We are Italian and I love to cook. Your dishes look wonderful and making me hungry..lol... I make potatoes similar to yours and they are so delicious. Thanks for sharing.

hugs
Pattie