Showing posts with label best recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best recipes. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Sweet Potato Gnocchi - healthy, easy and homemade!

Recipe of the month!
Sweet Potato Gnocchi - healthy and easy to make!





Hey guys,

ever wondered what you can do also with sweet potatoes ? 

I just love the taste and the health effects which sweet potatoes bring with them. I thought so why not trying out a recipe to make gnocchis out of them. Its not a rocket science and it does not take you forever in the kitchen. 

All you need is some good ingredients and a bit of time in the kitchen! 

So here we go !

2 Persons 

Ingredients for the Gnocchi:

ca. 400 g sweet potato (cooked & smashed)

ca. 130 g flour (all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon of nut meg powder

2-3 table spoons of freshly grated parmesan 

Ingredients for the sauce:

150 g cocktail tomatoes (quartered)

Pepper & salt 

For serving: 

ca. 50 g splits of parmesan on top at the end 

Ruccola (cutted and mixed in the sauce at the end)

1-2 tabel spoons of roasted pine nuts, mix them at the end underneath the sauce (roast them over minmal heat in the pan, be careful burns quick,)

This is how we do it ! 

Cook (sliced and peeled) & smash afterwards the sweet potatoes in a bowl, mix in the nut meg and parmesan. Add slowly the flour and knead the ingridents all together till the dough is not sticky anymore. Be aware that you only knead till everything is one dough, dont add too much flour as it can make the gnocchi to hard. 

When ready place it for around 15 minutes covered in the fridge.

In this 15 minutes roast the pinutes in medium heat, place it aside. Quarter the cocktail tomatoes and stir them slowly (medium heat) in a bit of olive oil with a drizzle of salt and pepper till a nice sauce comes out. Afterwards put the sauce ot the side.

Get your dough out of the fridge. Add some flour over it and cut the dough into 3-4 slices. Roll the slices on a floured work surface till they get the look of a long sausage. Than cut the long sausage into 2 cm thick gnocchis. If you want you can also do the typical fork thing to the gnocchis, but I woud skip that part. 

Now get water in a pot to boil (reduce heat - not boiling anymore) and add the gnocchis till they come on the surface of the pot. The best you can use to get not too much water with this is a ladle. Collect them all on a plate.

Use your pan and put some little olive oil and heat it, add the gnocchis at medium heat and roast them a bit on each side (be careful not to smash them). Turn off the heat and add the sauce, cutted ruccola and pinuts and mix it all together. 

Serve it on a plate and add some parmesan splits above your Gnocchis ! Enjoy!


Sweet Potato Gnocchi


Follow me for more on instagram @melainesinsights,

Cheers,

melainesinsights 








Sunday, June 30, 2019

Parmigiana di Melanzane - veggie, healthy and yummy Italian! My insight recipe for you!

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Wonderful summer recipe from Italy, my insights for you! 

Parmigiana di Melanzane ! Veggie Lasagne ! 


Ciao tutti,


it is time again to share a recipe with you. Im in love with Italian food and this is one of my many favorites.

Most of the time you find that dish under the name "Parmigiana di Melanzane". I would call it the ultimate veggie lasagne.  The main part of this dish is called "Melanzane" in Italian, or eggplant, it is a Southern Italian recipe as far as I could check on the culinary history.

in this picture you see my homemade parmigiana di melanzane or in English eggplant cassarole


The culinary history says that the eggplant reached Southern Italy by the 9th century CE. Arabs brought the fruits along and thanks to the fearless foodies in the Calabrian and Sicilian regions of Italy the Italians loved to cook and also planted this funny egg-shaped product.

Random Information. Eggplants were also used as Medicine fighting asthma and dental issues.

Enough about the history lets get started !

Ok, here is the deal. It might take you some more time of preperation  but a happy outcome is worth waiting for, right?

Ingridients for 2 persons:

in this picture you see two eggplants

2 eggplants

in this picture you see a can of tomatoes

500 g Tomatoes 

in this picture you see a bottle of olive oil

1-2 table spoons olive oil

in this picture you see basil


1/2 handful of basil

in this picture you see parmesan

150 g parmesan cheese


on this picture you see mozzarella cheese


2 mozzarella cheese 

on this picture you see an onion


1 small onion

on this picture you see garlic

1 1/2 garlic (as you like)

Preheat your oven about 180 Degrees. And prepare a baking dish (I place a little bit of olive oil in the baking form to make sure nothing sticks on it).

on this picture you see a baking dish


Lets start to get the eggplants prepared. There are more ways to prepare them, for me this works the best. Slice the eggplants in thin pieces. Salt the eggplant slices from every side and put them all together in a bowl and place something heavy above the slices. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes you can check and see that the eggplants have lost their water.
If so you can take the slices out of its own water and make sure (really important) to get rid of the salt. Best way to get rid of the saltiness is to put every slice shortly  under running water and tab right after every slice after doing so.

This was the part that take the longest, but as said - you wont regret the prep work when tasting this ultimate yummy Italian dish.

Meanwhile while the eggplant is resting you can prepare the sauce.

Put some olive oil in a cooking pot and roast the garlic and the onions quick - make sure not to heat it up too quick as garlic gets burned really fast.

on this picture you see a pan where I roast garlic and onions


After that add the tomatoes into the cooking pot and stire everything. You can add some pepper and salt depending on your choice, also a bit of red wine is possible. Make sure if you add wine to heat it up a bit so the alcohol gets cooked away and it doesnt taste intense red wine. Add the basil at the end and let it cook at lower heat for about 15 minutes. 

on this picture you see the tomatoe sauce with basil, pepper and salt stired

While the tomatoe sauce is cooking you place in a pan only a sprinkle of olive oil and place the eggplant slices in it. Make sure not to put too much olive oil as the eggplants are tending to suck up the oil too much. Sear the eggplant slices from each side for about 4-5 minutes (medium heat) till they get a nice tan on each side. Put the slices on a plate when finsihed.

on this picture you see the slices of eggplant in a pan


on this picture you see the roasted eggplant slices


When your sauce and eggplants are ready start to layer the ingridients in the baking form.
Start with some tomatoe sauce at the Bottom and put layer above the eggplant slices and Mozzarella cheese slices above.

on this picture you see the preperation of the cassarole with the layer of mozzarella eggplants and tomatoe sauce

Finsihing with parmesan the casserole. 

on this picture you see the finished cassarole with parmesan above

Place the casserole for about 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven (180 degrees). Right after putting it out of the oven let the casserole rest for about 15 minutes. You can serve it warm or even cold. Perfect match for the "Parmigana Melanzane" is red wine and some nice baguette.

ENJOY !