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Ricotta Gnocchi with Butter & Sage Sauce

Pork Tenderloin ala Rosemary

French Green Beans Almondine

Green Salad

Garlic Toasts

Ricotta Gnocchi

1 lb ricotta cheese, drained if needed (see note below)*

1 egg, beaten

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

¾ cup flour, plus additional for kneading & handling

*Note:  If ricotta is too wet, the day before, place ricotta in cheesecloth  and  set in a strainer over a bowl in the refrigerator. 

Mix ricotta and egg

Add parmesan cheese

Mix  flour and salt

Add flour mixture to ricotta mixture and mix well.

Put out onto floured board and knead until smooth, adding a little extra flour if dough is too sticky. 

Flour the board lightly and break the dough into pieces the size of a small orange.  Shape pieces into rolls about the thickness of your thumb. 

Cut rolls into 1 inch pieces.

Hold a fork with its tines resting against a work surface at a 45 degree angle and the inside curve toward you.  Take a little dumpling and press it with your index finger against the outside curve of the fork at the tip end.  Quickly slide dumpling up along the length of the times, pressing with the index finger.  Remove finger and let dumpling fall back onto work surface.  (Groves made by fork and finger indentation will absorb the sauce.)  Repeat with the remaining dumplings.  Arrange dumplings on a floured tray or large plate.  

Bring a large pan of water to boil and add  2 Tbsp of salt.  Drop handful of gnocchi into boiling water and wait for them to surface and remove with slotted spoon and place into butter and sage sauce.    Cook for a minute to let it absorb flavor of sauce, then transfer to a serving dish and dust with grated parmesan cheese.  Keep warm while you finish cooking remaining gnocchi.

Butter and Sage Sauce

1 cube butter

1 handful fresh sage leaves (chopped)

Melt ½ cube of the butter in sauté pan over medium heat until butter begins to brown, add sage leaves and saute together for a minute and then add half of the gnocchi.  Repeat with remaining half of butter, sage, and gnocchi.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary

Pork Tenderloin (Costco has a pkg of 4 and you can freeze what you don’t use)

Olive oil, approx ¼ cup

Garlic, 3-4 cloves, chopped

Rosemary, 2 sprigs, leaves removed from stem and chopped

Soy Sauce, approx 1/8 cup

Salt, Pepper, a few shakes of each

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a  ziplock freezer bag, add oil, garlic, rosemary, soy sauce, salt, pepper and mix.  Add pork tenderloin, zip up  and roll around to cover loin.  Set on a plate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, turning once if possible.

Remove and place in a preheated oven proof glass or roasting pan.  Cook for 45-50 minutes.  Note:  You want it a little bit pink inside.

 Let set for about 10 minutes, slice and arrange on platter.  Pour pan drippings over top and serve.

Green Beans Almondine

1 pkg French green beans from Costco (stem tops are removed)

14 cube butter

¼ cup sliced almonds

Juice of ½ lemon

Place beans in boiling water to cover and let come to boil again.  Cook for 2-3 minutes until beans are tender-crisp.  Meanwhile ready a bowl of ice water.  Drain beans and plunge them in ice water to stop cooking process and retain color.  Drain beans well.

Melt butter in sauté pan over medium heat and add almonds and cook until toasted.  Raise heat to medium high and add lemon juice and cook until lemon juice has reduced by half.  Add the green beans into the pan and stir to coat and heat them.