Gnocchi of a Different Color

Recipe: Gnocchi of a Different Color // New York Times

Rating:

This gnocchi turned out fine, I just wasn't that wild about it. We made spinach & carrot gnocchis in a garlic sauce. I would have liked to make the beet gnocchis, but I don't expect I'll bother making this again. There are many other potato recipes I like more.

Also, we were really wishing we had a proper food processor for this recipe.

Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas

Recipe: Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas // Slow Cooker Revolution (pg 176)
To Drink: Villard Blanc // Goose Watch Winery

Rating: 

This was great! The recipe called for dried garbanzo beans, and I was amazed the improved texture and flavor compared to canned. I'm not sure I've had garbanzo beans except from a can; these were much better.

Like most recipes from this cookbook (which Seth bought me for Hanukkah), it required some browning on the stove, but the end result was worth it. I used chicken broth that we had open in the fridge, so ours wasn't technically vegetarian. We paired it with a lovely finger lakes white wine and some leftover Italian semolina bread. I will make this again!

Slow-Cooker: Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

Recipe: Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna // Slow Cooker Revolution (pg 232)
Rating:  

This was the best lasagna I've ever had. It had excellent flavor, wonderful texture, and it wasn't overly cheesy. A real winner, and I'm not usually a lasagna fan.

This recipe required all the prep for a lasagna cooked in the oven (pre-cooking noodles, sautéing vegetables and the like), so the only real convenience is that you come home and your meal is already cooked. The authors do not try to disguise the fact that most quality slow cooker recipes require a fair amount of prep work. Regardless, I can't wait to try more from this cookbook.

I have been looking for a quality slow cooker cookbook, and I think I have found one worth purchasing from the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen & Cooks Illustrated.