Kevin72

It varies, but I usually use Mario Batali's recipe from The Babbo Cookbook for the raviolis. it is very simple, roasted butternut squach, egg, parm. the sauce is also easy, just brown the butter, toss in some sage leaves and coarsly chopped roasted hazelnuts. Toss the cooked raviolis in there. Do let me know if you need more detailed instructions and I will check my book(s) when I get home. Elie ← I make those this time of year too, but with a couple variations: Sweet potato instead of squash I brown the butter a little and then pour in a shot of Amaretto.

Before I had even made it to the elevator I was asking myself "Can I work for someone who doesn't like Italian food?"

Yes, that would work out much better.

You've already processed them far past the point you need to for gnocchi. Plus you've incorporated I'd imagine some form of liquid into them, correct? So now you need to compensate for that, which means extra flour, which means leaden gnocchi.

I'm not sure if he himself was vegan, just that his girlfriend was. Certainly he was eating better than a sizeable chunk of the US populace. I haven't regularly eaten fast food for years and the last two times I did (Wendy's and KFC) I was pretty sick afterwards. I think that the strength of the film was less in the central gimmic and more in exposing the eating habits of Americans and cutting to why we are an increasingly obese nation. Where I work it's not unusual to see someone eating the "super value sized" burger n' fries lunch every day, and as you pointed out the school lunch segments were unsettling.

Add me to the "picky eaters" list. People who won't try vegetables or even anything new to them at all. I have a group of friends that I periodically lose my mind over and invite over to eat and at the end of the evening it's a bunch of plates with different items laying there untouched on them. I made roasted pepper fritters last time they were all over and one of them painstakingly picked all the peppers out of theirs', only after initially refusing to eat them. All-time knock-me-on-the-floor event was a job interview last spring. I'm in training and development and I interviewed at one company and got asked back for a second interview. This time I was supposed to do a training presentation. They give a list of suggested topics--one was "favorite hobby" and another was "cooking demonstration". Oh, I had them now! So I decide to do a gnocchi demonstration. I bring Play-do to imitate the dough and show them how to roll it into dowels, cut it, roll it off the fork tines, etc. Then I make my own batch of real gnocchi right before I leave, bring it along, and offer it for them to taste at the end. The woman who I was interviewing with, my prospective boss, refused them. "I don't like gnocchi." She said dismissively. Apparently my lower jaw needed to be closer to the floor, so she added, "My husband and I just got back from Italy and I didn't have one good meal there." I couldn't resist. "You must not have eaten at the right places!" I sputtered. We got into a back and forth for a while before I realized this was a job interview and I gave up. Got a rejection letter a month later and I was happy to do so.

She's in Houston (hey Fifi!). Maybe "wild" fennel wasn't the right name for it. Its the kind that's all frond and no bulb to speak of.

Yeah, I'd skip making gnocchi. You've already over-developed the gluten by mashing them to that extent and they would be gummy and never come together. You could make fritters out of them though by mixing in a couple eggs, cheese, maybe ham, coat them in bread crumbs, and fry them.

It seems to me that food not just with high water content but also with fatty deposits seem to spit and pop alot. Soft-shelled crabs are notorious apparently. I was also searing some pork spare rib meat in a layer of oil for a stew once and they practically exploded, showering fat everywhere.

Actually, now that I think about it I bought a kind I hadn't bought before way early in the season, like very early September and they were good. The kinds that I've bought since then are MacIntosh, Gala, and Braeburn, all mealy. Also went to Whole Food this weekend and didn't fare much better. Is it a bad apple crop year?

You mean want me to actually do something about it? Nuts.

I've wanted to buy some for some time but found it almost ludicrously expensive. My mom grows wild fennel in her back yard and it was blooming and I used some on a dish. It was amazing, gotta admit.

I have many, many "never agains" I picked up while making gnocchi. The food processor method is probably the biggest one. Though, you CAN use the shredding attachment to break them down with success.

Anyone else have problems with apples from Central Market (DFW area) this year? Every time I've bought apples and no matter what kind they've been dry and mealy. Then I go to Tom Thumb where it seems like their store policy is to only sell week-old produce with a bruise on it and get perfect, aromatic, sweet/tart juice-dripping-down-your chin apples. Rant over, carry on.

I'm like you Ari in that I've always liked cooking shows even from when I was little. Put a cooking show on and I'm entranced. Maybe it has something to do with having a mother who was pretty active in the kitchen and so watching this on TV has a kid had a residual maternal attachment for me. With Food Network though I OD'd and no longer get this feeling. Now I watch to see what the chef's voice is, to learn about new cultures or techniques or recipes.

Hmm. The best Texas can muster according to this list is a buffet and a chain by Phil Romano of Macaroni Grill fame.

You really need to have those fall dishes ready to go here at a moment's notice, don't you? After stifling heat last week we're in the 50's the past few days and prime soup weather. Just made some pumpkin soup so it's really hitting the spot.

I do bake my potatoes for gnocchi and then use egg as a binder. I've never had the courage to try without egg. Sweet potatoes are another option; they turn out really well.

I'm just echoing what everyone else has said in that organic birds tend to be leaner and need to be more carefully monitored to avoid drying out. I have no experience with deep-frying turkeys but last year we splurged on an organic turkey and wound up with breast meat the texture of damp sawdust.

I felt sheepish buying it from Central Market the other day. Used it as garnish for tortillas. Then I went to make a salad last night from some baby greens only most of it had gone bad. I salvaged what I could and then bulked it up with the leftover iceburg and it was not at all the same.

Add another vote in the Marcella Hazan column. Mario Batali's Simple Italian food is still my favorite of his. I'm also partial to the Regional Foods of Northern Italy and Regional Foods of Southern Italy by Marlena di Blasi. Her prose gets a bit out of hand at times (her next book after these was a semi-autobiographical romance novel!) but she has alot of unique dishes in there.

I've got La Cucina di Lidia, sharing recipes from wher she grew up in Istria. Lots of very different recipes in there. She's definitely in my Pantheon, that's for sure.

I agree. One of the joys to me of trying to cook seasonally is that you do get much more attached to the seasons themselves and the dishes become more cherished. Come May and June I want a grilled piece of fish with a little lemon juice and olive oi, or a salad of summer tomatoes with oregano. But then you get them out of your system and are eagerly awaiting the braises and roasts of autumn. It lends itself to less repetition: you stick by what's best and in season and the dishes will create themselves.

I call no fair on having to include salt and pepper in the top 5. And, what the hell, garlic too. 1) Fennel seeds or fronds 2) Rosemary 3) Mint 4) Chilies 5) Lemon juice/zest

I try to be as seasonal as possible but I live in Dallas so it's fairly temperate here even in the colder months. I find that summer produce is the most "seasonal" of the bunch, in other words, I only cook with those items in-season: fresh tomatoes, eggplant, melons, peaches, etc. Conversely winter seems the hardest season to stay with since there is a scarcity of produce and it gets oppressive after a while. I definitely cook in-season with seafood and even stick to the "months without R's" rule for clams, oysters, and mussels. I find that mussels don't really get good again until January-May, cultivated or not.