The Square

The Square

2^nd Anniversary Dinner July 26, 2009

Thinly Sliced Avocado with a Sweet Pepper Vinaigrette, Gazpacho Jelly Shot and Sour Cream Ice Cream

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Saute of Langoustine Tails with Parmesan Gnocchi and an Emulsion of Potato and Truffle

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Roast Foie Gras with a Sweet and Sour Citrus Glaze, Slow Cooked Cherries and Honeycomb

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Loin of Monkfish with a Puree of Peas, Lardo di Collonata and Glazed Lettuce

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Herb Crusted Saddle of West Country Lamb with Shallot Puree, Garlic, Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil

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A Tasting of Barkham Blue Cheese

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Brillat-Savarin and Red Currant Cheesecake with Black Currant Sorbet and White Currant Puree

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Peach Melba Souffle

Josmayer: Hengst, Riesling Alsace Grand Cru 2000

Sylvain Cathiard: Nuit-St-Georges – 1^er Cru “Aux Murges” 2002

What can I say. I needed a fantastic dinner to celebrate and The Square delivered a perfect evening. The food and service completely lived up to the two star billing.

Braised Fennel

This is an all time favourite originally picked up from a River Café cookbook. Like so many of the recipes I have prepared repeatedly my version is not necessarily recognisable as the RC recipe I started with. I also think that at some point I picked up a recipe from the guy who owns the French Laundry in California that somehow got worked into my own version.

Ingredients (for 4):

1. 4 medium size fennels cut into quarters. Clean up the end but keep the tough core as it will keep the fennel from falling apart during the cooking. Reserve the fronds and tops and chop finely;
2. 50 gr butter;
3. 1 glass or about 125 ml white wine;
4. 150 ml good quality chicken stock;
5. 2 tbsp EVOO;
6. 1 tbsp sweet vinegar such as cider or white balsamic;
7. 1 lemon;
8. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

• Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan under medium heat. Add fennel and caramelize the flat sides turn over and caramelize the rounded bit a little;
• Return the fennel onto the flat side and poor over the white wine. Let simmer until most of the wine has evaporated;
• Add the chicken stock and let simmer covered over low heat until the fennel is soft through or about 30 min (the chicken stock should come up to half the sides of the fennel);
• Remove fennel from the pan and set aside. Stir the vinegar into the remaining sauce and slowly add the EVOO while stirring constantly. You are hoping to emulsify the sauce;
• You can either pour the desired amount of sauce over the fennel or toss the fennel in the sauce. I prefer the former;
• Garnish with the chopped fronds and tops and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over just before serving.

Optional:

1. Before adding the wine, flambé 1 shot of brandy or pastis (not sure this does much for the dish but it is good theatre);
2. 1 large Onion chopped roughly added at the same time as the fennel;
3. Rosemary & Garlic added just before the wine (this was in the original River Café recipe);
4. Replace half the chicken stock with orange juice and use the rind of one orange mixed in with the fronds (in this case skip the lemon juice at the end).

Pasta alla Gricia

I thought I had already posted the recipe for Pasta alla Gricia after my trip to Rome for new year's 2007. I thought I had gotten the recipe of David but apparently not as I can't find it either on my PC or on the blog. I however, really fancied Gricia yesterday so I researched the recipe and here is what I made yesterday:

Ingredients:

1. 150 gr guanciale, (this is the extremely fatty pork cheek. You can also use unsmoked bacon but that just does not quite do it for me) diced. I found guanciale of Spanish Pata Negra pork that tasted fantastic;
   
2. 1 Chopped red chilli pepper;
   
3. 500 gr pasta (bucatini, ziti, or spaghetti);
   
4. 5 tbsp EVOO;
   
5. Salt & pepper;
   
6. 100 gr pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated.
   

