Beet Goat Cheese Gnocchi in Rosemary & Sage Butter Sauce

This is the other recipe I made at my cooking demo last Saturday, and I figured it’s time that I share it with you guys, too!

Pureed roasted beets and creamy tangy goat cheese come together for one of the easiest homemade pasta dishes you’ll ever tackle (promise!). Start with pureed roasted beets (make them yourself, buy them pre-roasted and peeled in those lovely little vacuum packs, or go ahead and use canned, if you’d like) and whisk in the cheese, an egg and some flour to bind it all together.

You only need about a half cup of the puree for a batch of pasta big enough to serve four. These freeze well, too, so even if it’s just you, I recommend making the whole thing and freezing the rest for easy meals the rest of the week.

Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake

I just got home from an exciting day of hosting two live cooking shows at the New York Botanical Garden where I showed two audiences how to prepare different recipes featuring delicious, in-season beets. It was the first time I ever cooked before an audience, and I think it went pretty well! I'm pretty exhausted after spending the day on my feet cooking, but I promised the audience that I would post this recipe for the Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake that I made so for now, here it is. I'll be back tomorrow with more details about the event (and a few pix, too!)

xoxo

Alejandra

P.S. I realize this cake is a little unusual, but it's delicious; everyone in the audience tasted it and liked it (some were clamoring for 2nd and 3rd pieces!).
 

Come Watch Me Cook at New York Botanical Garden on Saturday

Alejandra at New York Botanical Garden (Not to scale.)

If you're in the NY/NJ/Connecticut (heck...even Pennsylvania!) area, I'd love for you to come to the New York Botanical Garden tomorrow (Saturday). I'm going to be hosting two LIVE cooking shows on their state of the art Conservatory Kitchen Stage at 1pm and 3pm.

This will be the first time I've ever cooked before an audience so it would be really great to have your support and see some familiar faces out in the audience!

I'm going to be making two delicious beet recipes. The first, for the 1pm show, is Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce. At the 3PM show I will be making Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Truffle Glaze. I'll also be talking about eating seasonally, working with beets, ways to serve them to those pesky "i hate beets" people, and a few of my personal beet anecdotes (don't we all have those?!).

If you haven't been to NYBG before or have been meaning to go check it out, this is the perfect time to do so. It's absolutely gorgeous there right now and there are activities and exhibits for the whole family to check out! Tickets are just $15 for adults, $13 for students, and $8 for kids. (babies get in free) That's about the same as a movie ticket for a whole day of fun! (Fun AND personal beet anecdotes!)

New York Botanical Garden is located in the Bronx right next to the Bronx Zoo (so you can make a whole day out of it and go check out the cute baby animals next door after my show). It's about 20 minutes from midtown on metro-north and 25 minutes from the GWB if you're driving in from NJ. Visit www.nybg.org for more details on the park, directions, and to buy your tickets.

I hope to you there!

xoxo

Alejandra

Kitchen Tip: How to Roast Beets

It's prime beet season and the earthy (and incredibly affordable!) jewels are everywhere. While beets can be prepared in any manner of ways, my absolute favorite way is to roast them. Unlike boiling, which tends to wash them out, roasting preserves the gorgeous natural colors, keeps the tenderness intact, and deepens and enhances it's characteristic earthy sweetness.

The bonus is that roasted beets can be prepared in a large batch all at once, then stored in the fridge for a bevy of uses over the coming week. Think sliced into salads, paired with tangy goat cheese as an appetizer, sauteed in hot herbed butter, mashed into ravioli filling, or (my favorite) pureed and baked into chocolate cake. Roasted beets are in fact so versatile that they're actually sold that way at the grocery store, but there is no need to spend extra bucks to have someone do the work. With just a few quick steps, you can learn to roast a perfect beet every single time.

Peppadew, Peach, and Feta Side Salad

I've recently become smitten with Peppadew peppers. I had some a few days ago as part of a salad served in (of all places) my office cafeteria, and instantly fell in love. Sweet and (mildly) spicy with a perfect touch of acidity from the pickling, Peppadews are wonderful paired with cheeses like feta or goat, can be tucked into a sandwich or burger, or even used as a topping on pizza.

Similar to cherry tomatoes in appearance and size (though not flavor), Peppadews is actually the trademarked name of a variety of sweet piquante pepper native to South Africa. The name is a reference to the pickled version, and are sold stemmed and seeded with a tiny open cavity just perfect for stuffing.

For this salad, I was inspired by the one I had at work, and paired the peppadew peppers with a combination of salty Bulgarian feta and diced, broiled peaches that I first tossed in a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, and black pepper before placing under the flame for a few minutes (I live in an apartment so grilling isn't an option, but if it is for you, by all means do!)

Reader Question: Do I have to refrigerate almond butter?

My friends and readers regularly send me e-mails with food and cooking questions, and I figured I might start sharing some of these here with you. This one is from my friend Matt (sometimes referred to as BFF Matt):

Alejandra-

You know I like to follow rules.  

So I got back from a run around Lake Merritt this morning and needed a nice scoop of almond butter before heading over to Blue Bottle for the latteIwouldorderifondeathrow.  My endorphin high was completely shuttered because I remembered that on the side of my freshly opened almond butter it told me to 'stir and refrigerate after opening' as it always does. 

Look, I hate refrigerating peanut and almond butter; the refrigerator sucks the life and creaminess out of an otherwise smooth treat.  I just don't want to have to 'defrost' my fucking almond butter before I eat it.

All I am saying is, what am I risking by not refrigerating my favorite post-run snack? 

M

Ahhh...Matt. What an excellent question!

I feel the same way you do about peanut butter and almond butter (and, for that matter, cow butter). I only ever eat the organic unsweetened kind so when I refrigerate it, it gets extra hard and unmanageable which is just no fun.