Shrimp and Gnocci and Spinach, Oh My!

The People Who Ate It:

Every once in awhile I like to schedule one-on-ones with my friends so that we can put all the group dynamics aside and legitimately catch up. Tonight was my date with Grace! Unfortunately, the odds have been stacked against this meeting...we had already rescheduled once and then tonight we only had about an hour of mutual free time. Why are we all so busy? The answer to that question is far beyond the scope of this blog and will probably take years and years of therapy to get down to the bottom of. For now, lets just say that I am happy that my date with Grace worked out.


The Food:
Because of the aforementioned time crunch, we had a very quick dinner. It it is proof that the taste of a bunch of things thrown together is greater than the sum of their parts. The stuff that was thrown in were some prepackaged basil gnocci, shrimp, and a French variety of spinach that is a brilliant purple color. Grace dressed the whole thing up with a marinade made from honey, sumac, chili powder and some other things (Grace, if you see this you should add a clarifying comment to this post!) before we stuck the shrimp and spinach in a 450 degree oven together. Sure it would have been better if we had made the gnocci and all, but it was a perfect meal to catch up over.
We ended the meal with a marvelous chocolate cake that Grace made. More on that later.

Ricotta Gnocchi with Cabbage Sauce

I have always been a big gnocchi fan, but around two years ago I stumbled upon this recipe for Lemon Ricotta Gnocchi and it changed my life:

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/07/09/pan-fried-lemon-ricotta-gnocchi

Before then I thought that all gnocchi was made with a potato or other vegetable base. The great thing about ricotta gnocchi is that there's no vegetable to cook and mash first. Also I find them much harder to mess up. My potato ones always come out doughier than I would like.


I've stopped measuring when I make them, but here is an approximate recipe. The recipe in the link above is a delicious lemony alternative.

1lb whole milk ricotta
2 egg yolks
1/2 parmesan cheese
1-1 1/2 cups flour - the dough should be somewhat firm and dense, but still a bit sticky
a big pinch of salt

Mix everything together is a big bowl, and then make long logs of dough around 3/4 an in in diameter. Now you have a choice, The link above suggests immediately cutting them up and pan frying them in butter. I have also found recipes that call for putting them in boiling water. The third option, which is what I used today, is to do both. I wrapped the logs individually in plastic wrap, and put them in a pot of boiling water for around 7 or 8 minutes. Afterwards, I took them out of the plastic wrap, chopped them into little cubes and seared them. I find the advantage of this technique is that they get crispy on the outside, but you don't need to leave them in the oil or butter for too long to cook and so they're a bit less greasy. No technique is better than the other, its all about what you're in the mood for. I think for the picture behind the title of the blog I skipped boiling and just sauteed them in butter.




I wanted a somewhat lighter sauce, so I took half of a cabbage which we have been trying to get rid of and boiled it till soft with some salt and garlic. I then took out the water, and pureed it with a bit of milk, salt, pepper, basil and garlic powder.

Unfortunately I forgot the people who ate it picture.