Tag: italian

Zucchini lasagna with cashew cream

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Yesterday at the market, I found some beautiful zucchinis that I really wanted to cook today. I decided to try out making zucchini lasagna: you use thin zucchini slices instead of pasta. Sounds good, right?

zucchini-lasagna

This is a fun recipe because you can really decide on what you want to add as your layers. I went for a more traditional tomato sauce with a lot of fresh thyme and some cashew cream to give it a ricotta cheese feel. It was really good! The only thing I would say it to keep in mind that your zucchinis will give out a lot of water as they cook: make sure the different dressings you are adding are not too liquid or you will end up with a lot of extra sauce!

zucchini-lasagna2

Here is what you need:

For the tomato sauce:

  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 5 tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbs miso paste
  • 1 tbs tamari sauce
  • 1 tbs fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 pinch of red pepper flakes

For the cashew cream:

  • 2 cups raw cashew nuts
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbs hemp seeds
  • salt and pepper to taste

Additional ingredients:

  • 3 medium-size zucchini squashes
  • 4 cups of shredded kale
  • 2 tbs fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/2 cup walnuts

Here is what you do:

For the tomato sauce:

  1. Thinly mince the garlic cloves and dice the tomatoes. Set aside.
  2. Heat the oil on medium heat, and add the garlic. Let cook until golden.
  3. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, miso paste, thyme leaves and tamari sauce. Mix until everything is dissolved and well combined.
  4. Let simmer until the tomatoes are completely mushed and the sauce thickens up.
  5. Season to your taste.
  6. Set aside.

For the cashew cream:

  1. Place all the ingredients in your food processor or blender and mix until smooth.
  2. Set aside.

For the noodles:

  1. Using your potato peeler, peel long strips of zucchini and set aside. I find it helps to keep the stem of the zucchini and use it as a handle. When you get to the middle of your squash, just flip and start over on the other side.

To assemble:

  1. Place some zucchini noodles on the bottom of your lasagna dish (or pie plate if you don’t have one like me…) in an even layer.
  2. Place an even layer of kale on top.
  3. Place a layer of cashew cream.
  4. Place a layer of tomato sauce.
  5. Sprinkle some walnuts and some thyme leaves.
  6. Repeat until you reach the top of your dish and end with a layer of cashew cream. Sprinkle some thyme leaves and red pepper flakes.
  7. Place the lasagna dish on a cookie sheet, and put in the oven set at 350F for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the lasagna cool in it until you are ready to serve. Enjoy!

zucchini-lasagna3

This was amazing! I served each lasagna piece on a bed of fresh lettuce to add some green to the mix and it was great! The zucchini is tender but not mushy, while the cashew cream is a dream: rich and, well, creamy, it really feels like ricotta cheese. The thyme adds a touch of freshness to the mix, while the walnuts add a nice bite to the dish. This is a great alternative if you want a gluten-free lasagna. It can also be customized to your own liking in a breeze! Let me know if you try it out!

Simple sweet potato gnocchi and lazy rosé sauce

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Yesterday I realized that we had some beautiful potatoes that were starting to sprout in your pantry. It was time I took action and transform these beauties in something good! I wanted to try out something new, and so I went for gnocchi. I don’t have any experience in eating or making gnocchi but, after watching a few videos online, I eyeballed a recipe and it worked really well! My boyfriend said they were really good and very ‘gnocchi’ like. Success!

gnocchi

Be warned, this recipe takes a while to prepare as you have to cook everything twice. However, the result is a filling, soft, chewy and satisfying meal. We devoured these little beauties at night after we went for a run, and they were perfect! I recommend preparing a light sauce as they can become quite heavy. My lazy rosé sauce was really good and fast to prepare.

Here is what you need:

  • 400g potatoes: 200g sweet potatoes and 200g white potatoes
  • 100g corn starch
  • 100g rice flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • only if needed: 2 tbs almond milk.
  • extra flour to work with

Here is what you do:

  1. Cook the potatoes in boiling water. You can cook them whole with their skins, or peel and cut them first. Drain well.
  2. Mash the potatoes with a fork, add the salt and the flour little by little. Mix with your hands until you have a nice supple dough. If your dough is not coming together because it is too crumbly,  you can add a few tablespoons of almond milk little by little. This can help if your potatoes are not starchy enough.
  3. Divide in small dough balls, and form long tubes of about 1cm of diameter by rolling your dough with your fingers on your counter. Don’t forget to sprinkle your work surface with some flour to avoid sticking.
  4. Cut in bite sized pieces. Press each gnocchi on a fork to add the typical gnocchi pattern. This is optional, but it’s fun and will help your gnocchi cook faster.
  5. Boil some water and add a few gnocchi at a time. Let cook until they come to the surface of the water. It is important to keep the water boiling.
  6. Eat with pesto, tomato sauce or with your favourite pasta topping. I served mine with some oyster mushrooms and a rosé sauce.

gnocchi2

For the lazy rosé sauce: in a sauce pan, combine 1 cup of almond milk with 2 tbs ketchup or tomato paste, 2 tbs almond powder and season to your taste. Bring to a boil and mix until it thickens. That’s it!

The contrast between the soft gnocchi and the crunchy mushrooms was really nice. The sauce brought a nice savoriness to everything and combined all the flavours. Definitively a recipe to try out when you have time and feel like having a special pasta dish. Let me know if you give this a try!