Classic Basil Pesto

Basil is one amazing herb. It's a member of the mint family, and is commonly grown and featured in the cuisine of India, Southeast Asia Northern Africa and Italy. Some even call it Holy Basil because it has some great properties besides just tasting really good; antibacterial, stress fighting, good for your digestive system type properties :0) There are many reasons to eat basil, so let me introduce you to one of the yummiest~ Classic Basil Pesto!

If you have never tried or heard of Pesto, it's a tasty culinary invention for sure! A simple blend of herbs (usually basil), pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. Pesto can be used on sandwiches, in soups, or pasta dishes. Best of all, it's deeeeeeelicious!

Since I've been on a fresh herb kick this week with my posts, I thought I'd whip up some Classic Basil Pesto to share with the world. I don't actually have enough for the world, but if everyone who read this post made some, and shared it with friends, and the friends made some, well, we just might get to share pesto with the whole world...

Note: You will need a food processor to create classic basil pesto. I have never attempted to make it in a blender. If anyone of you is daring enough to try, please let me know how it turns out!
Some Ideas: I hope you truly enjoy pesto. You can easily freeze individual portions in an ice cube tray and just pop them out as needed. You could stir it into the lovely Baked Risotto with Zucchini that I featured yesterday. Even my picky kids will eat it on grilled cheese. Mmmm, there's a little hint for tomorrow's recipe :0)

Classic Basil Peso

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: none

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Ingredients (about 3/4 cup)

• 3 garlic cloves, peels left on
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (no shells)
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Place Garlic cloves in a skillet over medium heat. Stir often and toast until just starting to get brown in spots, about 5 minutes. Add the pine nuts and stir together with the garlic, just until they start to get golden brown 3 to 5 minutes more. Remove from heat.

2. In a food processor, toss in the basil leaves. Make sure they don't have water on them. (Dry them well with paper towels if you have recently rinsed them in water.) Add the pine nuts, oil, and Parmesan cheese. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, peel it and toss it into the food processor as well.

3. Process all ingredients well, stopping to scrape the bowl down as needed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes and serve. Pesto will keep in the fridge for about 5 days or freeze in ice cube tray.

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Baked Rigatoni with Zucchini

Baked Rigatoni with Zucchini is a delightful Italian pasta that is delicious to eat and fun to make too!
If you happen to have lots of zucchini on your hands this summer, invite family and friends over to help you make this recipe and enjoy this fabulous summer pasta made for sharing.

This recipe starts out with a quick saute of onion and then the zucchini, but what makes it fun is the addition of the tomatoes. You'll empty a 28oz can of whole San Marzano tomatoes into a large bowl, then stick your hand in (or invite the kids's to use their hands) and start squishing them! Yes it sounds weird and maybe creepy...but it's really fun! Crush up the whole can of tomatoes with your bare hand. Somehow this makes me feel like a kid again. Playing in the mud and getting messy...with no care in the world...except catching the ice cream truck...oh summertime fun...

You'll need a fair amount of fresh large leaf basil for this recipe, about a cup. If you read my last post you'll know how much I love fresh herbs, and I won't get on my soap box this time. Most grocery stores will carry a carton of fresh basil~ use this if you don't grow your own or have a handy dandy farmers market nearby. Oh how I love fresh basil! I love the way my fingers smell after picking off a few leaves. Mmmmm!

I found the use of Fontina and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses were a nice change from the usual Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese most think of when cooking Italian fare. They can be a bit difficult to find~ check the specialty cheese isle. If you can't find one or the other, substitute another Italian hard cheese. Just make sure you use two different kinds, it really helps to add depth of flavors to this dish.
I hope you enjoy it along with the special people in your life. That's true Italian cooking!

Baked Rigatoni with Zucchini

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 35 mins

Cook Time: 20

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Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 2 tablespoons for the pot of water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 lb medium zucchini, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 28oz can San Marzano tomatoes crushed by hand
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1 lb rigatoni pasta
• 8 oz Fontina cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Set your oven to heat to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to boil, adding the salt. In a 12" inch skillet with deep sides, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened and just starting to brown. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, for another 5 minutes or it begins to soften. in the meantime, pour the can of tomatoes into a mixing bowl and crush by hand. Save the can.

2. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt, the red pepper flakes to the skillet and stir for about 30 seconds then add the crushed tomatoes to the skillet, filling the empty can with water and pour into the skillet as well. Bring the sauce to boil, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Don't let the zucchini over cook and fall apart.

3. While the sauce is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta and add to the skillet. The sauce should be about done at this point. It's okay if it needs to cook for one to two minutes more with the pasta in it to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the basil.

4. Spray a 9 X 13 inch pan with cooking spray. Ladle one half of the contents of the skillet into the pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheeses onto the top. Ladle the second half of the pasta and sauce into the pan and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, until brown and bubbly.

5. Serve. Sprinkle individual servings with additional cheese if any is left over.

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Baked Gnocchi with Basil Tomato Sauce

Here it is, my favorite recipe for gnocchi!

The gnocchi is baked in a tomato and fresh basil sauce made from scratch, topped with a heaping portion of shredded Mozzarella (the good kind, not that low-moisture skim stuff). If you've never heard of gnocchi, see my last post on Easy Fresh Gnocchi.

This is so fast and easy to make, you'll love that it can be cooked up any week night you feel like comfort food. It goes from the cupboard to the dinner plate in less than 30 minutes!

You can use store bought or your own home made gnocchi. If using my recipe for gnocchi and you've frozen it, boil it first before making this recipe. Keep in mind this will add about 10 extra minutes of prep time to your schedule. If you are using store bought, you can proceed immediately with the recipe. Partially cooked packaged gnocchi can be found in most supermarkets in the pasta isle.

