I don’t know if I’m the only parent who routinely forgets to save food for the kids.  Around here it happens at least once a week: I get carried away enjoying my food and *expletive* it’s gone and the kids are still hungry.  After managing to cook a meal for the family, while keeping 2 eyes on the kids, I have to come up with something else.

Well, I like making my own gnocchi, but the evening inevitably ends with me staring in the fridge wishing I hadn’t been so selfish.  Doubling the recipe isn’t really an option, because of the labor involved in cooking them.  Perhaps I just haven’t gotten a good system down, but it doesn’t really make a difference at this point.

So I tried packaged gnocchi, and I’m not ashamed to say I like it.  And I can easily cook enough for the whole family with a little leftover.  This is one of those meals that I look forward to making because cooking goes so fast, it’s the perfect balance of light and filling, and bursts with flavor.

gnocchi with broccoli, tomato, olives, capers & pine nuts
serves 4

1/3 cup olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons, divided
1 3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, chopped
generous 1/4 cup green olives, chopped
2 spoonfuls capers
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 cup pine nuts
1 3/4 lb. broccoli, broken into bit sized pieces, stem peeled and chopped as well
2 lbs. packaged potato gnocchi
big handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Heat 1/3 cup of the oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Drain the excess juice from the tomaotes, if any, and reserve. Add the tomatoes to the pan and fry until tasty.  This may be as quick as 1 minute if the tomatoes are ripe and in season.  Add the capers, olives and reserved tomato juice.  Heat through.  Remove from the heat and cover.

In a small frying pan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil over very low heat.  Add the pine nuts and garlic, and fry very gently until first the garlic is cooked through, then the pine nuts and garlic turn golden.  Remove from heat and reserve.

In a large pot of salted boiling water,  cook the broccoli until crisp-tender.  Remove with a slotted spoon or spider whisk.  Add the gnocchi to the same water and cook according to package directions, about two minutes or until they float to the top.  Drain.

Toss together the gnocchi, broccoli, tomato mixture, pine nut mixture and parsley and serve.

Once or twice, not so long ago we had an empty refrigerator and an empty wallet and I made this dish with carrot top greens.  It satisfied.  Carrot tops! And you know, times are tough.  This recipe is very forgiving.  Try them here if you need to.    Otherwise choose a thick-leafed green like kale, kohlrabi leaves, chard, beet tops, or collards and be thankful.

This very simple pasta relies on contrasting textures and a couple of bold flavors to give you a lot for your effort and dollar.  It’s has lightly creamy pasta, with a garlicky breadcrumb topping.  If you’ve ever been wary of leafy greens, this is the place to start.  The texture is outstanding -crisp on the edges, tender in the middle.

You might not have a jar of preserved lemons sitting around, but this recipe itself is reason enough to prepare one.  And if you do so,  I’ll give you a few more reasons in a month or so when they are cured and ready to use.   Until then, substitute the juice of 1 fresh lemon. Chopped fresh whole lemons won’t work.

pasta with preserved lemons, fried greens and breadcrumbs

serves 3-4

1 large bunch of greens or equivalent mixed greens, such as kale, chard, kohlrabi leaves, collards, beetroot tops
1/2 cup of olive oil, or more as needed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
8 oz. cream cheese or mascarpone
1/4 preserved lemon, chopped
1 lb. pasta

Julienne the greens a little fatter than normal.  Heat the oil in a frying pan over fairly high heat.  Add the greens in batches and cook until tender and crispy.  Remove from the pan.  Add or pour out the olive oil if necessary to result in about 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan.  Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook the garlic and red pepper flakes until the garlic starts to soften.  Add the breadcrumbs and cook stirring until the oil is absorbed and the breadcrumbs turn golden brown.  Set aside.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water that has been generously salted.  While the pasta is cooking, whisk the cream cheese until smooth and softened (if you have a stand mixer, use that).  When the pasta is almost done cooking, add a little pasta water to the cream cheese and continue whisking and adding pasta water until thinned to a sauce consistency.  Stir in the preserved lemon.

When the pasta has cooked, drain and return to the pan.  Toss thoroughly with the cream cheese mixture until evenly coated.  Top with the bread crumbs and greens and toss gently.  Serve immediately.

I’ve thrown away fresh artichokes on three different occasions.  There.  I said it.  Don’t tell my grandma Norine.   And the first time I was served a whole one at a restaurant, I very nearly cried.  Ask Romeo.  It’s just that they are so intimidating.

The last three times (all this spring) I bought artichokes, I’m relieved to say, I put them to good use in this pasta dish, which tastes exactly what I want every pasta dish to taste like.  It’s got peas and slow roasted tomatoes bursting with sweetness.  There’s a garlicky white wine sauce with a splash of lemon and little flecks of fresh parsley.  But the fresh artichokes…  they brown so beautifully in the olive oil, unlike frozen or jarred.  So you’ve got to conquer fresh artichokes.

Sometimes you just need to dig in.  Get a lemon or two.  Fill a bowl with water and add some lemon juice.  Start snapping off the leaves, rubbing with lemon as you go.  Keep going until the leaves are yellow.  Your halfway there.  Chop off the top just above the ridge.  With a paring knife, trim the rough part where the leaves were snapped off.  Slice the whole thing in half lengthwise (including the stem.)  Spoon out the fuzzy choke.  Trim the stem until just the tender part is left.  Plonk in the bowl of water.  You’re done.  Unless you’re still trying to figure out where to chop the top off, in which case you should check out Becks & Posh’s guide, which is much better than mine.

Although the artichokes are the highlight of this dish, very often the slow roasted tomatoes get eaten right out of the oven, 1/4 of them gone before they even get tossed in the pan.  So you might want to make extra.

Artichokes, Peas and Slow Roasted Tomatoes with Pasta

serves 3-4

Make sure to start the tomatoes the day or night before, as they take 10-12 hours to cook.

adapted from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey

1 lb. tomatoes (with salt, sugar and olive oil to slow roast)

4 large artichokes

6 T olive oil

4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed and peeled, but left whole

salt

1/2 cup water

3 T dry white wine

6 T finely chopped fresh Italian parsley (just use the leaves, washing and drying them before chopping)

1 T fresh lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

1 lb. whole wheat shells or penne pasta

Preheat the oven to 175 or as low as it will go.  Cut the tomatoes in half and place closely together on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with a couple pinches of salt and sugar.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Bake for for about 10-12 hours.  I often stick them in the oven before I go to bed and take them out in the morning.  The tomatoes should be a shriveled, but still a little juicy.  Chop into 1 inch pieces and set aside.

Prepare the artichokes until you are left with just the hearts.  Slice thinly, and pat dry with a paper towel while you are heating the oil in a large frying pan over med-high heat.  Add the garlic cloves and artichoke hearts and stir until golden brown, adjusting the heat as necessary to make sure they pick up nice coloring.  Sprinkle with salt, and add water, wine and peas.  Bring to a simmer and cook until peas are tender.   Uncover and add parsley, lemon juice, pepper, and salt to taste.  Turn heat down and cook gently for a 2 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stir and turn off the heat.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt generously.  Add the whole wheat pasta, and cook until still firm, but no longer grainy.  Drain, return to pan, and toss with the artichokes, peas and tomatoes.   Check for seasoning and serve at once.