My boss at my full time job was nice enough to let me borrow her pasta roller about a month ago. She claimed to have not touched it “in years”, so I didn’t need to be in a hurry to get it back. That is good because I’ve cooked 3 or 4 homemade pasta dishes with it now (I lost track, really).

Before I got the roller, I tried my hand at a potato gnocchi…

Finished gnocchi with ragu

Uncooked gnocchi

Gnocchi with Ragu (adapted from Epicurious)

Variations on original
• I made my favorite ragu from this recipe on Saveur

It is really important that you are able to mash the potatoes very fine. A potato ricer would have been really nice, but I don’t own one (yet). I mashed by hand and ended up with a few small chunks that I had to pick out by hand while forming the gnocchi. It wasn’t a huge deal, but made the process take all that much longer.

Honestly, this isn’t a recipe for a weeknight. I spent like 4 hours on the whole thing, but I’m pretty positive that I could knock half an hour to an hour off with some practice. The ragu itself has to cook for 3 to 3 1/2 hours though. It doesn’t need to be babysat, but you need to have some patience.

Don’t let that scare you though, it is well worth the effort and a lot of fun. I’m guessing this would be a great project with some kids on hand to help form the pasta. My dog has a tough time with that.

Our kitchen is small but cozy

Tagliatelle with Creamed Spinach

Tagliatelle with Creamed Spinach
Homemade Tagliatelle recipe from Saveur

Creamed Spinach
• 2 pounds fresh spinach, washed and stems removed
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Boil spinach in salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and squeeze as much water as possible from the spinach.

Melt the butter in medium sized pan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook them until soft. Add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and cook until the cream is reduced by half. Remove from the heat.

Boil tagliatelle for 4-5 minutes in salted water. Save some of the cooking water to add the the sauce if too thick (it can really add to the flavor as well). Toss pasta with cream sauce and serve immediately.