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A New Love: Jacques Pépin's Fast Food
Talking Him Into It - Feeding The Guy
Another Change, and Two Summer Shortcakes
« Great Gift for Tea Lovers | Main | Lemonade Leftovers »
After a couple weeks of a kitchen slump (quesadillas and cereal) I finally broke out the new magazines and my knives.
The first thing on the menu was the Gratinéed Gnocchi with Spinach and Ricotta from Gourmet's Ten Minute Mains. As you can see, it was gorgeous, and we couldn't wait to dig into it. Unfortunately, the taste didn't quite live up to the visual aspect of the dish. It was fine, and the gnocchi (frozen, not dried, because that's what the co-op has) was lovely, but the whole thing lacked spice. I'm not a steamed spinach lover, so that might be the problem, but it would have benefited from some garlic and parmesan (and will next time I make it).
The next dish on the menu this week was the Risotto al Limone from Saveur. I'd been drooling over the picture for weeks, and I was happy with the way it turned out when I made it. Lemony but mild enough not to offend the non-lemon lovers of us (ie The Guy), it was a lovely starter. My only concern is that even after adding an additional scoop of water while cooking, the risotto was almost too al dente. I did halve the recipe, adding the water in 1/2 cup increments instead of full cups, so that may have changed things, but I'd still suggest testing the risotto before you move on to the cream part of the recipe.
Lastly, I pulled a couple of recipes from Living's What's for Dinner section: the Easy Pea Ravioli with Mint and Cornish Game Hens with Lemon and Herbs. The ravioli was an interesting process and kind of sloppy to make (toward the end I resorted to making "pea dumplings" with the wonton wrappers because it was just easier). Since I don't have round cookie cutters I cut them into squares which worked just fine. The end result tasted good, but once I added a little grated lemon zest and parmesan on top of them. For the Cornish Game Hens I substituted a chicken and turned the heat down to 400 degrees. The result was nice, but not as good as some of the other recipes I've tried recently.
Next week? Maybe some desserts...
Posted by georgia to Kitchen and Cooking , Reviews on May 5, 2006 11:27 PM | permalink | Email this post
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too bad about the taste of the gnocchi - what a great picture.
Posted by: Sara at May 8, 2006 06:31 PM
