Something from Nothing

If you’re anything like me, you may go through occasional Mother Hubbard cycles, in which the contents of your refrigerator may include some moldy cheese, furry vegetables, an egg, and condiments. I have a pretty busy schedule balancing multiple jobs and traveling for gigs and auditions, so I may go weeks between major grocery runs, and I will use every last grain or canned good in my pantry before making the trek to the store. If you are also like me, you may occasionally play the I-don’t-have-money-for-groceries-until-next-week-so-I-need-to-get-creative-this-week game. I guess we can choose to be bummed out by our financial and/or food supply limitations, or we can use them to bulk up our resourcefulness and creativity muscles.

That is exactly the approach I used recently when I took stock of all the "nothing" I had in my possession and decided to turn it into something. Preferably something delicious.

Here's what I came up with:

• 2 small yams purchased weeks (maybe months <yikes>) ago. They had no growths or discolorations and still looked and smelled fine... so I declared them usable
• 1/2 a block (log? Roll?) of Goetta, which I can only describe as Cincinnati's Haggis. I classify it as such, because it is essentially meat pieces ground together with spices and oats and smells a bit like high-end cat food when raw. I know I'm not selling you on this, but take my word for it---when fried to a golden crisp on the outside and a flavorful--slightly creamy deliciousness on the inside, it's dang good! This particular bit of Goetta was at least a week old and needed to be eaten NOW.
• Milk
• A few measly tablespoons of grated Parmesan
• Butter
• The usual pantry goods (flour, salt, pepper, etc...)
• Fresh herbs from my porch garden

Summer always brings pleasant memories of traveling, and for the past few weeks, I've been having nostalgic flashbacks to time spent in Tuscany a few years ago. It was on that particular trip that I discovered gnocchi (neh-yo-kee)--an Italian potato dumpling of mouthwatering proportions. So, weighing my options, I had potatoes, flour and the makings of a tasty sauce. Gnocchi was on like donkey kong.

In my search for a good basic sweet potato Gnocchi recipe, I ended up using one from my homegirl Giada's collection. It called for:

2 lbs. sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. feshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 c. flour, plus 1/3 c. for work surface

Let's just pause to talk about using recipes as a suggestion rather than the gospel truth. I did not have 2 lbs. of sweet potatoes (I had two, remember?). I did not have ricotta cheese or anything of it's kind to substitute--so I used an egg to bind the ingredients. Here was a stunning example of synthesizing recipes. I've never made gnocchi, but after reading other recipes, I had a pretty good idea of how it should all come together and I wasn't stressed out that mine would be ricotta free. The sauce I was making would also take a more savory approach, so I would be foregoing the cinnamon today.

The basic gist of making gnocchi seemed simple enough: 1.) cook the taters. 2.) Mash and mix w/ flour, spices and egg. 3.) Form into little dumplings 4.) boil to cook. 


For the sauce, I would pull out a tried and true standard, using a cream base, flavored and calorically enhanced with goetta. Ok, game on.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients
2 shriveled sweet potatoes (or yams)
1-1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
sea salt and pepper to taste
dash of cayenne and paprika


Making it Happen
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.


Give the potatoes a few good jabs with a fork all over. (This will prevent them from exploding in the oven.) Place on a baking sheet, stick in the oven, and if you live in a hot and humid apartment, get out---it's only going to get worse with the oven on. Without air conditioning in my top-floor apartment, on a scale of bearable to ridiculously hot, I was a mere hot flash away from ridiculous. So, while the potatoes baked alive, I enjoyed a cool breeze and a good book outside. 

Once they have cooked for about an hour, turn off the oven and let them cool off. The flesh should be soft and easy to scoop out with a spoon.

In a mixing bowl, mash up the flesh, adding the egg and spices. Mix well.


Starting with 1/2 cup, begin incorporating the flour and adding more, little by little until a dough begins to form. Depending on how much potato flesh you have and how big the egg is, this amount will vary. The dough should be soft but not too sticky. Set a big pot of salted water on to boil.


Divide the dough into 3 balls and roll them into logs about 1/2" in diameter. Pinch off 1" long segments and roll into an oval, then roll over the tines of a fork. This creates a nice gnocchi look. Set them aside until you are ready to cook them. 


Tip: If you made more gnocchi than you anticipate wanting to eat in the immediate future, you can freeze them at this stage.


When water is boiling, drop the gnocchi in. They will float to the surface when done--how convenient! It should take 2-4 minutes.

Goetta Cream Sauce

Ingredients
Goetta sliced in 1/4" coins
2-3 Tbl. Butter
1 tsp. flour
1/4+ cup of milk and/or cream

Fresh herbs (Rosemary and/or Basil recommended)
Salt and pepper to taste


Make it Happen
Heat a skillet and place the Goetta slices in the center. Let them cook 4-6 minutes on each side. There should be a nice deep brown crisp before flipping a slice over. Be patient and let the heat do the work. 


Once the Goetta is crispy on the outside and cooked through, move it to the side of the pan. 


Add the butter. (Don't be alarmed, Goetta doesn't release a lot of fat the way bacon does. Your arteries will be just fine.)


When butter has melted, sprinkle the flour over the butter and stir, cooking the roux for at least a minute. A roux is the base for most cream sauces and soups, and consists of flour cooked in fat, which, when added to milk, functions as a thickening agent. 


Add the milk, stirring and breaking up the goetta. Keeping the heat at a simmer, gently stir the sauce until it thickens a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Hint: the goetta is pretty salty on it's own...keep that in mind before you go salt crazy.)


When the gnocchi are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them into the sauce pan. Turn off the heat, add the Parmesan, and stir. Throw on some finely chopped rosemary and basil and give a good stir to incorporate. Serve and enjoy!