Preparation:

• Put the olive oil, guanciale and red pepper in a large heavy bottomed frying pan. It is important to put the ingredients into the pan cold as the role of the oil is to help render the bacon fat which is ultimately what the sauce is made of. Heat to medium heat and fry until the bacon is browned;
  
• At the same time have the pasta boiling in a large quantity of salted water;
  
• When the bacon is browned put a ladleful of the pasta water in the pan let evaporate and repeat until the pasta is ready;
  
• Add the pasta to the pan along with 80% of the cheese and toss vigorously. Server immediately with the remaining cheese.

Blackened Black Cod

Making Nobu style blackened miso cod has always seemed rather daunting as it requires rather a lot of advance preparation. I recently came across this method which could not be simpler even though it still requires some advance preparation. The recipe uses black cod but you could use real cod or haddock. The quantities below served as a starter for seven.

Ingredients:

1. 8 3cm thick black cod steaks skin on approximately 1200 gr;
   
2. 200 gr white miso paste;
   
3. 25 ml Mirin sauce;
   
4. 25 ml white wine;
   
5. 1 tbsp honey (optional);
   

Preparation:

• Whisk up the miso paste, wine and Mirin (and honey if using) until light and creamy;
  
• Put the miso mixture into a ziplock bag, add the fish and make sure all the steaks are completely covered in the mixture;
  
• Push all air out of the bag close it and leave the fish to marinate in for at least 12 hours in the fridge. 24 hours is better but 12 will do;
  
• Line an oven tray with aluminium foil, place the black cod on top and broil in the oven for about 10 min.
  

Served the black cod on top of thin steamed asparagus spears that I had tossed in rapeseed oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper.

Prawn and Leek Sauce

I'm not sure this concoction really qualifies as sauce but you could easily serve it with pasta or rice. I served it yesterday on top of toasted sourdough bread as I wanted to minimize the carbohydrates on offer and that worked quite well. The quantities below served seven people as quite a generous starter.

Ingredients:

1. 1.5 kg leeks, washed thoroughly, quartered and chopped into 1 cm pieces;
   
2. 1/2 kg peeled and cleaned prawns;
   
3. 50 gr minced fresh ginger;
   
4. 4 tbsp EVOO (you can substitute other oils for a different result);
   
5. 1 tbsp light soy sauce (e.g. kinkoman);
   
6. 1 tbsp dry sherry;
   
7. Salt and pepper.
   

Preparation:

• Heat half the olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat until smoking. Add the leaks and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the leaks begin to brown.
  
• Remove the leeks from the pan and add the remaining olive oil, prawns and ginger. Cook until the prawns are almost pink then add back the leeks and season to taste. When the prawns are cooked (no gray remains) add in the soy and sherry and stir until half the liquid has evaporated, serve on your choice of carb.

Poached razor clams with chorizo and broad beans

Ingredients (for six as a starter):

1. 1 kg razor clams;
2. Chorizo sausage (about 150gr), cut into disks, quartered with the outer skin removed;
3. 1 kg broad beans (that’s 1 kg in the pod), boiled for about 4 min in salted water;
4. 1 tbsp Olive oil;
5. 1 tbsp butter;
6. 2 chopped garlic cloves;
7. 1 finely chopped red chilli, (optional);
8. 1 glass of white wine;
9. 4 or 5 sprigs of thyme (fresh if you can get it);
10. A handful of chopped parsley;
11. Coarsely chopped parsley stalks;
12. Salt and pepper;

Preparation:

• Clean the razor clams for 10 – 15 minutes under running water. Discard any clams that don’t close up;
• Heat half the oil in a pot before adding the clams, wine, thyme, garlic, salt and parsley stalks. Cover and cook over high heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the shells have opened, discard any shells that don’t open. Drain in a colander and leave to cool.
• When the clams are cold enough to handle gently remove them from the shells and cut away any ugly and dirty bits. Also open up the business end of the clam and clean out any residue of sand and other nasty stuff that may still be lurking. Cut remainder of clams into 3 cm pieces;
• Heat remaining olive oil in a pan and fry chorizo over low heat until they are slightly crispy and have given up most of their fat (you can tell the fat has mixed with the oil as it changes colour to red). Add the chopped clams, beans, butter and chopped parsley and turn until the beans and clams are coated and warm through;
• Serve by spooning the clam and chorizo mixture into the shells of the razor clams (which you cleaned earlier).

