Forking Awesome Fresh Ricotta and Spinach Gnudi

Gnudi and Gnocchi are pasta that are very similar. They both are very light pasta dough. Gnudi translates to naked and you are suppose to think of Gnudi pasta as a ravioli without the dough. It’s filling that is barely held together and is made of ricotta cheese and sometimes a vegetable. It’s almost like eating just the filling from a ravioli.  The Gnudi should look like the inside of a ravioli. It takes two days to make them because the soft filling sits in semolina flour overnight and draws out moisture and leaves a slight skin around the Gnudi.

Below the recipe for Forking Awesome Spinach and Fresh Ricotta Cheese Gnudi.  I’ve included my directions for making fresh ricotta cheese and also the way I prepared the spinach for these Gnudi. This recipe takes two days to prepare. Also I do recommend reading the whole recipe before you give this a try.

A word of warning if you do the cheese and spinach my way the recipe will work out. Your cheese needs to be fairly firm and the spinach must be drained very well.

Ingredients to make about 80 Gnudi about 10 servings

1 bunch spinach (fresh cooked and drained)

1 XL egg – beaten

2 cup fresh ricotta cheese (It should be on the firm side, creamy but firm)

1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano

big pinch white pepper -ground ( about 1/16 t.)

pinch fresh nutmeg grated

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh black pepper

1 cup flour

2 cup semolina flour – (this doesn’t go into gnudi batter…..the semolina is used to draw out moisture from the pasta)

extra virgin olive oil to sprinkle on Gnudi so they don’t stick.

finish to taste with fresh ground sea salt

finish with fresh ground black pepper to taste

garnish with hard Italian cheese if desired

Directions.

Either blend the well drained spinach and chop fine or just blend it with the egg. Get a large mixing bowl add the spinach mixture, all cheeses, spices and flour. Stir till it’s mixed well. To insure the gnudi will come out right. Make a tester gnudi and add it to a pot of boiling water to make sure it will stick together. Also check the flavoring and determine if the spices are correct for you. If the gnudi fell apart that would be because either your cheese wasn’t drained enough and or your spinach wasn’t drained enough. If it’s only slightly off you can fix it by adding more flour 1/4 cup and testing again.

Get baking sheets and line them with a thin layer of semolina flour. Fill a pastry bag with gnudi dough and make like your filling raviolis.

No sprinkle the tops with more semolina flour.

Cover the Gnudi with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator over night.

The next day just slow boil them a portion at a time until they float. Eat and enjoy.

These came out really amazing. My husband said that this dish would definitely be on his last meal list along with my fresh ricotta gnocchi.

Forking Awesome Fresh Ricotta and Spinach Gnudi

THIS IS FORKING GREAT and that’s The Forking Truth

Home Made Ricotta Cheese is easy to make and taste better than store purchased  ricotta cheese. There is no comparison. Below is the recipe for basic ricotta cheese. Once you make it you can play around with the richness and the texture. you might want to use more cream in it for certain things like desserts. This recipe makes around 2 1/2 pounds of Ricotta Cheese.

Ingredients for around 10 servings

1 gallon whole milk

1 pint heavy cream

teaspoon kosher or sea salt

1-11/2 lemons just use the fresh squeezed juice.

Directions

Put a large pot with the milk, cream and salt on medium heat. After a while you will need to lower the heat to low so the mixture doesn’t boil over.  You need to bring the mixture to a slow boil. This will take a long time but it’s worth it. Let it slow boil like this about five minutes.

Then you want to slowly add the fresh lemon juice until you get curds. Let it stay on the heat for up to five minutes.

It will look like this.

The easiest and fastest way to drain the cheese is to use a wire mesh basket.

The cheese was whey easier to make than you thought! For best results let this chill in your refrigerator over night. You will have up to 2 cups extra than what is needed for this recipe. You either enjoy fresh or you can freeze left over cheese for another time.

A word of caution.

Don’t use manufacture’s cream or boxed heavy cream that doesn’t need refrigeration because they are full of gum and your cheese won’t curdle but will thicken slightly. If you accidentally find that you used a poor quality cream with too much gum you can try to save it by using a colander lined with cheese clothe and let it drain for a day in your refrigerator.

