Moros y cristianos con plantanos

Sorry for the dirty fingerprint plate.

I saw plantains at the mexican grocery and was inspired to make blackbeans and rice with fried plantains. The plantains were just salt and lime juice, nothing fancy. The rice and beans were done with a cuban inspiration, green bell pepper, white onion, thyme, bay leaf, garlic,and cumin.

Besides all the history of the name moros y cristianos, where the black beans are the Moors and the rice is the Christians, which I find totally amusing, is the traditional requirement for a lot of pork fat. It was surprisingly easy to shift this recipe into a vegetarian format. It was a success, J. even took some leftovers to work for lunch today.

Gnudi!

A picture for you!

The ricotta gnudi with brown butter, fried sage leaves, and fresh parmesan. The other bowl is chickpea salad with spinach, shallot, and lemon vinaigrette.

Gnudi

I made ricotta gnudi for J., mostly because I've been enjoying the pasta roller I got for my birthday and wanted to branch out into the pasta world. J. really likes the gnudi from The Spotted Pig, where they make it with sheeps' milk ricotta and sauce it with brown butter and fried sage leaves.

I started with this recipe from Bon Appetit, just for the gnudi. I served it with the tomato sauce I made the farmers' market.

The funny thing is that the recipe has you rest the dough for an hour. We went to the Spotted Pig after the blackout, and were told there were no gnudi, as they need to be made the day before. There is a real big difference between a 1 hour rest and 24, though! I know the flour needs time to absorb all the moisture, but why the difference?

They came out light and fluffy, a beautiful bowl of pillows. Sorry for no picture!