Valentines dinner

Because I'm such a romantic soul we had a Valentines dinner party at our house rather than a romantic dinner aux deux in a fancy restaurant. This is an improvement on last year when my poor girlfriend had to make do with going to dinner with a mate of mine.

In any case the menu below was well received and I'll post the recipes when I have time.

Valentines dinner
VALENTINE COCKTAIL
*
RAZOR CLAMS WITH CHORIZO
& BROAD BEANS
*
POT OF BRANDADE
*
STUFFED LOIN OF PORK
GARLIC MASH
GREEN BEANS
*
CHOCOLATE POT WITH
ORANGE & POLENTA BISCUITS
*
CHEESE

La Comptesse's Surprise

David post the following on his website as "One of my favorite recipes from Ari" and since I think he actually took the text from an email I sent him I am stealing it.

The name of the dish literally comes from the fact that we got it off a Comptesse. My Sis used to go to these cooking classes held by a very grand Belgian Comptesse. The classes where all attended by the kind of ladies who lunch and have kitchens large enough to accommodate cooking lessons for 20 at the time. She came back with all sorts of clever recipes from these sessions including this one.

We used the recipe for our first Christmas extravaganza and gave it the name La Comptesse's Surprise for the effect on the menu.

Ingredients:
1. Smoked magret de canard
2. 1 pear
3. 2 endives
4. 3 lemons
5. Gorgonzola
6. Double cream
7. Salt & pepper

Preparation:
• Cube pears and endive into inch long pieces combine and douse with enough lemon juice to make moist. Leave aside for at least 2 hrs.
• Warm cheese in a pot until soft. Combine with cream and season.
• Pour over individual portions of salad until your need for fat is satisfied.
• Part cover salad with magret de canard fume or another smoked/ cured meat

Dressed Crab on Mustard Butter Toast

Ingredients:
1. 1 garlic clove;
2. 1 shallot;
3. 1 medium tomato, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks;
4. 5 large basil leaves;
5. 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil;
6. 2 tbsp sherry vinegar;
7. salt and fresh ground pepper;
8. 1 pound crab;
9. Mango slices;
10. Whole grain toast.

Combine garlic, shallot, tomato, basil, oil and vinegar in blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add enough dressing to crab to moisten it to the desired level. This has to be don to taste.

Mustard butter

Ingredients:
1. Shallot;
2. Red vine vinegar;
3. Tarragon;
4. Butter;
5. Grainy Dijon Mustard.

Combine shallot, red wine vinegar and tarragon in a pan over medium heat. Stir mixture until the shallot moist and transparent and almost all the vinegar has evaporated. Mix in butter and grainy mustard. Leave combination to cool.

To serve butter the whole grain toast with mustard butter and heap dressed crab so that it generously covers the toast. Add slice of Mango on top.

Nobu Style Chili Steak Sauce

Ingredients:

1. Aji panca or red chili paste
2. Fourth tsp dried oregano
3. 5 tbsp sake
4. 3 tbsp rice vin
5. 25 gr minced garlic
6. 1 tsp cumin
7. 1 tsp black pepper
8. 2 tsp sea salt
9. 3 tblsp grapeseed oil

Combine everything ex oil and mix well

Add oil gradually in mixer or while whisking the sauce hard enough to emulsify the oil.

