Gnocchi alla gorgonzola e pera is actually a pretty common dish in the northern half of Italy; the kind of thing any restaurant that might be serving tourists would throw on (without regard to seasonality, local cuisine, etc), and while that might turn you off, it’s actually quite good. That said, I ate it several places in Florence, and am fairly certain I spotted it on other menus around the way.

I couldn’t find much on the history of this dish, so I think it’s more of a modern classic–prior to not-too-many-years-ago, most classic products of regions didn’t get transported or heavily used much in other regions. There was a time when gorgonzola is what you ate when you were in piedmonte; risotto is what you ate in Milan and in the far north, you ate potatoes in Alto Adige and maybe in Emilia-Romagna. Less so now, with the best of the best being desired by Italians everywhere loving food.

Gnocchi is, however, typical of Alto Adige (where potatoes are most common), and gorgonzola–if it is officially DOP gorgonzola–is from Piedmonte. For this dish, you’ll want to use the opposite of what you’d likely want to snack on in a cheese plate. You’ll use Gorgonzola Dolce, which is the young, “sweet” gorgonzola. As the cheese ages it becomes more “piquante” or spicy, hot. It’ll tickle your throat if it’s the wrong type for this job. If you don’t have a quality cheese chop that carries both and can point them out, look for gorgonzola (imported, not pre-crumbled) that has a more soft, creamy texture with less blue bits–that’s usually it.

For 3-4
3 oz gorgonzola dolce cheeese
1 ripe pear, diced
1 T butter
2 T flour
1 cup light vegetable stock
1/2 cup milk
fresh gnocchi*
salt, fresh ground pepper

Boil your water and have it ready. If you are using fresh gnocchi (which you could be!), they require VERY little cooking time, take what you think they take and cut it by half. Seconds! Otherwise, they’ll fall apart, and you’ll regret it.

Dice your pear, have your ingredients ready. You may or may not need slightly more or less veg stock & milk. Create a roux by heating the butter in a small sauce pan, until clear and stopped bubbling, medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until color darkens slightly, about 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly add the vegetable stock, then the milk, until you get a mac-n-cheese type consistency, or slightly thinner. Add the gorgonzola and continue whisking until smooth.

Add the gnocchi to the water and cook; remove the gnocchi as soon as they float to the top of the pan using a slatted spoon or gnocchi paddle. Add the pear to the sauce and let it warm up, adding the gnocchi to the sauce and stirring gently to coat, with a large wooden spoon (don’t use metal, you’ll chop up the dumplings).

Add some salt and black pepper to taste, serve!

Fresh gnocchi makes a huge difference over the vaccu-packed kind you’ll find on the pasta isle. It’s much less dense and has the texture of a down pillow, collapsing in your mouth. I buy mine in bulk from Rainbow market or from Faletti Foods; both carry gnocchi by the bay area’s “Pasta Shop,” which lots of local stores retail products from.

Delicious chili made from Rancho Gordo heirloom organic beans, adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

olive oil
2 large yellow or sweet onions, diced
1 T minced garlic
2 large carrots, cubed
1 cup dry pinquito beans
1 cup dry yellow-eye steuben heirloom beans (also rancho gordo but they aren’t selling them online! if you’re in SF try Rainbow’s bulk section)
3 lbs ground beef, turkey, chicken, or pork (I used mostly beef/pork, but a little ground chicken too)
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
4 T chili powder
1 T cumin (ground)
2 T paprika
1 T dry oregano
1 T chili flakes
16 oz tomatoes chopped or stewed/pureed (I use POMI)
2 C beef broth or veal stock
1/4 C cider vinegar

Garnish:
Cheddar cheese, grated
Red onion, diced

Serve with macaroni  OR bread

Beans: Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Do not soak more than 9 hours or they will probably burst. They may be mixed for soaking. Try to pre-cook ahead, but if not, start cooking the drained, rinsed, soaked beans in fresh water in a seperate pan as you begin making the chili. Cover and be sure they are cooking at at least a simmer, but not a boil. You want them tender before you add them to the chili at the end. They like to be cooked about an inch of water over the beans; just drain off the extra water if they’re cooked through.

Chili: In a soup pot or dutch oven, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter. When hot, add diced onions. Cook until almost translucent, at medium heat. Add the garlic & carrots, cooking another 2-3 minutes. Add the meat, and let it cook through.

While meat is cooking, dice your peppers and gather your other ingredients.

When meat is cooked, add all of the spices. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, beef stock, and vinegar. You may wish to reserve additional beef stock in case you prefer looser chili. Prepare your garnishes. Add the drained, cooked beans to the chili and you may serve in 10 minutes (simmering) or any amount of time after. The longer it sits, the better; I like to put the lid back on the pan and let it cool down very slowly, so that the flavors meld.

