Pancetta Gnocchi

This is a twist on an old family recipe. Gnocchi was a favorite meal of my grandpa, Walter Rozanski, who is pictured below making it. His daughter, my aunt Rita, requested that I figure out how to make bacon gnocchi, and this recipe was born.

(On an unrelated note, I just discovered where my nose comes from!)

Gnocchi ingredients:

2 medium potatoes
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 pound pancetta (Italian bacon)

Alfredo sauce ingredients:

Fat from cooking pancetta
1 T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 T flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1 t black pepper

Peel, cut, and boil potatoes until soft and easily mashed. On my stove, this took 25 minutes from the start with hot water. Drain water and mash potatoes until smooth. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese. Set bowl in refrigerator until cool.

While potatoes are cooling, dice pancetta and sauté on medium-high heat until crispy. Remove pancetta, reserving juice/fat in pan. Set this aside for sauce. Let cooked pancetta cool for a few minutes, then mince/crush until there are no large chunks of meat.

Remove potatoes from refrigerator. Add egg, mixing well with a spoon. Add flour and mix well. Add pancetta last, mixing well.

Fill a large pan half full with water and a few dashes of salt and put on the stove to boil at this point.

Spread some flour on a table or cutting board to prevent dough from sticking. Knead gnocchi minimally until it is a uniform ball of dough. Cut this ball into four pieces. Take one quarter of the dough at a time and roll into a long snake of dough. Using a sharp knife, slice dough into pieces 1 inch wide or less. Take each piece individually and roll on a fork so the sides are grooved. Place gnocchi on a plate to rest while making remaining gnocchi.

When your plate is full and water is boiling, drop the plateful of gnocchi into boiling water and set a timer for five minutes. More gnocchi can be rolled out and sliced while the first batch is cooking. After five minutes, remove gnocchi from water with a slotted spoon and leave to drain in a colander.

Continue above steps until all dough is used and all gnocchi is cooked. Drain water and use the same pan for the sauce. Use a rubber spatula to drain the fat from cooking the pancetta from the frying pan into the larger pan. Heat this fat and one tablespoon butter on medium heat. When butter is melted, add minced garlic and saute for a few minutes, stirring often to prevent burning. After a few minutes, add wine and cook for a few more minutes, again stirring often. Add flour and use a wire whisk to mix well, making a rue. Cook only for a minute or two, stirring almost constantly to prevent burning.

Add milk, again using wire whisk to mix well. Continue cooking and stirring often until sauce starts to thicken. Add cheese about 1/3 cup at a time, mixing until melted. Add pepper last. Stir in cooked gnocchi to coat with sauce. If gnocchi has cooled, cook until warm.

This recipe serves four to six people and goes well with pinot grigio. I think this is one of the tastiest recipes I've ever made, and I plan to make it often in the future.

Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Alfredo sauce is another weakness of mine. Absolutely delicious and chock full of calories, it's something in which I rarely allow myself to indulge. Heavy cream is what makes this food so amazing and yet so bad for you, so I set out to find a recipe that still tastes great but doesn't cause me to gain five pounds overnight. This recipe uses 2% milk instead of cream. It's still not quite healthy, but it tastes like the real thing with a little less guilt.


This recipe is very versatile. I had a craving for Cajun tonight, but if you replace the Cajun spices with salt, pepper, and garlic powder you will have a more traditional alfredo sauce. I also love using shrimp instead of chicken, but unfortunately that is a much more expensive recipe.

It's not very pretty, but it tastes incredible!

Makes 3-4 servings.


Ingredients:


8 oz. fettuccine pasta
Cajun spice mix
3 chicken breasts
2 T butter
2 T coconut oil
1 t minced garlic
3 T flour
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup grated Romano cheese


Required equipment:


Wire whisk
Large cast-iron or stainless steel frying pan - do not use a Teflon or other coated pan for this recipe or you may end up with bits of the non-stick coating in your food from the wire whisk scraping the pan.


Cook pasta according to directions, drain, and set aside.


In a shallow bowl, coat chicken breasts with Cajun spice mix until they are completely covered. Yes, I use a mix - it's so easy, and I am new at cooking Cajun food and have no clue what makes it taste so amazing.

This is the spice mix I use, found at my local grocery store.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon coconut oil in frying pan on medium heat. If you don't own coconut oil, just replace it with the same amount of butter. Add minced garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add meat to pan, turning every few minutes until chicken breasts are cooked all the way through. When you flip the meat, scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula so spices and drippings do not stick and burn.

When chicken is cooked all the way through, remove meat to a clean plate, quickly slice into smaller pieces, and return to pan. Mix these smaller chicken pieces with the juices and spices in the pan until coated and cook for a few more minutes. Remove chicken back to plate and cover to keep warm.

Reduce heat to low-medium. Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon coconut oil in pan, mixing with the spices and juices that are left in the pan after cooking the chicken. Add flour in small amounts, stirring constantly with wire whisk until all flour is mixed in. Add milk slowly, still stirring constantly with wire whisk to prevent lumps. You may have to stir fairly vigorously to get rid of the lumps.


When all lumps are gone, continue to stir frequently until mixture is hot but not boiling (a few minutes). When hot, add grated cheese slowly, stirring with whisk until cheese is melted and mixed in. Once all cheese has been added and melted, add at least another tablespoon of Cajun spice mix and stir. Taste the sauce and add more Cajun spices to your liking.


Remove from heat and mix sauce with pasta and chicken. You may need to do this in another container if your frying pan is not big enough.

Ready to eat!

References:
http://www.food.com/recipe/reduced-fat-alfredo-sauce-12365