Gnocchi verts avec sauce de tomates - Green gnocchi with tomato sauce

My dear friend gave me a lovely vegetarian recipe book which has only Mediterranean food from the French Provence. For a long time I've been intrigued to try the spinach gnocchi recipe, and today I finally made it. The tomato sauce I made from my own head, and with the gnocchis it was awesome. It was excellent, perfect and wonderful. It was really good. My mom praised it so much. I actually really love tomato sauce, it's so exuberant and it warms on a dark and cold day. This dish contains all the warmth of the French Riviera, just jump in!

Ingredients:

For the spinach gnocchi:

For four persons

600g spinach, washed well

salt

280g plain flour

4 tbsp just grated parmesan (and about 1 dl for serving)

half teaspoon just grated nutmeg

flour for baking

For the tomato sauce:

(if you want plenty, double the recipe)

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, cut in half and then sliced

1 can garlic flavoured crushed tomatoes (about 400g)

70g tomato pureé

1 sweet red tapered pepper

some broccoli, about 100g

5-6 pieces of sun dried tomato

a dollop of soy cream

handful of fresh basilic, chopped

salt (herbamare)

black pepper

paprika

To make the spinach gnocchis:

1. Cook the washed spinach in water seasoned with salt for five minutes.

2. Put into a sieve, press the liquid away with a fork or with hands.

3. Chop the spinach and mix the flour, parmesan, salt and grated nutmeg to it well, so that the dough forms into a ball. Don't knead more than necessary because the dough is quite sensitive.

4. Cut the dough into four parts and roll the parts into bars. Cut the bars with a knife into 2 cm wide pieces, sprinkle some flour over.

4. Cook in a simmering water just for some time. The gnocchis are ready when they rise into the surface of the water, take them out when they do that. Strain the gnocchis carefully, then they're ready to serve with the tomato sauce and some grated parmesan sprinkled over.

To make the tomato sauce:

1. Sauté the sliced onion in olive oil in a large pan, add the red pepper (chopped into small chunks). Fry for a while, then add the broccoli (cut into smaller chunks).

2. Add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato pureé.

3. Slice the pieces of sun dried tomato, the add. Add the soycream, then the chopped basilic. Then add the salt, plenty of black pepper and some paprika. Lower the heat into the minimum and let stay under the lid for 10 minutes.

Home baked croissants

I needed something to cheer me up on a cold october day. The thought of French Provence and lovely boulangeries always warms my mind, that's why I decided to bake croissants and bring even a little piece of France into my home and into cold Finland. I found an proportionally quick recipe, because as you might know baking croissants isn't the quickiest thing to do. I know these weren't the same than in France, but really delicious in spite of that. It was wonderful when the fresh and warm croissant almost melted in the mouth, I can't even describe how good it was! My family loved these too. I really recommend baking these, and it really doesn't take that much time and it's fun. 

Croissants

makes 16

2 dl cold milk

50 g fresh yeast

1 egg

1 tsp salt or little less (if you use salted butter you need to add less salt)

6 dl plain wheat flour

200 g butter

and one egg for buttering

1. Steep the yeast into the cold milk. Add the egg, salt and the flour. Put the dough into the fridge for 20 minutes. 

2. Roll the dough into a square plate. Spread the butter in thin pieces on the other side of the plate, fold the other side on the other and roll into a squarevplate. Fold the dough three times and put to the fridge for 30 minutes. 

3. Roll the dough again into a square plate and fold three times. Do the same thing about three or for times, to make a smooth, even dough. Put the dough into the fridge for 15 minutes.

4. Deal the dough into two. Roll the pieces into round plates. Deal the round plate into eight triangle shaped pieces. Roll the triangles from the wider side into a croissant and bend into the shape of an horn.

5. Let the horns rise in the room temperature under a kitchen towel. Whisk the egg in a cup and butter the croissants with the egg. Put the croissants into a 250 °C oven and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.