Beet ravioli

This is an old one, but we made some beet ravioli the other day.  It was quite tasty, and also, it was pink.  I don't entirely remember the recipe, because this was a while ago.  But I believe it was 1C pureed beets, two egg yolks, and enough flour to turn that into a dough (a few cups?).  The filling was something with ricotta - probably a cup of ricotta, some cooked mushrooms, and some herbs and spices.  Hard to go wrong with that filling!

First, you roll out your pasta dough, using plenty of flour.  You don't want it to stick.  Then you put down lumps of filling, in orderly grid fashion.  Then put the other sheet of pasta dough on top, and cut out your ravioli.  

I crimped the edges with a fork, to make sure they're stay closed.  

Cook the ravioli ~1-2min, in a very large pot of water, just until they float to the surface of the water.  The ravioli above were just served with olive oil, salt, and parmesan cheese, but any sort of creamy or smooth sauce would work with these guys.  They don't taste like beets at all, but they were pink!  woohoo!  

Pumpkin gnocchi

These were actual pumpkin, as opposed to butternut squash, which I just find easier to work with.  Ed wandered in to the kitchen as I was puréeing the pumpkin, and noted that there was a giant bowl full of orange goo - yes, that is how pumpkin gnocchi are made!  We ate these in a browned butter sage sauce, with some caramelized onions and little sopressata bits, and they were delicious.  A+ on the Ed-rating, too.  You could probably do some other sauce; a creamy something or other would be tasty, for sure, but this one worked very nicely.

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Made enough for two

1C pumpkin puree (I used homemade puree, I imagine stuff out of a can would be a bit denser)

1.5C flour

2 egg yolks

~1/2tsp kosher salt

Mix the pumpkin and egg yolks and salt.  Add the flour, until you have a dough that you can roll out.  Divide it into 2-4 balls, and roll into ropes, on a very well-floured surface.  You want your dough to still be really loose.  I found I more sort of stretched and pinched the dough, rather than rolled it.  Cut the ropes into chunks, and sprinkle with more flour.  You want these guys well-enough floured that they don't stick to each other when you drop them in the water.

Get a big pot of water boiling.  The bigger the pot, the less likely the gnocchi are to stick to each other in the water.  

Sage brown butter sauce

1 onion, diced

some sopressata, or bacon, diced

1 bunch of sage, chopped coarsely

2-3 tbs butter

Put the sopressata in a pan.  Once it's leaked out enough grease, add the onions.  Cook those together until the onions are mostly caramelized and the sopressata is crispy.  Remove from pan.

Melt butter in pan.  Once it's barely started to brown, add the sage.  Cook until the sage is crispy and the butter is browned.  Add to the onions and sopressata.

Cook the gnocchi for ~2-3 minutes.  They're done when they float to the top of the water.  You may have to cook them in batches.  

Put gnocchi on a plate, pour on sauce, toss to combine, and serve.  Parmesan cheese optional, but delicious!

Cheesy broccoli

This is a pretty delicious way to eat broccoli.  Basically, it's roasted broccoli with cheese on top.  Hard to go wrong.  

Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces.  Toss with some olive oil, put on a baking sheet, sprinkle with coarse salt, and roast at 400F for ~15min.  Once you can stick a fork through the thick bits (and the bottoms are nice and browned, slice some cheddar, place on top of the broccoli, and cook until it's melted.  Enjoy immediately!