Tag Archives: italian

Potato Gnocchi

May 26

Potato gnocchi is one of those dishes that can go terribly wrong or perfectly right. It’s something I have tried to make in the past with a few hiccups along the way, but this recipe is something else. After taking a bunch of photos of this dish, hoping I would actually be able to use them, I popped a gnocchi into my mouth and exclaimed “holy shit.” This is what gnocchi should be: fluffy and light pillows of potato, lightly fried so that there is a contrasting crunch of a crispy exterior. Tossed in some butter and parmesan and plenty of herbs, it’s simple enough for the gnocchi to shine through but adds just enough extra flavour and dimension for an admittedly rich but comforting and satisfying meal.

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vegan spaghetti bolognese

Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese

March 13

I have been wanting to post about this meatless bolognese for ages now. What’s been stopping me? Well, when I used to make it all of the time in Montreal, I used to get this fake ground meat product that I used as the base. I have since learned that you could also use Textured Vegetable Protein for the mock meat flair, but after going to three grocery stores looking for it, and about to try a fourth, I realized: if it’s so hard for me to find the stuff, why would I send you on the same wild goose chase? There had to be a better way. So, I put my thinking cap on. The mock meat was really just used for the texture. It was always unseasoned, so all of the great flavor came from all of the vegetables and herbs that I used in the sauce. I never used to use mushrooms in the sauce, but that’s the place my mind goes when I want something chewy and ‘meaty’, so the new and improved (because we can all actually make it) vegan spaghetti bolognese was born.

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Rigatoni alla Norma

August 15

Oh the mighty eggplant. Where do I begin? I actually don’t cook with eggplant very often, but it is always what I am drawn to on menus or when I am out. I think that this was especially true this past July. It was definitely the month of the eggplant for me. While I was in London, all market food that contained eggplant ended up in my mouth, and in Sicily, it was ubiquitous and delicious. I couldn’t resist. Unlike my love for how others prepare eggplant, I have never mastered cooking it and am exceedingly limited in my eggplant repertoire. Typically, my first thought is eggplant parmesan. I have a few asian-inspired recipes as well (this one most notably), but that’s really it. While both of these recipes are two of my favourite meals, I always forget about them and usually end up walking by my purple friend in the grocery store without a second glance.

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sicilian inspired pasta recipe

Sicilian Inspired Pasta

August 6

One of the best things about living in London, has to be the endless possibility for cheap travel elsewhere. The flight deals that you can get to cities around Europe are absolutely unreal, especially coming from Canada where a 1 hour flight from Calgary to Vancouver costs hundreds of dollars. In our utter lack of organization, our plans to go to Scotland fell through the cracks and we were left, the day before we departed, to figure out where we should fly to. It wasn’t a very bad position to be in. There is always so much choice. It was a toss up between Sicily and Munich. We ended up going to Sicily, a place, in all honesty, that I had never considered going to before (not for any particular reason). What pushed us both over the edge as we looked into both destinations was the food.

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