ZUNI RICOTTA GNOCCHI – Time For the Daring Cooks!!

“Try to cook so that it will surprise a little, agreeably and astonish slightly, without shocking.”
Jean Marie Amat

Here we are with the very first Daring Cooks’ challenge … Ricotta Gnocchi being hosted by Lis & Yvonne, the bravehearts behind the Daring Kitchen! They have chosen ‘a recipe from the stunning cookbook by Judy Rodgers, named after her restaurant, The Zuni Café Cookbook.’ This challenge takes me back to my first Daring Bakers challenge, where I signed up after many tugs between the head & the heart, & ran straight into a Lemon Meringue Pie. That was my first challenge with the Daring Bakers & I wept with my weepy pie, though thankfully I wasn’t alone that time! I thought I’d moved on from weepy disasters in time, & despite a similar tug of war, signed up for Daring Cooks the minute it was announced. How daring huh? Something in the back of my head was telling me I have enough on my plate. No time in any case, as the ‘fill in the blanks’, even up to seconds, have been filled by Twitter.To cut a long story short, I’ve arrived as a Daring Cook too. The Daring Baker challenges have been a huge learning & meeting ground, & totally fulfilling as an experience. When the first challenge for the Daring Cooks was announced, Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi, I did a little jig, egged on by Nandini @ Reluctant Chefs. Die hard… yes, that’s me! It was time to try my hand at some fresh & creamy home made ricotta from Vera’s beautiful blog @ Baking Obsession! The result was outstanding. Creamy, full of flavour & I could have sat there like little Miss Muffet & eating the whole bowlful, & I almost did! I really didn’t want it to go into gnocchi because the weather is really hot & I was dreaming of cheesecake with ricotta. Slapped myself back to reality, got onto following the recipe for gnocchi. A bit of a fiddle it is, but what kept me going were the songs of praises that I read on the net often about ricotta gnocchi = little pillows of delight! I was floating like a cloud, & had them all made & then froze them for lunch the next day I didn’t end up with little pillows of delight though. What I actually got was little pillows of sheer fright! And I wouldn’t be talking about them here if this hadn’t been a challenge but here I am. In hindsight, I think ricotta gnocchi is for cooler weather and maybe not 40C. Mine might have done better had I drained it some more. Initially, as expected, each gnocchi sank to the bottom, then rose to the top. Then the drama began! Oh boy, with each bubble of the boiling water, the gnocchi disintegrated & covered the surface like a cumulonimbus cloud cover! I was transported right back to my LMP!! I stuck the uncooked gnocchi right back into the freezer, & began again gingerly, & barely got a few that stayed in one piece, but very unpillow like, & not pretty. The saving grace was the tomato sauce. Aaaaaah, if I enjoyed the challenge it was because of this Food Network’s tomato based Vodka Cream Sauce. Simple & decidedly delicious! I fried a few basil leaves for the garnish. The hub loved the flavours of both the gnocchi & the sauce…& I sulked because I dislike serving sad looking platters! Having said all this, I really can’t wait to see the next challenge, he he!!Vodka Cream Sauce