Roast Pepper Sauce for Spinach Malfatti

After two weeks of not cooking and one trip to the farmer's market, I've spent pretty much the entire weekend in the kitchen.  I came across the cookbook 400 Sauces on clearance at Borders, and this recipe sounded really good.  And it is.  It reminds me of the ricotta gnocchi I made with red pepper sauce, only the tomatoes in the sauce definitely made it better.  The book says that "malfatti" is Italian for "badly made" since they aren't evenly shaped

Spinach Malfatti
1 1/4 lb baby spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
12 oz ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1 scant cup breadcrums
1/2 c flour
2/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
nutmeg, to taste


For roast pepper sauce
2 red peppers, seeded and quartered
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
14 oz can chopped tomatoes (I used no salt added)
salt and ground pepper to taste

1. Make the sauce.  Roast the red pepper in the broiler until they blister and blacken.  Cool slightly then peel and chop the flesh.  I chopped the onion and stemmed the spinach while the peppers were roasting, though technically, I think you are supposed to do all the prep work at the beginning.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and saute the onions and peppers for 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and 2/3 cup water and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Puree the mixture in a food processor or blender, the put in a clean pan.
5. Make the malfatti.  Trim any thick stalks from the spinach, wash well.  Blanch the spinach in boiling water for a minute.  Drain, refresh under cold water and drain again.  Squeeze spinach dry and chop it finely.
6. Put finely chopped onion, garlic, olive oil, ricotta, eggs and breadcrumbs in a bowl.  Add the spinach and mix well.  Stir in flour and a tsp of salt with half the parmesan.  Season to taste with pepper and nutmeg.
7. Roll mixture into 16 small logs and chill slightly (I didn't chill because there was no room in fridge and it was raining outside, but this made it break up a lot more when cooking).
8. Bring a large pan of water to the boil.  Carefully drop in the malfatti in batches and cook them for 5 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon.
9. To serve, reheat the sauce and divide it among four plates.  Arrange four malfatti on each and sprinkle the remaining Parmesan.  I however, topped it with the sauce.  Maybe when I eat leftovers tonight I'll do it the other way.  I'd take a picture but my camera's battery is dead.

Soupapoluza

I made soup the past two nights. I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'll miss the weekly grocery store run this weekend, so how do you keep your vegetables edible over a long weekend? Make soup of course! Plus my apartment has been making me cold.

Last night I made Carrot Cilantro Chili Soup. I didn't exactly measure the chili paste or the cilantro and it had a little too much chili paste and a little too little cilantro (either that or it was just too much chili and covered the taste of the cilantro, the soup was pretty hot, definitely spicier than my chili.

Tonight I made up an Italian vegetable soup. I made it with what I had lying around, so you could certainly make modifications (use frozen basil, for instance). It went something like this:
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 onion diced
2 stalks celery diced
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth (being a grad student means I don't have the space for a chicken to make my own chicken stock, but I will someday soon...)
1 6oz can tomato paste
2-3 c water
5 oz fresh spinach washed and chopped
1/4 c fresh basil
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp homemade Italian seasoning (dried basil, thyme, rosemary, and oregano in approximately equal parts, I'm not sure if this is what they sell in stores, but it's my 4 favorites)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dash cracked pepper
1 c Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend

1. Cook onion and celery in canola oil in large pot. When starting to soften, add chicken broth, water, tomatoes, tomato paste, spinach, basil, garlic, sugar, Italian seasoning, pepper.
2. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer about a half an hour until the veggies are almost soft. This is when I added the garlic powder because I didn't think it had enough flavor. You might also add more salt (I used low sodium broth and no sodium added tomatoes and if I liked salt I might have wanted more) pepper, or Italian seasoning. Taste it and decide what you need.
3. Add Harvest Grains. Simmer on low for 10 minutes until they are cooked, then remove from heat and serve. I put a little shredded mozzerella cheese on top and it was fantastic!