Serve with cheddar and red onion on top.

Preface: The only other context I’ve eaten matsutake is in dashi and in a quesadilla (a delicious quesadilla). I don’t think I would make this dish exactly the same next time; I think it would be better in more broth, without the creme fraiche, with egg noodles (Asian style). I used really good quality, fluffy, fresh gnocci for this dish and I think it was really competing with the matsutake, which is a shame because they should have been the feature of the dish.

Luckily, matsutakes had a bumper crop this year and they were only $20/lb. In SF, they can be found for $40 or more most years, so this was a really nice surprise last time I popped in at the Japanese market. Yesterday, I even saw them at Rainbow Foods!

I do think simmering the matsutakes in dashi (it was small amounts of mirin, soy sauce, sake, walnut oil and then a larger amount of straight up dashi–water infused with kombu and i-forget-the-name tuna flakes) worked well, I just would have made more of it next time and omitted the creme fraiche I added. The watercress also worked well. So go ahead and do that, and sub those gnocci for egg noodles and I’m pretty sure you’ll have a delicious meal.

Anyway, no recipe here since I won’t stand behind it, but thought you might learn from my experience.

A friend and I stopped by Farmer Brown for a late night meal after seeing a play about a week ago and we had some shrimp & grits. Created a little inspiration.

Had a little panic, though. I canned my own tomatoes this summer with just some fresh lemon juice; a coworker and I were talking about canning techniques and she mtnioned she would not can her own tomatoes especially without preserved lemon juice because of the variation in pH in fresh lemons, due to the botulism risk.. I felt like a bit of a dummy. I took chemistry, why’s my brain not thinkin?

At any rate, I ran out of tomatoes and really had to break open that jar and had myself all hyped up that we might start having lazy eyes and collapsing lungs within a day or two, but it’s been a few and we’re fine. I did throw the rest of the jar away, kinda regretting that now, and what we did eat would have been totally worth it because it was totally tasty.

Here’s my version.

Shrimp and Grits
For four

1 C polenta
1 C chopped tomatoes, strained tomatoes, or 2C fresh tomatoes chopped and seeded
1 tsp dry thyme or 1 T fresh thyme
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/4 C vegetable stock
16 18-20 count shrimp (prefer blue Mexican prawns), deveined and shell removed completely
2 C chopped fresh spinach
salt

Cook the polenta using a 1-3 ratio with water or stock. Be sure to bring liquid to boil first, evenly cipher in the polenta and continue stirring on low heat for at least 5-6 minutes until creamy and thick.

In a sauce pan bring the tomatoes to a simmer and add the chili flakes, thyme, and veg stock. Reserve some veg stock in case you need to thin the sauce. Let it reduce to a tasty, rich flavor and add the shrimp to cook. Add the spinach, turning off the heat and throwing a lid on the pan for 30 seconds or so to wilt. Serve on top of the polenta in a bowl.

French Macaron Recipe is now here.

Please welcome the newest addition to my kitchen family, the marvelous pistachio kitchenaid stand mixer!!

Let me summarize how such a grand belonging came to be in my possession: there was a pair of friends, they conspired to do what lady friends do on evenings that their manfriends are scarce; the evening may or may not have involved a lot of wine, dessert at a 5 star restaurant and coffee with an Algerian, but nonetheless at the start of the evening one asked the other to “put away and lift something heavy in my kitchen” which turned out to be a shockingly good early birthday present to yours truly from said friend.

“BUT CAROLINE! HOW CAN I HAVE SUCH FRIENDS THAT BESTOW UPON ME HEAVENLY MIXERS??” I must tell you only that you should be equally kind and awesome and such things may follow. Thank you so much L, I’ll be thinking about you for years to come as I make tasty treats and watch my waistline expand.

My my, what is that, you say? That’s a matcha buttercream stuffed red velvet macaron.

And, the first batch I made, which cracked, raised funny and flat–and I realized, before cooking the batch above the day after, that it was because they’d been placed on my pizza stone. So, the red velvet-matcha buttercream macarons went on the top rack instead.

Physically challeneged vanilla buttercream black sesame macarons–they suffered the wrath of my pizza stone which made them lack feet and crack in the center–a real mystery for your typical macaron trouble-shooting where lack of feet indicates too cool an oven and cracking indicates too hot!

Macaron & buttercream recipe is here.

Made my way to the Alemany farmer’s market this Saturday with a friend and scored some habaneros (plans to make my own garlicky hot sauce this week), 10 Lisbon limes, some fresh dates (they have a bitter chemical taste on the tongue similar to what tannins in wine do to your palette, but have an AMAZING sweetness that can only be described as like intense honeysuckle or straight up honey), and some amazing flowers

A few days ago, I was browsing around Saveur for some ideas on using up excess zucchini, cucumber, etc from my farm shipment. They have a seasonal produce guide which provides brief descriptions of fruits/vegetables, such as how to pick good ones, typical uses, seasonality, etc.

