The Daring Kitchen is now home to the Daring Cooks as well as the Daring Bakers and today is reveal date for the first of what I hope will be many Daring Cooks' challenges. For its maiden voyage the group was asked to prepare ricotta gnocchi using the recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Full instructions and the recipe can be found at The Daring Kitchen website. I followed the recipe as it was written but because there are just two people at our table I made half a batch of the gnocchi. The recipe is really simple, but there are time constraints that you should be aware of. The ricotta must be drained and that can take up to 24 hours. Assembly will be easier if you use fresh ricotta, but that, too, needs some time to drip. The gnocchi will disintegrate as they poach if there's too much moisture in the cheese. I kept the dumplings chilled before poaching and I didn't fiddle with them as they cooked so I had no problems. I chose to brown the suggested butter sauce. I also added 2 tablespoons of chopped chives. It was a mistake that made the sauce too rich for the simplicity of the dumplings. It didn't spoil them but these would have been so much better with a light lemon sauce and less butter. The gnocchi are good, but this is treadmill food and in the great scheme of things calories trump taste if you are trying to eat in a more healthy fashion. I won't be making them again. We all approach food from different perspectives so I'm sure my choices differ from yours. If you are looking for a challenge that will produce a really lovely meal I urge you to try these. It's a nice recipe. Just not for me.
Special thanks to Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice and to Lis at La Mia Cucina for making this event possible.
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