When I lived in the Bay Area some 20-plus years ago, after having been raised in Kansas, I was exposed for the first time in my life to real Italian cooking.
Just as a fast-food taco bears only a superficial relationship to what people really eat south of the border, Chef Boyardee the only Italian cook most Midwesterners knew had been a poor ambassador for his native cuisine.
I recall being unprepared for the amount and variety of seafood that San Francisco Italians incorporated into their cooking.
It made perfect sense, given the availability of fresh seafood in both San Francisco and Italy, but it didn't fit the spaghetti-and-meatball stereotype we Midwesterners had been fed.
At that time here in the Midwest, seafood meant fish sticks. Although a supermarket might have a token crab or lobster sitting in a freezer bin, the hapless creature would become covered in ice crystals from months of sitting on display and not being sold.
The affection I developed for calamari was not the sort of thing that impressed my peers back home. I also was introduced to a wider assortment of pasta than I had known existed. The most intriguing of the pastas that the San Francisco Italians prepare is gnocchi, whose starch is supplied not only by flour but also by potato. In fact, the flour and egg in a gnocchi recipe really function as binders for the potato.
Gnocchi remains primarily a product of home-cooking and restaurant kitchens. Making gnocchi is a more involved process than making pasta strictly from flour, and for that reason Italian cooks take particular pride when they serve it.
Gnocchi is a heavier pasta and as a result should be eaten with greater moderation than semolina pasta. Most of the gnocchi I have eaten has been shaped as small dumplings and served under a sauce, but gnocchi also works well as a pasta for wrapping a filling.
For that reason, I was delighted to find the following recipe for Spinach-Filled Gnocchi Rolls in Victoria Wise's "Gardener's Community Cookbook." This is not a complicated recipe, but it will take time to prepare. The results are well worth it.
Spinach-Filled Gnocchi Rolls
1 pound spinach, washed, drained and coarsely chopped
3/4 cup ricotta cheese, drained
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
salt
Gnocchi Dough (recipe at right)
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil leaves
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, skimmed and kept warm
1 1/2 cups shaved Parmesan
Place the still-moist spinach in a large, nonreactive pot and stir over medium heat until wilted, about five minutes. Drain again and set aside until cool enough to handle.
Squeeze-dry the spinach, wrap in a cloth towel and squeeze-dry again. Puree the spinach in a food processor or mince with a chef's knife.
Combine spinach with the ricotta, grated Parmesan, nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste. Set aside.
Prepare the Gnocchi Dough. When ready to use, divide into six balls.
On a floured surface, roll each ball into a 6-inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Spread 1/4 cup of the spinach mixture down the center and roll up the dough, enclosing the filling. Wrap each roll in cheesecloth and tie the ends with kitchen string. Set aside until ready to cook. (Rolls can be refrigerated overnight.)
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the gnocchi rolls, still wrapped in cheesecloth, and simmer briskly over medium-high heat until the dough is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a colander and let drip-dry for 10 minutes.
To serve, unwrap and cut each gnocchi into six rounds. Arrange the rounds on a serving platter, cut sides up. Top with basil and melted butter. Serve immediately with shaved Parmesan on the side.
Gnocchi Dough
2 pounds russet potatoes, scrubbed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Cook the potatoes in a large pot of water until done enough to pierce easily to the centers, about 30 to 40 minutes depending on size. Drain and set aside until cool enough to handle.
Peel the potatoes and place them in a large ungreased skillet. Dry over low heat for about 30 minutes, turning frequently, until a skin forms. Set aside to cool again.
Peel away the dry skin. Mash the potatoes in a large bowl with a fork or potato masher. Add the flour and salt and make a well in the center. Drop the egg yolks into the well and use your hands to work the yolks together with the dry ingredients. Work the butter into the dough a little at a time.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for 10 minutes. Set aside to rest for 30 minutes. Use right away, or wrap in plastic and store in the refrigerator for up to overnight. Bring to room temperature before using.
When she's not writing about foods and gardening, Gwyn Mellinger is teaching journalism at Baker University.
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