And lo, I found a solution for not only the zucchini in my refrigerator, but the feta as well. I had purchased the feta a couple weeks ago in bulk from Oasis Food Market to use in a carrot-harissa salad, and did, but had lots of leftovers. So, kolokythokeftedes were made in my kitchen. And I stole the recipe here. I used dried mixed italian herbs and some additional oregano instead of fresh herbs.

I did make a different sauce:  yogurt, smoked paprika, dill, salt.

The Ferry Building Farmer’s market was yesterday and I managed to sneak to it at lunchtime; I bought a couple of watermelons (they are delicious this year), basil, the last of the year’s english peas, a grassfed flank steak from Prather Ranch, and zucchini blossoms. A whole box of zucchini blossoms, for $3.

I fried them, but will be posting recipes in the coming days of them stuffed, fried with goat cheese, used in pastas, etc.

Feel free to improvise the dairy combo in this; I used what I had on hand–full cream or whole milk would suffice, or you can combine skim and sour cream, whatever you have around. Ultimately this is pasta with spring vegetables, and you can substitute where it makes sense to.

For two

150 grams rigatoni
1 cup milk
2 T creme fraiche
1/2 tsp Italian dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, any combo thereof)
2-3 T tomato paste
1/2 cup peas, shelled
1 1/2 cups cleaned, chopped chard or kale

As you start the pasta is cooking (bring water to boil first before starting the sauce), use a large skillet to gently warm the milk and tomato paste. Add some salt.

When steaming or very lightly simmering, stir mixture and add herbs and peas. Continue cooking a few more minutes.

When pasta is done,  drain and add to the sauce pan, adding the chard and creme fraiche, covering, and letting wilt. A little parm or pecorino on top is nice.

So. My organic container vegetable garden. I started thinning the lettuce yesterday to keep it producing and ensure tender leaves, so above you’re seeing little gem leaves, green leaf, and arugula.

There have been some challenges, which I’ve included in photos below, and I hope others find it helpful when growing in the future as I had a very difficult time diagnosing and treating the problems.

- The red leaf lettuce is almost completely destroyed by either bottom rot or aphids or both; The red leaf lettuce appeared wet but rotting, limp, and grey. What was left of it when it got treated is getting stronger, but I lost a couple of the plants. You can see what was destroyed in the background. This is about 2 weeks after first treatment.

- The lemon cucumbers, which were damaged when I bought them, are struggling but appear to be making do with the way they are; there are flowers that have developed over the past few days and I think I even see the first little cukes. I think they had powdery mildew; I’ve been treating them with serenade disease control and more recently with a neem oil mixture aimed at 3 different plant problems, which is organic appropriate.

- The beets and chard had many leaves rotting at the edges and in blotches, going grey, limp, and just all bad. I picked off the bad ones and have been treating it, but the problem is not 100% gone. They seem to be growing nonetheless, though, and I think it’s because they were simply better established when the affliction started. Here is an upclose shot of the affliction:

- The basil is not growing and has lost its shiny leaves, turning more dull and grey. We’ll see if it survives. It may just need to be warmer; it also had some brown spots on the edges and I’ve noticed aphids under the leaves–I treated it and will continue to, and can hopefully nurse it back to health.

I think part of the problems are aggravated by the heavy fog San Francisco experiences at this time of year; the plants aren’t getting as much sun as they’d like and aren’t fully drying off.

On the other hand, the thyme, tomato plant (first little tomatoes are developing, more flowers are out too!), little gem lettuce and green leaf lettuce seem to be doing well!

After thinking for some time, I planted a container garden. Actually, I planted half of what I’d like to, and can’t find some of the plants I’d like to plant. Perhaps they’re out of season. That’s how amateur I am.

The beets, rainbow chard, and early girl tomato plant are in pots. I’m awaiting more pots this weekend, in which to put the genovese basil, arugula, red and green lettuces, and english thyme.

I’ve been tending to the garden, too. Last weekend a hydrangea, a fuchsia with light lime color leaves and several other decorative plants went into their new homes. I found a spiral rush (think thick grass worms in the shape of unicorn horns!) and put it in a fabulous galvanized pot. Still have some decorative sage and other interesting plants to put in the ground over the next few days.

A few weeks back I planted begonias, and they seem to be pretty happy where they landed.

Here are some SF purveyors I used in my recent gardening:

Three Bees Nursery

Flora Grubb Gardens

Under One Roof