Especially when it’s tossed with spinach, feta and tons of herbs.
What’s your favorite thing you’ve learned from New York Times Cooking? I’ll start: You don’t need to boil your store-bought gnocchi to have a fantastic gnocchi dinner. I’ll admit, the first time I made Ali Slagle’s crisp gnocchi with brussels sprouts — one of our 50 best recipes, according to our readers — I was skeptical. I just … open the package and dump the gnocchi straight into a hot pan? Won’t that give me rock-hard, dust-dry nuggets of potato sadness?
Just the opposite. I learned that when you toast gnocchi in an olive-oil-slicked skillet, the outsides become golden with a touch of crust while the insides plump up and keep their pillowy chew. (This trick works in the oven, too.) Now, I always prepare my gnocchi this way, seeking out dishes like Hetty Lui McKinnon’s crispy gnocchi with spinach and feta. Her new recipe reads like a checklist of everything I crave after a long day: silky, good-for-me greens, salty cheese, handfuls of fresh herbs and, of course, carbs. Oh, and it’s all made in one pan — another point for crispy gnocchi.
Featured Recipe
Crispy Gnocchi With Spinach and Feta
Something else I’ve learned: I may not love raisins in my cookies, but I really love them in savory dishes. They add tiny pops of sweetness and tang to Melissa Clark’s hearty and colorful roasted cauliflower and arugula salad, as well as this gorgeous tfaya baked chicken from Nargisse Benkabbou. Tfaya, as Nargisse notes, is a sweet and savory Moroccan sauce made of caramelized onions, raisins and spices that forms under your chicken (read: soaks up all of those chicken juices) as everything roasts in the oven.
I’ve also realized that a long-cooked vegetable can be a delicious vegetable, and have loosened the grip that crisp-tender veggies had on my cooking. Case in point: David Tanis’s baked fish with slow-cooked peppers, in which bell peppers (or Italian “frying” peppers, or another not-too-spicy variety) collapse into a tangle of garlicky ribbons to serve with lemony white fish fillets.
Tofu and tomatoes are good friends — something I’ve learned with Hana Asbrink’s cold tofu salad with tomatoes and peaches and Ali’s chile-crisp tofu with tomatoes and cucumbers. For brisker days, there’s Hetty’s new tomato and ginger braised tofu, which calls for, as Hetty puts it, “a brave amount of ginger.” Challenge accepted!
Lastly, I’ve learned that muffins make a nice dessert, seeing as they are essentially individual little cakes. (This is less a cooking lesson and more a personal belief.) Melissa Knific’s blueberry corn muffins would be a wonderful grab-and-go breakfast, for sure, but look at those tender-crumbed, berry-studded beauties and tell me you don’t want to serve them fresh from the oven with vanilla ice cream.
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