Heading to the Headlands

Last weekend I decided to visit some of my good friends in the Bay Area for a weekend of eating, drinking, surfing, and of course... cooking!

I met up with my good pal, curator Joseph Del Pesco and his wife Helena Keefe, at the Headlands where Helena has just finished up a residency with her collaborative project Alula Editions.

Joseph and I woke up early last Saturday to catch some surf in Bolinas bay, and after two choice rides on a long board over the course of three hours, I decided it was time to call it a day. On the way back to the headlands we noticed a little roadside farm stand know as the Gospel Flat Farm Stand.



The produce was amazing! We picked up a large bunch of the most beautiful squash blossoms i'd ever seen, a giant bunch of fresh beets with greens, basil, fresh sage,a sack of baby artichokes, and an immense red onion with the stalk still on. The produce spoke to me and it said:

"Stuffed squash blossoms with a roasted garlic cream sauce served with baby artichokes roasted in balsamic vinegar, followed by beet gnocchi with butter sage sauce served with beet greens sautéd with shallots"

Joseph and I picked up a bottle of Sancerre and a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and off we went. What a pleasure it was to cook in the Headlands kitchen designed by artist Ann Hamilton!

The Squash blossoms are a relatively easy procedure:

Ingredients:
16 oz. Ricotta
1/2 cup Pecorino Cheese ( I prefer Toscano, but often have to settle for Romano)
1/4 finely chopped Basil
1 egg
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients and put into a pastry bag. Extrude the mixture into the center of the flowers without ripping the petals.

Batter:

1 cup flour
2 Eggs.

Beat the eggs and dip your stuffed flowers into them. Roll your egged flower in the flour ( ha ha! ) and repeat. Gently lay you battered flour into your hot oil ( I used canola at about 375 degrees f) Wait till the batter is lightly browned, and then remove the flower and place on a paper towel to rest.

The cream sauce is also very simple as well:

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Flour
4 Tbsp Butter
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
10 roasted garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Make a roux with the butter and flour. Whisk in your roasted garlic cloves and add your cream. Reduce until thickened and season to taste.





















The beet gnocchi were a cinch!

Ingredients:

3 medium beets
16oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups flour


Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wrap beets in foil and roast until tender, about 1 hour.
Cool 15 minutes. Slip skin off beets; discard skins. Coarsely grate beets. Place 3/4 cup grated beets in large bowl. Stir in ricotta, egg, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Mix in 1 cup flour. The Gnocchi dough should be similar to play-dough, and shouldn't be too sticky. Add flour as needed, but don't let the mixture get dry.

Lightly dust a rolling surface with flour. Pinch off racket ball sized mounds of dough and roll out into 1/4" to 1/2" coils. Cut off 3/4" lumps and flick up the back of a fork or a gnocchi board to make the little dumplings.

Place them in boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes, or until they float. Remember, your gnocchi are already technically cooked... you're just cooking the egg acting as a binder, so don't over cook them or they'll get mushy! For these we used a butter sage sauce, which is basically just butter lightly browned with fresh sage cooked in it, but a nutmeg cream sauce would also be fantastic. For that sauce just do the same as the garlic sauce above, but instead of adding garlic, use 2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg.



It was an amazing dinner to celebrate not only good friends, but the launch of a really great project, Alula editions. If you haven't checked it out yet, go to: http://www.alulaeditions.com/

and check out the really great work that Helena, Amber and Kristin are doing. Cheers ladies!