Bistro David & Ari 2008

Champagne Cocktail

Carrot & Lemongrass Shot
Wild Icelandic Salmon & Celeri Remoulade
Scallop & Morcilla w/ Jerusalem Artichoke Mash
Bacon, Trotter & Prune on Foie Gras Toast

♦ ❖ ♦

Cod Cheeks w/Green Peppercorn Sauce

♦ ❖ ♦

Beetroot Gazpacho & Avocado Sorbet

♦ ❖ ♦

Pheasant Saltimbocca & Confit w/Vacherin Potatoes

Mac & Truffle Cheese

Oxtail & Quail Egg on Toast

♦ ❖ ♦

Bouillabaisse David

♦ ❖ ♦

Mango Carpaccio

♦ ❖ ♦

Canon of Lamb & Yam

♦ ❖ ♦

Treacle Tart w/Vanilla Bourbon Ice cream

♦ ❖ ♦

Coffee ♦ Shortbread

♦ ❖ ♦

Digestif

Tomato Soup

When I lived with my sister in St. German en Laye just outside of Paris this soup was a great favourite of ours. I had not made it for about 15 years when yesterday I came across a typewritten recipe and decided to make it for lunch. Really good!

This soup is an ideal use for slightly over mature tomatoes and as a rule the redder and more mature the tomatoes the better the soup. Adding roasted Romano peppers sweetens the soup and give it a bit more depth.

Ingredients:

1. 2 big sliced red onions;
2. 8 big peeled tomatoes cut into quarters (to peel tomatoes cut incision into the skin from top to bottom and in a bowl pour hot water over the tomatoes. The skin should peel of easily after about 30 sec);
3. 1 litre Chicken stock;
4. Two large mealy potatoes cut into cubes (these are optional and only serve to thicken the soup);
5. Optional extras: roasted Romano peppers and chilli;
6. 2 tbsp butter;
7. Creme fresh;

Soften onion in a heavy bottomed pot, add tomatoes, potatoes (optional) and stock. Simmer for about 15 min and purée in a mixer. Season and serve with a dollop of crème fresh and a drizzle of best olive oil.

Polenta with two types of mushrooms

David created this some time ago and I forgot to post the recipe which was apparently inspired by something he saw on display at Ottolenghi’s.

Ingredients:

1. Polenta
2. Cheddar Cheese
3. Shittake
4. Portobello
5. Parmesan
6. Garlic
7. Red Onion
8. Minced Rosemary
9. Fresh Thyme
10. Parsley
11. Chives
12. 3-4 tblsp of chicken broth (i.e. from organic chicken bouillon cube-- don't use Knorr/other brands with MSG).

Preparation:

1. Make a thickish polenta and at last moment add cheddar, chives, salt and pepper to taste;
2. Saute onions, rosemary, thyme in olive oil when onions are just golden, add mushrooms and put on high heat (get the mushrooms to sweat as quickly as possible, hence, add oil if necessary to get the cooking process going);
3. Add chicken broth to taste, let reduce quickly-the aim is to have a relatively fresh stew of mushrooms, rather than slower-cooked more intense option;
4. Add knob of butter, add parsley, chives, salt and pepper to taste;
5. When polenta is done, make sure it is thick so that you can poor onto a wooden cutting board. Spread polenta relatively evenly across the cutting board;
6. Grate more cheddar cheese over the surface of the polenta—kind of a sprinkling over the surface put mushrooms on top of polenta, grate parmesan over mushrooms, and drizzle olive oil over the top;
7. The polenta should be thick enough to serve up in slices. A perfect
8. snack, or light dinner with a green salad/lemony vinaigrette.

Beat Root & Ricotta Salad;

I probably stole this recipe somewhere originally but I don’t remember where anymore and it is all mine now.

Ingredients:

1. Beat root (about ½ medium sized one per person);
2. 50 gr. Rocket per person;
3. 50 gr. Ricotta per person (I use soft fresh ricotta but older saltier cheese also works and gives the dish a more mature taste);
4. Best quality olive oil;
5. Best quality Balsamic vinegar;
6. Juice of ¼ lemon per 2 people;
7. Teaspoon of best quality honey;
8. Roasted pine nuts;
9. Salt & pepper (use good quality sea salt as you will be crunching the salt crystals) to taste.

