Zucchini was one of the first vegetables I learned to like as an adult and also one of the first I learned how to cook. For some reason, I never ate zucchini as a kid but became a little obsessed with it just out of college when the only way I knew how to prepare it was on the George. Since then I’ve experimented with a lot of different ways to cook it: stuffed, cut into ribbons or matchsticks, and mixed in with pasta, which I made last week.

This fresh summer pasta was delicious topped with lots of basil, and the addition of white beans made it especially filling and perfect for a quick and light dinner!

Here’s the recipe for Zucchini White Bean Pasta:

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Rigatoni alla Vodka

Cooking has been a little challenging for me lately, mostly due to lack of inspiration. The problem is I’ve been trying so hard to eat healthy and graze throughout the day on (mostly) nutritious snacks, that I haven’t been cooking the foods I really want to cook, which I suppose are not considered overly nutritious.

The thing is, I love fish, vegetables, fruits, and all sort of healthy and nutritious food combinations. But I find that most of my inspiration comes from cooking with seasonal ingredients and really embracing what is just right to eat in right now. This is a great way to eat if you live in, say, southern California. Here in the frigid, windy tundra known as Chicago, well, not so much.

Today I decided to throw in the towel, so to speak, and make myself a big, steaming bowl of rigatoni alla vodka. I love this dish but rarely eat it. In fact, it’s one of the first I tried to make when I was brand new to cooking. This was when I was living in Italy during college and I tried SO hard to make pasta with vodka sauce on more than one occasion, but each time ended with a big fat FAIL. I’ve learned a lot since then and have moved onto recipes written in English (I like to think my poor Italian language skills were partially to blame), and now this dish has become easy for me to pull together on the fly.

Rigatoni alla Vodka

I don’t make it often as I’m trying to stay away from pasta-centered meals, but tonight was a worthy exception. After all, what’s the point on living a healthy life if you can’t have a cheat once in a while?

Here’s the recipe:

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Bison Ragù & Homemade Tagliatelle

Spaghetti with meat sauce is something I never order in restaurants. The few times I’ve tried it I’ve always found the flavor shallow and bland. But that’s not to say I don’t like meat sauce. I do, I just prefer when it’s homemade.

I’ve made meat sauce, or ragù as it’s known in Italy, many times before but usually with ground beef or a combination of beef and veal. But this time I wanted to try it with bison, which is one of my favorite proteins both for it’s beef-like taste and healthy properties (see Bison-Barley Stuffed Peppers). In a nutshell, bison is nutrient-dense, especially in iron and essential fatty acids, and is lower in fat, calories and cholesterol than chicken.

With all the positive traits and delicious taste of bison it shocks me that people still see it as an “ew, gross,” food, which is the exact response elicited from my sister when I invited her to dinner. I keep forgetting she’s a recovered vegetarian so I’ll go easy on her, I just hope her views don’t reflect the majority because that would be very sad.

Back to the sauce. I was a little unsure of how it would work to use bison because it’s such a lean meat, meaning very low in fat. I didn’t want the sauce to be dry and was concerned I’d have to add more oil to make up for the lack of natural fat, which would defeat the purpose of using bison in the first place. Luckily, it wasn’t an issue at all. I used a generous two tablespoons olive oil to sweat the vegetables and brown the bison, and then added a good amount of liquid from the wine, tomatoes and juice. The end result was a rich, tasty, long-simmered bison tomato sauce that was fantastic served over homemade tagliatelle.

The tagliatelle was made from frozen pasta dough (see fresh pasta video) by rolling it thin using a pasta roller, gently folding into thirds, then hand-cutting the dough with a knife in 1/3-inch wide strips. Separate the noodles immediately and sprinkle with flour to prevent them from sticking together.

The tomatoes used in the sauce were fresh but of course it’s fine to use canned tomatoes with their juices (omit the tomato juice from the original recipe). But if you do decide to use fresh tomatoes, you will want to remove the core and the seeds.

Here’s the recipe for Bison Ragù:

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Parisienne Gnocchi with Garlic Scape Pesto

About six months ago I began compiling a list of recipes I wanted to make that I thought the blog readers (as in YOU) would enjoy. Some I’d made before, some were inspired by dishes I’d tried in restaurants, and some were simply recipes I’d come across in magazines.

This recipe for Parisienne gnocchi was at the top of the list. I had only made it once before in culinary school but it stuck with me because of how simple it was to prepare and how great and versatile the flavors were.

I remember being surprised when I first read the recipe years ago. “This isn’t gnocchi,” was my reaction, seeing as it wasn’t made from potatoes like traditional Italian gnocchi is. I later learned that Parisienne gnocchi is made from a pâte à choux dough, similar to one used in profiteroles or cream puffs, and yields light and fluffy dumplings that are just delicious.

Today I finally got the courage to tackle my shelf of overstuffed  binders leftover from my culinary schools days and found the recipe. I didn’t change it aside from substituting minced garlic scapes and basil for tarragon and chives, but basically you can use any combination of fresh herbs (I’m thinking rosemary and mint next time).

In case you’re not familiar with them, garlic scapes are green curly stalks that grow from the garlic bulb. Farmer’s cut them off so that the garlic bulbs can continue to grow and become plump. They’re only available for a short time in the Spring and have a strong garlic flavor that isn’t as potent as the bulbs.

This really is a terrific recipe. I served it with Dorie Greenspan’s Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto (I’d bought a big bag of garlic scapes at the farmer’s market), but feel free to use any type of light sauce (i.e. white wine, butter, etc.). However, I really liked the gnocchi with the pesto, especially because I used garlic scapes in both. The garlic flavor of Dorie’s pesto was strong but not harsh, and it helped to thin out the pesto with equal parts gnocchi cooking liquid.

And the best part is most of the work can be done in advance, making Parisienne Gnocchi with Garlic Scape Pesto ideal for entertaining! The gnocchi even freezes well.

Here are the recipes:

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