An Italian Meal To End The Year Right

Now I can officially say—-

Ryan and I just ate dinner and it was quite delish. To start, I made a salad with homemade dressing and homemade sourdough croutons—

The dressing was super simple and contained 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp worcestershire, 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tsp hot sauce and 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil. Combine the garlic, worcestershire, lemon juice and hot sauce in a food processor and blend to combine. While running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and process until smooth. It tasted great!

For the croutons, I basically just cubed up my sourdough bread and sprinkled it with garlic powder, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and parmesan then baked the cubes at 350 for about 15 minutes. They were definitely the highlight of the salad and I highly recommend this! Making your own croutons is SO simple yet really makes a bold statement on an every day salad.

As for our entree, I made the Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi out of the aaaaamazing Bon Appetit cookbook. I just LOVE this cookbook. This and the Gourmet cookbook (which I fondly refer to as the cooking bible), should definitely be staples in the kitchen.

I halved the recipe for Ryan and I and definitely cheated by using chopped frozen spinach. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and even used the full fat ricotta the recipe calls for because full fat really does make all the difference….its so rich, creamy and yum. When you are using rich ingredients you really don’t need to eat as much because a little satisfies you so I was happy with a small (er) portion of this for dinner. I also cheated by buying pre-made pasta sauce (I LOVE Emeril’s “kicked up” tomato sauce!) instead of drizzling the butter over the finished gnocchi. Here’s my plate:

Lovely I know on a plastic placemat. We’re classy like that. I enjoyed a glass of pinot noir with dinner and it was fabulous as well. Ryan loved this dish but next time asked for a meat sauce on top. I guess guys like their meat, huh?! I thought it was really tasty as well. Not as good as my friend Lara’s homemade potato gnocchi with gorganzola cream sauce, but what is? Next time I’ll try the potato kind but tonight I knew I didn’t want to be slaving away in the kitchen and this recipe wasn’t all that difficult or time consuming.

I wish you guys could have seen me earlier—–I rode my bike the 3 1/2 miles to Ryan’s with the salad dressing, croutons and a banana stuffed into the bag on the back. I should really live somewhere like Europe!! Haha

My snack earlier was a 2% fage with 1/3 cup cinnamon puffins:

Well, I must go and get pretty now! We are meeting Erin (Ryan’s sis) and some friends over at the bar down the street around 9;30 or 10 and I am covered in flour and ricotta right now. Pictures to come in the morning!

PLEASE stay SAFE tonight. Ryan and I are going to walk home from the bar tonight……its just not worth it to drive! =)