“Mom's” Guyanaed Pasta

Back in the states we used to cook a dish we called “Mom's Pasta” pretty regular. (Named after Chel's Mom). It was an amazing dish dealing with noodles, broccoli, olives, snap peas, bell pepper, italian sausage, and pine nuts with some olive oil and seasoning for flavor. (sometimes parmesan cheese) We had a craving for it recently maybe because it's been 18 months and our culinary minds have been stretched to the limits, or maybe we wanted a piece of home. Anyway, we had to modify the recipe a bit, but it came down to one of the most delicious and simple dishes we could possibly make.

Pasta
Onion
Garlic
Cut up (chipped as they say in Guyana)Bora (asian string beans)
Shaved Carrot
Cut Olives
Corn (we used canned)
Diced tomato
Olive Oil
Seasoning (Salt or Adobo or Bragg or whatever you want really)

Boil your pasta.

Cut up and Saute the onion and garlic in Olive Oil

Add the Chipped Bora and Carrot (a few minutes)

Add Corn and Olives

Add the Tomatoes

Stir in the cooked pasta. Add more olive oil if you want for a nice sauce and your seasoning.

Fry and stir for a few minutes (but not so long as the veggies start to wilt. You still want them to have a crunch.)

Serve.

Simple and delicious!

Gnocchi

Who doesn't love gnocchi? Well if you're not a big fan of potatoes, you probably don't. So it's been a while since we've posted some recipes, but fear not the Linden 4 still try to experiment and try new things Guyana style! Here is one of our most recent achievements...homemade Gnocchi!! In the states we wouldn't have thought it was possible for us to make homemade gnocchi (granted we never tried...and if we wanted some gnocchi we'd head down to Trader Joe's and grab a packet). But since Trader Joe's isn't down the street we had to get creative and courageous (and a little inspiration from Emily and TJ). In all reality gnocchi is quite simple and extremely satisfying...especially with a good sauce like a pesto or Alfredo...oh man I am getting hungry already...

2 pounds of potatoes
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 egg
salt
An Ice Bath

First, peel and dice up the potatoes. Then boil them until they are soft. Set aside the potatoes until they are cool (a couple hours? This is the time consuming part...maybe if you wanted to make the gnocchi that night, boil up the potatoes a earlier in the day or the night before. We put them in the fridge overnight)

After the potatoes are cooled, mash them. Then, create a little well in the middle of your mashed potatoes and pour the flour all around.

Put some water on to boil.

Make your Ice Bath.

Crack the egg and put some salt in the middle of the well of potatoes and scattered flour. Start mixing until it looks like a ball of dough. (it should be dry).

Break off balls of this dough and roll them into longish dowels that can easily be cut. (look below)

The dowel is on the left

After all the dough is doweled up, start flcking off 1-inch or so pieces of the gnocchi dough. (see below)

Place the little gnocchi balls in the boiling water. They should boil for a bout a minute. Then they will float to the top of the water. As the balls float to the top remove them from the water and place them in the ice bath.

Use all your dough! Now you have some gnocch!!

Serve with your choice of sauce!!!! This is Alfredo below!

You can also remove them from the bath and put them in the fridge after you toss them with canola oil.