For this recipe, the gnocchi is sauteed in olive oil in a NON STICK SKILLET (please make sure you use a nonstick skillet, ask me how I know) until lightly browned and crunchy on the exterior, (Which is absolutely fabulous on it's own; think fried potatoes.) A simple fresh tomato sauce is then made with minced onion, garlic, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, a can of crushed tomato and lots of freshly chopped basil. The fried gnocchi are tossed in this sauce, and topped off with shredded mozzarella. The the whole shebang is popped into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.

If you have a large oven safe nonstick skillet, you can pop the whole thing into the oven. If not, simply transfer the tossed gnocchi and sauce into a dish that is oven safe. The cheese is melted into bubbly gooiness in the oven, really putting this dish over the top! Italian cooking at it's finest. A meal you'd probably spend $18 bucks on at some fancy restaurant, and you can enjoy it at home for about $2 a serving! Great cooking at home comes with practice, but a great recipe will give you a tremendous head start :0)

Baked Gnocchi with Basil Tomato Sauce

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 8 to 10 minutes

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Ingredients (4 servings)

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound vacuum packed gnocchi or homemade
• 1/2 onion minced
• 6 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle and set oven to heat to 475 degrees.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large nonstick skillet (If you have one that is oven safe, use it.) over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the gnocchi and saute until golden brown and crispy on the outside, transfer to a dish.

3. Increase the heat to medium high and add the remaining olive oil and the onion. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and beginning to brown. Stir in garlic and pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. stir in the crushed tomato and water and cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the basil and browned gnocchi to pan. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, until the gnocchi is heated through about 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to an oven safe dish and sprinkle with the mozzarella, or if using an oven safe dish, sprinkle the cheese over the pan, and slide into the oven. Bake the gnocchi for about 8 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, bubbling and browned in some spots. Serve.

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Fresh Easy Gnocchi

Guh...Juh... what's that you say? Pinocchio? No, it's Gnocchi! If you've never heard of it don't worry, its not exactly a standard household staple just yet. (Not in the US anyway.) Gnocchi (pronounced 'Nyo-kee') is an Italian potato pasta that is quickly gaining popularity for it's delicious flavor and unusual shape. It can be sauteed, baked or added to soup. Basically anything you can do with pasta you can do with gnocchi!

Fresh pasta always starts out as a dough and gnocchi is no different. Gnocchi dough is made by kneading mashed potato with egg, olive oil, salt and flour. The finished dough should not be sticky but very silky and smooth. I use instant mashed potatoes made from potato pearls, as they the perfect consistency. I save myself the work of mashing, and I don't have a ricer to make super smooth mashed potatoes. The traditionalist would boil a couple russets until super soft, and peel then mash while still hot. The mashed potato needs to be very warm/hot to help absorb the flour and other ingredients.

Then comes the fun! It's play dough time. The little kid deep down inside gets to come out as you roll the dough into long 'snakes' and then cut it into small pieces.

Here's a fun fact about pasta: It's different shapes are mean to 'hold' different types of sauces. For example, long thin strand pasta like spaghetti or fettuccine is for silky, thin sauces with small bits of food. Tubular or shelled pastas are shaped to hold chunkier, thicker sauces.

Gnocchi have 'ribs' or 'grooves' pressed into them so that they too can hold pasta sauce. They are very versatile and can be used for thin or thick sauce (ragu).  If you find you really like to make gnocchi at home, you can be super authentic and get a gnocchi board (a small hand-held wooden board with grooves that run the length). I'm all about saving money and prefer to use something we all have in the kitchen: a dinner fork.

Something I really love about making gnocchi at home is that I can make a huge batch and freeze them for

later. After rolling ridges into the gnocchi, skip the boiling step and simply lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Pop then in the freezer for about an hour. Scoop them into freezer bags by the handful and you've got a great versatile pasta ready to become a fast weeknight meal! When you're ready to use them, plop them strait into a boiling pot of water, or even spread them out on a baking sheet and cook them in a 350 degree oven for about 8 to 10 minutes for a crispy exterior (which is my favorite way to eat them). I hope you have fun creating these cuties at home. I'll be sharing my favorite recipe for baked gnocchi in my next post, so make sure you follow my blog so you don't miss it :0)

Homemade Gnocchi

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 45 minuts

Cook Time: 5 minutes

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Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 cups prepared instant mashed potatoes
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt

Instructions

1.Place the very warm mashed potato on a heavily floured surface. Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour around the edges of the mashed potato. Add the egg yolk, salt and oil in a small depression or 'well' in the center of the mashed potato and begin to incorporate with a fork. When thoroughly mixed, begin incorporating flour into the potato mixture by hand.

2. Knead dough, adding more and more flour until the dough is no longer sticky and very smooth and soft. Pull a small handful of dough away and roll it into a long skinny 'snake' on your work surface approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. With a sharp knife or a bench scraper, cut the dough into 3/4 to 1 inch-sized pieces. Repeat with all the remaining dough.

3. Set a large pot of generously salted water on the stove to boil. With a fork, press and roll dough pieces along the tines (starting at the top and rolling downward) to create ridges all around each piece of pasta. At this point some prefer to let them sit out for an hour to dry and firm up a bit. But they are just fine to cook immediately too. Place the gnocchi into salted boiling water (in batches if needed, so as not to crowd the pot). When they float to the top they are done, so scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Place them in another bowl with ice water.

4. When all the gnocchi have been cooked and placed in the ice water, drain the water and drizzle olive oil over the gnocchi or a large spoonful of your sauce and toss to coat. This prevents the pasta from sticking together. Store in the fridge covered with a plate, not plastic wrap, for up to 3 days. When ready to serve, make or heat your sauce, add the gnocchi and warm on the stove top or oven. Serve.

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