The Amateur Gourmet
Recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal essays — twice a week since 2004.
Free, twice a week. One more click on Substack to confirm.
Writing about food since 2004.
Lolita Reflects on This Week’s Meals
The Amateur Gourmet
Thanks for reading. Recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal essays — twice a week since 2004.
Free, twice a week. One more click on Substack to confirm.
my cat is also obsessed with watching me cook/eat. too bad she’ll never get to eat any of it.
yes, food!!! this is the site i’ve been looking for…drool
I also wanted to make gnocchi once and went out and bought a ricer just for the occasion. I wasn’t so thrilled with my gnocchi either, though it did taste better as leftovers the next day.
That was very adorable. *much luff*
All I can say is that you are my HERO! Wow!
Baked potatoes make better gnocchi – see recipes by Marcella Hazan and/or Michael Chiarello.
Woah, woah, woah there, Mr. Boyfriend — if you’re gonna diss on Lolita I may have to take back the nice things I said about you! 😛 Just kidding…but would the AG be the same without her? Nay! VIVA LOLITA!
This is such a fun entry! I love it.Might I also add that Craig is totally hot. Way to go. 🙂
Remember when making Gnocchi that you want to use as little flour as you can. Also, the ricer is not for waste. Riced potatoes make for great mashed potatoes. 🙂
I’ll add to Jason’s notes about the gnocchi, and point out that you should bake your potatoes, not boil them. Boiling leads to moisture. Moisture leads to flour. Flour leads to suffering.
That was a really fun post. I noticed that that is the same table set-up that you had a couple of posts back for your romantic dinner. 🙂 How did that go?
This is CLASSIC. love it!
Wow, that food looks wonderful.
Actually, Cook’s Illustrated has a great gnocchi recipe, not Marcella Hazan (she boils the potatoes like Lydia).
I hope you gave her a bit of the anchovy dressing :).
Wow, nice pics. How did you get that comic book format? It looks great.
forget the potatoes and make ricotta gnocchi. It is 1000 times easier and it’s never failed me. Potato gnocchi made me want to cry.
Brilliant!
Let me just say that the paw is quicker than the eye. I sample LOADS while you’re chattin’ up Mr. Smooth. I’m not sleeping in those pictures–I’m digesting!
I recall reading somewhere that baking the potatoes half buried in a tray of coarse salt lowers the moisture without making them salty. Don’t remember if you can still use the salt after that.Love you Lolita (snorgle snorgle)
I’d love to hear more about the gnocchi, as I decided to make some at 9 p.m. Saturday night, and at 2 a.m. finally dumped the remainder of the too-wet batter in the garbage, only making a few dozen. I never thought it would be so difficult. (Would you believe I haven’t even eaten them yet? Just looking at them brings back a bad mood.)
I really don’t know what to do with this comment, but I know that AG readers would want to know.One of my current law students just came by to tell me he’s on his way to Korea for a three-week summer program abroad (for credit, no less). He is the creator of the Emory Food Club, which meets regularly at cheapie restaurants in the greater Atlanta area. He said that this summer he has created the Xtreme Food Club for summer associates to compete in eating the weirdest (or maybe most unpalatable) food dish. He is hoping to win with Korean dog. But wait, there’s more! He said that Korean dog is better than Vietnamese dog, b/c the Vietnamese excite the dog too much before they prepare it and the adrenalin makes the meat tougher. The Koreans don’t excite the dog, thus keeping the meat tender.See what I mean? Who else but AG readers would appreciate this bit of international cuisine info?And does anyone know if this is actually correct?
I agree with baking the potatoes instead of boiling for better gnocchi. Sometimes I roll in some spinach to make it lighter.Otherwise, and pardon the caps for this but I’m tired of using exclamation marks for excitement, I LOVE THE CARTOON CAPTION LAYOUT OF THIS POST. Keep up the excellent work, Mr. not-so-amateur gourmet.