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Ingredients for spinach

1 large bunch spinach

1/4 sweet onion sliced very thin and rough chopped

either a quart of  vegetable stock or about 5 Tablespoons of vegetable stock paste to add to boiling water.

Now it’s time to prepare the fresh spinach. Whenever possible purchase full grown spinach instead of baby spinach because baby spinach is flavorless. You might want to trim off some of the large stems and then do several rinses on the spinach to make sure you got rid of all the dirt. There are many ways to prepare spinach. You can steam, sauté and boil spinach. I usually don’t boil most vegetables but I prefer spinach to be boiled because this is a low flavor vegetable and you can easily infuse flavor into spinach by boiling it briefly.

After the spinach is clean give it a rough chop.

Now add the spinach, onion and vegetable stock to your sauce pot and bring to boil about three minutes and then drain.

When the spinach is cool enough to handle you need to use your hands and squish the water out. Don’t get excited your not left with much spinach but your left with enough for this recipe.

SousVide Turkey Breast in White Wine Lemon Sauce

The FORKING BEST Turkey Breast Recipe is from the SousVide because the meat comes out perfect. It’s flavorful and moist and juicy. Even when you re-heat the meat it’s still super tender and super moist. Using the SousVide is the Best way to do Turkey Breast.

So set your SousVide at 140 degrees F or 60 degrees C

Today this is what I filled my bag with

1 carrot cut in quarters

1 celery rib cut up

1/2 sweet onion cut up

two small or one good sprig thyme

one small bunch sage it had maybe 4 good leaves and few teeny leaves

one good branch of rosemary

one big and two small garlic cloves smashed

two small pieces of apple

two small pieces of tangerine

fresh cracked pepper about 1/2 teaspoon

fresh ground sea salt about one teaspoon

1/2 turkey breast

about 1/4 cup of frozen turkey fat I saved from the last turkey I cooked – you need some sort of frozen fat- I usually freeze olive oil and use that but this time used turkey fat.

Put it all in your bag and insert the bag in your bag sealer.

Then remove bag and place in your SousVide

Put lid on the SousVide and leave it alone. The turkey will be amazing in 2 1/2 and up to 5 hours. I usually let it stay in around 4 hours.

Do not use any of the vegetables in the bag because all the flavor from the vegetables got sucked out into the turkey. You can use the liquid for reheating, sauce, soup or adding to rice, stuffing or potatoes.

You either remove the skin-or

Crisp up the skin still on the turkey in a fry  pan……or

What I like to do is to remove the skin and crisp it up in a 350 degree oven. It takes around an hour but this is the way to get the skin the most crisp. It comes out completely crispy and crunchy. I turn the skin over about 1/2 way though the cooking process and maybe 1/2 way though put a loose foil cover over the skin so it doesn’t burn.

The SousVide makes your home cooked turkey mouth watering moist and better than from most restaurants. The FORKING Best Turkey comes from the SousVide.

The moistest most tender turkey breast ever and that’s The Forking Truth

FORKING AMAZING Inside out Grilled Mac-N-Cheese Sliders

Maybe you heard of the Ramen Burger? Maybe you heard of the Cronut?  Well ladies and gentlemen……….I’ve forking invented the next big thing…… The Forking Amazing Inside Out Grilled Mac-N-Cheese Sliders. If you are a fan of the grilled cheese sandwich and also enjoy macaroni and cheese …….this is it!  Macaroni and Cheese Buns with a slice of Buttery Grilled French Baguette on the inside. A tomato slice is suggested but not necessary.

Most of the work is making the bun. You need to dust a muffin pan with cheese and panko. The filling takes about 40 minutes to prepare because the secret ingredient is cornmeal (polenta) that needs that long to cook and then you have to shred a bunch of cheese. If you can do all that the rest is a breeze but keep in mind that the macaroni buns need over-night to set.

