Gnocchi, Sweet Corn & Arugula in Cream Sauce

I tried this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens magazine on a lark and was pleasantly surprised at how easy and tasty it was. Definitely a great recipe for when you're short on time. The recipe said it would take 20 minutes to prepare and it really did. 


Of course, I had to change a few little things from the original. And, we have declared this a "keeper" recipe so I will definitely be making this again soon. 


Gnocchi, Sweet Corn & Arugula in Cream Sauce

(adapted from the May 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens)

Serves 4

Approximate cooking time is 20 minutes

Ingredients:

 2 cups of fresh or frozen whole kernel corn

1 pound shelf-stable potato gnocchi

1/2
 cup half-and-half

1/4 cup 2% milk

4 oz of packaged or whipped cream cheese (I used a reduced-fat version)

1/2 
teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 
cups torn fresh arugula

Crushed red pepper (optional)

Preparation:

 1) In Dutch oven cook gnocchi according to package directions, adding corn the last 5 minutes of cooking time. Drain gnocchi and corn kernels, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Do not rinse.

2) Meanwhile, for cream sauce, in medium saucepan combine half-and-half, cream cheese, salt, garlic powder, dried herbs, and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently using a whisk. Stir in reserved pasta water.

3) Return cooked pasta to Dutch oven. Pour cream sauce over pasta; heat through, if necessary. Stir in arugula. Serve in bowls. Sprinkle with additional salt, pepper, dried herbs, and crushed red pepper.

Notes and Variations: If you don’t love the peppery taste of arugula, you could easily substitute fresh spinach. I also think that you could add in a cup of shredded roast chicken for a more robust meal. And, I am sure that shrimp would be tasty as well. In other words, play around this recipe, it is very forgiving.

Spring in the Garden - Part II

All of the lovely spring rains are making the garden flourish. And, in case you were not aware, not all of our garden is edibles, we have a lot of plants that are not. Over the last couple of years, we have been planting more and more California natives. Above is an image of a flower stock from one of our Coral Bells. We have a shaded area behind our garage/carriage house thing and it desperately needed some sprucing up with some vegetation. The only thing back there is a 70 foot Ash tree but the ground around it was barren. So, last year we started planting some natives. Some took and a few died but the Coral Bells have been doing great. Though this is the first flower stock that we have seen off of any of them.

More natives, this is an Indian Mallow (Abutilon Palmeri). This is located in our front yard. It took about a year for it to really come into its own but it's doing great now and can really handle the hot afternoon sun in the summer. It's drought tolerant and it loved by native hummingbirds and butterflies. It should continue to bloom all spring.

Back to the edibles, these are part of our new arugula crop.  We have two 4' long rows of these. Hoping that we will finally be able to harvest some by mid-May.

Well, our bush beans have really taken off. We have four containers of them. Our friend Beth named our first little sprout Timmy. Well, as you can see Timmy has a lot of friends. Sadly, we cannot remember which one is actually Timmy or may be...they can all be Timmy.

This is what happens when you think that your lettuce is really pretty and you cannot bear to harvest it. Instead, it bolts, starts to go to seed and looks like a tree. When gardening books say that bolted lettuce tastes bitter, they are not joking. It was nasty. So, lesson learned...harvest edibles when they ready. Or, like us, you will end up with lettuce for our compost instead of your dinner. 

Last Day of February

It's the last day of the month and I couldn't be more thrilled. I know that this is weird but I'm just not a huge fan of February. For that matter, I'm not too keen about January either. I am not really sure why but I have been this way all my life. I love the other 10 months but not those two. They just seem rather dull to me. Post holidays and pre-spring, there just doesn't seem much to them.

But, I digress, this is really about today's end-of-the-month harvest. Sure it won't exactly feed the family for a week but it is something. We finally got more arugula, three beets, five radishes and two carrots (damn...they take forever to grow). At least with the beets, you also get the beet greens and not just the roots.

And, sadly, our arugula bolted. So, I spent some time today tearing it out and sowing new seeds. Fortunately, arugula is a fast grower so we are hoping to have new crop making its first appearance within the next week or so. We may even be able to harvest some baby arugula by the end of March. And, I also sowed more seeds for the radishes, beets and the chard. Oh, the chard, how it mocks me. It just won't grow more than a couple of inches before it just stops, I cannot figure out why. But, I'm going to keep trying for another few months. Just not ready to throw in the towel yet on this veggie.

Just a few more weeks till the official start (March 20) of spring...can't wait.

The Last Days of Fall

Fall is my favorite season. I will be sad to see it end on the winter solstice, December 21. Because we live in Southern California, we are blessed to be able to garden all year round. So, even though we will be heading into winter soon, the garden is still flourishing.

Our Meyer Lemons are ripening up and a few should be ready to be plucked in a few days. I'm thinking that lemon shortbread cookies would be the a nice choice to use them in. And, the arugula has been growing like crazy. I will need to harvest some soon. There is even a good chance that a couple of radishes will be ready as well.

Tomorrow is supposed to bring some more and much needed rain to our drought stricken city. The garden will be grateful.

Oh, and I'm grateful, that for the moment, the squirrels have stopped digging in the lettuce bed.