Once upon a Thursday morning, Martha Stewart had a guest chef named Lidia who happens to hail from my grandmother's home town of Trieste, Italy. Chef Lidia is now famous for her northern Italian cuisine, has a few fine dining restaurants, several cookbooks, and a line of boxed pasta that she was plugging during her appearance with Martha.
On Thursday, Lidia was making--perhaps my very favorite meal, or
definitely in the top 2 or 3--GNOCCHI. Light, delicate potato pasta pillows in
a bed of homemade marinara. I have my own biological link to the dish, even though I've never made it to Trieste. I feel connected to it, but I rarely make it because it is complicated and messy. It looked so good on TV and I knew it would inevitably end up on our dining table within a few days.
Baking the potatoes, peeling them, RICING them--Michael did help me with that, hand mixing the dough, forming each individual gnocchi, boiling them, and sinking them into my homemade marinara...it is all a spiritual process made completely out of love.
Aren't they pretty?
Contrasting Cuisine: Boyardee VS homemade gnocchi goodness
All plated...bowled...up. A dinner masterpiece.
I hang my head in disgust, though, because my boys won't have anything
to do with it. I'm not about to make them eat it because each little
piece is hand made with love, and if they aren't going to love it back,
it's going in MY mouth. Nick and I can easily snarf down a husky bowl or
two. This last picture is a crying shame of a meal: Chef Boyardee meat ravioli...an embarrassment to Lidia, I am sure. It's the boys' consolation prize of a dinner. Ekk ekk ekk.
The gnocchi was divine. It was a beautiful experience. My kitchen is a wreck, but I ate so much that the clean up will just have to wait a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment