It’s a great time to invest in a bottle of roasted nut oil to use through the fall and winter.  Just a drizzle transforms simple baked acorn squash, but it’s also good with sweet potatoes, in a creamy cauliflower-apple soup and in vinaigrettes.  Just make sure you add after cooking to preserve the full nutty flavor,  Hazelnut and walnut are two of my favorites.

walnut maple acorn squash: Cut acorn squash in half through the stem.  Scrape out seeds and stringy bits.  Fill each cavity with 1/2 tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of maple syrup and a tiny pinch of cinnamon (I know you’ll want to add more cinnamon, but let the other flavors shine through this time.) Place face up on a jelly roll pan.  Pour water in the bottom of the pan for steam- as much as you can reasonably transport to the oven.  Bake at 400 for an 1 hour 15 minutes, checking after 1 hour.  You want the entire squash soft and creamy and some caramelization around the rim.  Remove from the oven, and drizzle 1/2 teaspoon of walnut oil into each maple-butter pool.  Brush the liquid all over the flesh of the squash until it is completely absorbed.

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.

This dish may not look like much, but it delivers.  With each bite it endears itself more, until you’ll wonder how you ever lived without fonio, a tiny whole grain from Africa.  I was skeptical of this simple recipe.  But the fonio and peanuts blended together to a nutty toothsome texture.  The eggplant went silky smooth and melded with slices of okra and the broth is tart and suprisingly flavorful.  There’s supposed to be some spice to this dish, but I left out so my kids (ok, and I) could eat it.

You might have a hard time finding fonio, but it’s worth a look.  I couldn’t find anyplace online to buy it, so I thought I was out of luck, but my in-laws took me to a Mexican restaurant which happened to be next door to Baobab African Grocery in Indianapolis.  Sure enough, they had it, along with kenkey flour, which you’ll hear about soon.  I couldn’t stop talking about it on the way home, to the point where my enthusiasm began to be met with awkward silence.

When you find fonio, try Pierre Thiam’s Sesame Fonio too, or check out his cookbook Yolele!: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.  It’s the best cookbook I’ve seen that focuses on a Sub-Saharan African cuisine.  Not to mention the photography by Adam Bartos, which alone makes for a worthy purchase.

Steamed Fonio and Crushed Peanuts with Spicy Eggplant (Djouka de Fonio)
Reprinted with permission from Yolele!: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam
Published by Lake Isle Press

1 cup raw shelled peanuts
1 cup fonio
1 tablespoon salt dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup finely sliced okra
1/2 cup water
2 large eggplants, cut into 3-inch chunks
1 habanero pepper
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon white vinegar

SERVES 4

1.  Finely crush the peanuts using a food processor.
2.  Place the fonio in the top of a steamer lined with cheesecloth.  (MM NOTE: I lined the top of a rice cooker and added a little cooking time to the end).  Set over simmering water, cover, and steam the fonio 10 minutes.  Drizzle with salted water, using a fork to fluff.  Steam 5 more minutes.  With the fonio still in the basket, top with the ground peanuts and return to steam for another 10 minutes, until well moistened.
3.  Meanwhile, in a small pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer and cook okra, 15 to 20 minutes.  Combine okra with fonio mixture.  Set aside, covered, to keep warm.
4.  Place the eggplants and habanero pepper in a small pot with just enough water to cover and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until the eggplants are soft, 15 minutes.
5.  Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, salt and pepper.  Cook until the onions are soft, 5 minutes.  Add the eggplant and habanero along with their cooking liquid.  Stir in the vinegar.
6.  Serve the fonio on a platter with the eggplant mixture on top.  For a less-spicy version, omit the habanero.