Tonight's Dinner: Pan-Fried Gnocchi and Local Spinach

On my way home from Bridgehampton this afternoon, I stopped at Bette and Dale's to take a peak inside their cooler. I finally got my hands on a bag of local spinach. (There was beautiful baby kale, too. Hope they're still selling it later in the week--that's going to be the subject of my next Newsday column.) I had already picked up some gnoccchi and leeks at Citarella's, so I decided to pan-fry the gnocchi and serve them on a bed of sauteed spinach and leeks. Easy. Here is the recipe:

Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Spinach and Leeks
Serves 4

Salt
1 pound fresh potato gnocchi
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts, washed and finely chopped
1 pound spinach, washed, coarse stems removed
Salt
Ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound potato gnocchi
Parmesan for serving

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi and cook until just soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach, season with salt and pepper, and heat through. Scrape into a bowl and cover to keep warm.
3. Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the gnocchi in a single layer and cook until golden on both sides, shaking the pan occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt.
4. Arrange the spinach on serving plates, top with the gnocchi, and serve immediately with Parmesan on the side.

Lunchbox Request

This weekend, one of my children begged me to make that Springtime specialty, potato-leek soup, for her lunchbox on Monday. But, since I was busy putting together her chocolate-raspberry birthday cake (the recipe, from Susan Purdy's book, The Family Baker, and it is the most requested birthday cake I've ever baked), can you blame me for buying Citarella's creditable version instead?

Spring Lamb in a Freak Snowstorm

A few weeks ago when my friends and I were picking up our new new pig from Harry Ludlow at Fairview Farm in Bridgehampton, he wondered if we might be interested in a Spring lamb being raised by his brother at a farm in Connecticut. Did he even have to ask? We placed our order immediately. I picked up my portion this morning, in some decidedly un-Spring-like weather. By this evening the snow had melted and I told my husband to get outside and start grilling some rib and loin chops. To go with them, I made charmoula and whole wheat couscous with apricots. Yum. Here are the recipes:

Charmoula
Serves 4

2 garlic cloves, skins on
1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves
1/4 cup packed parsley leaves
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teapsoon cayenne pepper
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt

1. Place garlic clove in a small skillet over medium heat and cook until toasted and fragrant (turn the garlic clove a couple of times), 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly, then peel and coarsely chop.
2. Combine the chopped garlic, cilantro, parsley, lemon juice, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and oil in the workbowl of a food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Scrape Charmoula into a small bowl and season with salt. (Charmoula can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Let come to room temperature before serving.)

Whole Wheat Couscous with Apricots and Almonds
Serves 4

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup whole wheat couscous
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups low-sodium canned chicken broth
1/2 cup apricots, finely chopped
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
3 scallions, white and light greet parts, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add couscous and cinnamon and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, to lightly toast the couscous, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil. Cover, remove from the heat, and let stand 5 minutes.
2. Transfer the couscous to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Stir in the apricots, almonds, scallions, and lemon juice. Season with salt to taste.

Multicultural Festival Celebrated in New Blog

Gifted local photographer Lindsay Morris (her work can be seen every month in Edible East End; she took pictures at my cookie swap) has recently started to blog. The subject of her latest post is last week's hugely successful Multicultural Festival at Pierson. As soon as I saw these pictures, I was filled with regret that I had missed the event. And of course I immediately googled chicken okonomiyaki. Recipe to follow shortly.

I Love a Silent Auction, Especially When it Includes Cake

When I attend the Rainbow Pre-School's silent auction on April 2, I'll have my eye on that cake by C.A.K.E. Hampton.

A Good Bread Recipe to Begin Tonight If You Have to Go to the City Tomorrow

You can hear me on Martha Stewart Living Radio tomorrow at 8:30. I'll be discussing my new book, Bread Making: A Course! I don't like to run out of bread, so I just mixed the dough for a raisin and walnut boule (page 76). The recipe calls for a nice, long, 18-hour rise. So my dough will be ready to shape and bake when I get off the Jitney tomorrow afternoon at 2. This is how it will look (I hope!) when I slice it for dinner at about 7. Here is the recipe:

No-Knead Raisin Walnut Bread
Makes 1 large round

5.3 ounces (1 1/2 cup) walnut pieces
10.6 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusing
5.3 ounces (1 cup) whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or fine sea salt
13 ounces (1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) room temperature water
4 ounces (3/4 cup) raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the walnut pieces out on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Cool completely and then coarsely chop.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, water, nuts, and raisins. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula until it comes together into a rough dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough stand at room temperature overnight and for up to 18 hours.
3. Place a piece of parchment paper inside another large mixing bowl, with its corners overhanging the edges of the bowl and spray the parchment with nonstick cooking spray. Lightly flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Sprinkle the dough with a little more flour and knead it two or three times, folding it over itself, flattening and folding over again. Form a ball by gathering the edges of the dough together and twisting them into a topknot, topknot side down, into the parchment-lined bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
4. An hour and a half into the rise, position an oven rack on the bottom third of the oven and place an 8-quart cast-iron or enamel Dutch oven on the rack. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
5. Sprinkle the dough with flour. Use a sharp serrated knife or razor blade to slash two intersecting lines, 1/2-inch deep, into the loaf to create an X. Carefully remove the pot from the oven and remove the lid. Use two hands to carefully place the parchment, with the dough still on it, in the pot. Cover the pot with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the loaf is well-browned, another 20 to 30 minutes. Lift the bread, still on the parchment, from the pot and place on a wire rack. Cook to room temperature, about 2 hours, before serving.

Celebrating the Spring Equinox with What Should Have Been Spring's First Pizza

Can you believe the boldness of these turkeys, who were making their way from backyard to backyard along my block this morning? They were big and scary. I don't live in Sag Harbor Village to be close to wild life! If only I had stuck to my plan of visiting Bette and Dale's at 10am, I would have missed this terrifying sight. And I also would have been able to buy some local spinach. By the time I got to the stand at 4pm, it was gone. I had planned to wilt the spinach on top of my pizza (which I topped with 6 ounces of a delicious Gruyere-like Italian cow's milk cheese from Cavaniola's) a few minutes before pulling it from the oven. Instead, I used a few handfuls of baby arugula from the IGA, and drizzled the finished pizza with olive oil before serving. Great, but not the perfect pizza for the Spring equinox.