Ingredients for 12 sliders or 12 servings

8 oz dry pasta cooked one minute less than package suggest

1 Tablespoon salt kosher or sea salt to cook your pasta with

1/2 cup cornmeal (polenta…not the instant…the real kind that takes 40 minutes)

2 1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

2 Tablespoons butter – unsalted

1/2 cup parmigiana reggiano – shredded (for crumb coating)

1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs (for crumb coating)

1/4 cup parmigiana reggiano – shredded

1 1/4 cup sharpe aged cheddar cheese – shredded

1 1/4 cup fontina cheese – shredded

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper sauce ( I suggest Franks Red Hot Original)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder

pinch white ground pepper

1 XL egg – beaten

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

fresh ground sea salt to taste

non-stick spray – a neutral flavor like canola or vegetable

4 oz. stick of butter – unsalted – you might need more for grilling the bread (I just did a few sliders at a time)

8 oz. French Baguette (cut in 1/2 inch slices)

Optional ripe tomato slices.

Directions

Get out your muffin pan(s) and spray them with your non-stick spray. In a small bowl add your 1/2 C. Parmigiana Reggiano and the whole wheat panko and mix together. Add a couple teaspoons full to each and make sure you leave about 1/4 of the mixture to sprinkle over the tops of the muffins once filled. Now shake the cheese and panko around the tin so you have a light covering like this.

Set the pan to the side and now make the filling.

You start by starting the polenta on high heat with your sauce pan. Add the water, polenta, 1/4 t. salt and the 2 T. butter. Bring to boil stirring often and then reduce to simmer and then cover but keep staring occasionally or the polenta will stick for about 20 minutes then you can slowly add the cheeses and then add the spices take off heat in a few minutes you are able to stir in the beaten egg and ( at this point you might want to add salt and pepper to taste) lastly gently stir in your pasta.

Set oven to 350 degrees F

Fill muffing pans.

Now top them with remaining panko mixture.

They need about 25 minutes in your 350 degree F oven and then they look like this.

When cool enough cover with plastic wrap and let them set overnight in the refrigerator.

When ready to serve set your oven to 350 degrees and pop the mac-n-cheese muffin out, cut in half (this is your slider bun) with the cut sides up on a lightly non stick sprayed baking sheet covered with foil. Heat till warm about 15 minutes.

While the buns are warming up grill your bread filling till golden on both sides and slice the optional tomatoes.

Put together with buns on the outside and the grilled bread in the middle.

You want the cut sides of the macaroni bun on the inside sandwiching the bread filling.

THIS is truly FORKING AMAZING!

FORKING AMAZING Grilled Mac-N-Cheese Sliders

Really awesome cheese taste and the buttery bread gives you that grilled cheese taste in with the macaroni and cheese taste. This is a crowd pleaser for sure.

Your Welcome!

THIS IS FORKING GREAT and that’s The Forking Truth

Roasted Onions Beef Confit Style

These are the type of onions that are so full of flavor and so jammy too. You can prepare the very best onion soup with these onions and they go especially well with steak. Very easy to prepare they just take 1/2 a day to cook so make a big batch. It melts down a bunch and you can freeze or can it in batches.

Onions Confit are cooked in fat so you will need saved beef fat for Roasted Onions Beef Confit Style.

Traditional Confit onions are cooked 8-12 hours at 200 degrees F. I find that I get the same results doing it at #350 degrees F for about 4 hours.

Set your oven to 350 degree F

Use beef fat you saved from something like a smoked brisket

You need about a teaspoon of peppercorns, around seven bay leaves and a big splash of wine or wine and balsamic vinegar. Now fill your pan with sliced halved onions like this.

Drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil and cover them with aluminum foil.

Depending on the size of your onions and how many are in your pan they will need 3-31/2 hours in your oven covered.

They are pretty good like this after 3 1/2 hours

Then uncover them and they might need another 1/2 hour.

Roasted Onions Beef Confit Style

But here they are even better and are very jammy.

Get the onions out with a slotted spoon and throw out the peppercorns and bay leaves. Everyone loves these onions.

These are Forking Great and that’s The Forking Truth