Preparation

1. Cover beat root in salted cold water. Bring to boil and let simmer until beat root is done about 45 min. You can tell the beet root is done when a knife slides easily into it;
2. Peel the cooked beet root after cooling it in cold water (you should be able to remove the skin with your hands) and cut into medium slices. Put the slices into a bowl with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar (about 1 tbsp per medium beet root), salt and pepper. Toss and leave to marinate for about 1 hour;
3. Make a lemon vinaigrette with the lemon and olive oil (basically emulsify the olive oil by whisking it into the lemon juice) and toss with the rocket. Add salt and pepper to taste;
4. Assemble the salad by arranging slices of beet root on top of a bed of rocket, add a dollop of ricotta and a small drop of honey. Drop a few of the pine nuts on top and serve.

Bumpkin & Ginger Soup

I am not really sure if this is my own invention or if I originally read it somewhere but if I did I’ve long forgotten the source. In any case there are plenty of recipes out there that are similar. Whatever the origin this is a great soup and a very colourful starter for a dinner party.

Ingredients:

1. 1 kg pumpkin cut into pieces no longer than 5 cm per side;
2. 1 tbls (30 gr?) fresh, chopped ginger;
3. 2 medium apples, cored, pealed and cubed (use a good baking apple like golden delicious or cox);
4. 1 medium onion chopped;
5. 1 medium leak cleaned and chopped into 1 cm disks;
6. 1 medium celery stalk chopped into 1 cm disks;
7. 2 large cloves garlic, chopped;
8. 2 tbls butter;
9. Hot water to cover (you can use good quality chicken stock but this recipe does not need it);
10. Salt and Pepper to taste;
11. Garnish: a teaspoon per person of Gorgonzola and Crème Fraiche, two teaspoons grated gruyere and finely chopped chives if you happen to have some lying around.

Under a hot grill roast the pumpkin until caramelized where exposed. Put the butter (plus a little bit of olive oil just to raise the burn temp) in a big heavy bottomed soup pot and when hot add the apples. Turn the apples slowly in the butter until they start to caramelize then add the onion, leak, celery and garlic and sweet until the onion is transparent.

Add the pumpkin, ginger and salt and pepper cover with water. Bring to boil and then let the soup simmer for about 20 min. Puree the soup until smooth in a blender or with one of these magic sticks everyone has lying about. If you want to be fancy you can run the soup through a fine sieve which will get rid of any lumps and unsightly bits.

Serve in a soup bowl with all three garnishes. I happen to like these three garnishes and I happen to like mixing them. You could however use almost any cheese that you like, skip the cream or use yogurt. A twist of black pepper does no harm.

Dinings

22 Harcourt Street
London W1H 4HH
0207 723 0666
(22 January 2008)

I went to see a screening of Faith without Fear a documentary about Islam by Irshad Manji at the Frontline club yesterday. She wrote a book called the Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in her Faith that became a best seller and earned her a certain amount of notoriety. She was present and did Q&A after the screening. I found her fascinating (extremely charismatic) and very thought provoking. As going to the Frontline Club involves going up to Paddington, i.e. to the top of my neighbourhood, I decided to invite the girlfriend to the restaurant Dinings as it is on the way back home.

I’ve know of this restaurant for a while but never been even though David & Michelle and the Chinese girls rave about the place and it is less than five minutes walk from my house. The place is a NOBU style Japanese/Fusion place that was started by a NOBU alumnus called Tomonari Chiba. The most remarkable thing about the place is the location in a non descript terrace in a really secluded street. More correctly, the Harcourt street is a side street near Edgware road that no one goes into unless they are on their way to the Swedish church (and naturally enough the fifty or so people who live there). Nonetheless the place is always full.

The second most remarkable thing is the price of the food. In London you just do not get value for money. There are plenty of quality places around but they all cost an arm and a leg. Actually, an arm and a leg won’t get you much. Dinings is Japanese and good Japanese food is always going to be expensive but I think they’ve achieved excellent value for money here.

We had five courses, two 250 ml bottles of Sake and green tea and the bill came to £80 with service. The food came to £46 or £9 a course which given the quality (and London) is really good. We had:

1. Sea Bass & Yellowtail Sashimi (two pieces each) extremely fresh;
2. Vegetable tempura ok, that’s dull but it was as good as it gets;
3. Iberian pork shoulder with tomato sauce – crunchy and sweet without any sweetener added, really quite a feat;
4. Grilled King Crab w/Spicy cream sauce – A difficult to describe dish, basically King Crab grilled in a blini pan covered in a cream sauce that had a consistency I did not recognise, had the girlfriend in rapture;
5. Chu Toro Tataki (fatty tuna) w/Truffle miso sauce – the best dish of the night. The combination of truffle and miso is incredible and fatty tuna just the right vessel to carry the taste.

When we walked in we saw that our friends Catherine & Ailu (the Chinese girls above) where sitting at the bar in front of the Sushi kitchen. We joined them and as they are regulars at Dinings they really know the menu and offered us tastes of some of the food they where eating. The most memorable of those where a sashimi of some sort of white fish dressed in oil and fish sauce topped with coriander and red onion and a wrap of sea urchin that I loved but the girlfriend had nightmares about.

I foresee this becoming my new regular!

Leek Vinaigrette David

David’s been experimenting with Leeks and is very proud of his creation. He describes it as a twist on the rather austere leek vinaigrette that’s more common; His leeks are caramelized and melt-in-your-mouth, a nice contrast to the shalloty vinaigrette and chives or so he assures me. Serve this as a starter on it’s own.

Ingredients:

1. 3-4 leeks
2. butter
   olive oil
3. sugar
4. parsley/chives

Vinaigrette:

1. olive oil
2. maldon sea salt, pepper
3. dijon mustard
4. red wine vinegar
5. shallots

Cut leeks into 2-3 inch batons. Put some olive oil, butter and 2-3 tbsp of water in pan. Sprinkle a tsp of sugar before placing leeks in the pan. Cover the entire surface of pan with one layer only of leeks. Cut parchment paper to size and place over leeks. Put on lowest possible heat for about 45 mins to hour, or until leeks have caramelized very well.

Make the vinaigrette, emulsify it as much as you can. Make sure shallots are cut very finely. Take leeks out of pan onto a serving platter, then drizzle vinaigrette over, add parsley and chives. Add more maldon sea salt to taste.

Foie Gras Bonbon

In July 2007 while vacationing in Shanghai I vent to the restaurant Jade on 36 at the Shangri-La Hotel. At the 36^th floor of the Shangri-La hotel to be precise. This is where I had a rather magnificent foie gras dish that I wrote about here.

The foie gras bonbon is my attempt at making this dish. I should say the culmination of my attempts at making this dish as there where a number of very unsuccessful tries before I settled on a method that was satisfactory. The qualification “satisfactory” is important as I never managed to get the dish exactly like what I had in Shanghai.

The basic principle here is sweet, salty and tart in three layers. This is not dissimilar from the classic French Chocolate cake Opera and the name at Jade at 36 was: Passion-Choco Foie Gras Opera. The cake is a layered cake with dark chocolate (tart), chocolate ganace (sweet), coffee foam (tart) and almond pastry in quantities that form an extraordinary coming together of taste.

To achieve this with foie gras Jade has added passion fruit jam and cocoa powder. They somehow managed to make a square cake out of the foie gras. This cake rested on a layer of passion fruit gel and was topped with a thin layer of cocoa powder. This has caused me no end of trouble as foie gras is not exactly the most malleable of ingredients to handle. The taste is quite flexible and goes with many things but the material itself is not.

After multiple times of failing to reproduce either a satisfactory passion fruit gel or a to sculpt the foie gras I settled on the following: a shot glass filled with a bottom layer of berry jam, a tablespoon’s worth of foie gras all topped with 85% dark chocolate. This is not as good as what I remember from Jade but very good nonetheless.

To make the jam:

1. 200 grams mixed blue and blackberries;
2. 125 grams sugar;
3. 100 ml good quality quite strong green tea;
4. 1 leaf gelatine.

Heat berries and sugar together in a solid pot when the berries have completely fallen apart add the tea. Boil off all of the liquid (when the starts look thick is when the jam is ready. Pour through a sieve, let cool until you can add the gelatine and pour into the shot glasses. You need about 5 ml in the bottom of the shot glass. Leave in the fridge until the jam has set about two hours.

To get the foie gras into the shot glasses cut out round sections with an apple corer and put on top of the jam. Obviously, this assumes that you like me have shot glasses of a diameter that is similar to that of an apple corer. If not find some other method of cutting cylindrical sections of foie gras with a wider diameter.

Melt the 85% chocolate pour on top of the foie gras and serve.

Pancetta and Parmesan Pasta Sauce

Apparently today is the day for posting pasta recipes. Particularly, pasta recipes from David so I thought I would post this miscellaneous pasta recipe I got of him some time ago.

Ingredients:

1. 125 grams cubed pancetta;
2. 150 grams best tomatoes available chopped (or you can just use canned);
3. 1 large diced onion;
4. 3 chopped garlic cloves;
5. 225 grams grated parmesan cheese;
6. Bunch basil;
7. Salt & pepper to taste;
8. Pinch sugar;
9. Penne pasta cooked al dente (works with almost all pasta types actually);

Saute garlic and onions until soft, add tomatoes, basil, sugar and salt and pepper. Slightly reduce tomato sauce before putting it through a food mill to get rid of the seeds and skin.

In another frying pan sauté the pancetta till crisp. Add a tablespoon white wine or vinegar and boil off before adding the tomato sauce. Simmer for about 10 min.

Add the parmesan. This will look like too much parmesan but that is the whole point.

Add the penne to the pan, stir and serve immediately.

Gnocchi with Creamy Gorgonzola

I took this out of an email from David.

The overriding thing to remember when making gnocchi is that you do not want them to be chewy but airy and light. Therefore the less flour you can get away with the better. If the dough is still a bit wet and sticky add just the right amount of flour to eliminate the stickiness. The coarse semolina in this recipe gives these light gnocchi a slightly rustic edge which works well I think.

Gnocchi Ingredients:

1. 1 kg Desiree or king Edward potatoes (floury type)
2. Maldon sea salt, fresh ground pepper, grated nutmeg
3. 2 large egg yolks
4. 150 gr 00 flour
5. 100 gr coarse semolina flour
6. chives
7. olive oil
8. parmesan

Gorgonzola sauce:

1. 284 ml container single cream
2. thick slice of gorgonzola, to taste (roughly half or 2/3 amt of cream about right so that melted cheese does not stiffen up as temperature falls once in your plate)
3. pepper, salt

Cook potatoes with skin on in large pot of salted boiling water. Drain and peel while hot. The potatoes must be very dry!

Put potatoes through a food mill; lightly fold in eggs and flours (which have been combined and mixed together). Add salt, pepper and a tad of nutmeg to taste. Work together to obtain dough.

Divide dough into four. On clean surface roll out each piece of dough into long cigar shapes. Cut into 2-3 cm lengths. The more irregular the better. Scatter some semolina flour on work surface and roll each piece over the back of a fork to make indentations which will pick up the sauce.

Put cream in large frying pan, add chopped gorgonzola when hot, keep stirring til cheese melts into cream, add pepper.

Bring large pan of salted water to boil. Add gnocchi and cook over high heat until they rise to the surface. Remove with slotted spoon and put directly into pan with gorgonzola sauce. Coat gnocchis with sauce, serve in bowls, add small sprinkling of chives, ground black pepper, dash of olive oil, tad of parmesan.