Cauliflower & Mushroom Cream Sauce (Cooking Class)

I posted about a gnocchi cooking class that I just attended with my husband and friends. It was hosted by Chef Alex Staab who is a local KC chef specializing in Italian cuisine. If you are interested in taking any classes from him go to Eventbrite and search for cooking classes under his name.

This is one of the sauces that was paired with the gnocchi that we hand-made that evening. This was my favorite of the two sauces first off because I love CREAM. Its not the prettiest addiction, but its real. Plus who doesn't love mushrooms?!? If you aren't a cauliflower fan, this will change your mind. Just trying roasted cauliflower on its own deleted all those horrible memories of steamed versions from my youth...and sad raw versions of cauliflower seen in the standard veggie tray brought to house parties (where we all know the cauliflower is the last sad remaining veggie on the plate). Roasted is the way to go.

The sauce is rich, creamy of course, and very earthy due to the mushrooms, and the cauliflower is a bit sweet and milky which makes every bite just heavenly.

And here's how its done...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 oz mushrooms (we used Cremini)
• 4 oz cauliflower trimmed into small 1 inch pieces
• 3 sprigs of fresh tyme
• Parmesan cheese
• 3 tbsp of butter
• 1 cup of white wine
• Sea salt
• Olive oil
• Truffle oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Toss the cauliflower with 1 tbsp of olive oil and roast in 350 degree oven until charred in spots, not burnt. Pull from oven and set aside. 
2. In a large saute pan over medium heat melt the butter and add the thyme sprigs
3. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Once butter starts to turn slightly brown, add the cauliflower and mushrooms and season w/ salt & pepper again. 
5. Remove thyme sprigs with tongs and throw away.
6. Cook over medium heat with mushrooms and cauliflower for about 3 minutes. Then deglaze the pan with white wine.
• Deglazing is a big fancy word that means "pouring cold liquid into a hot pan to get the bits of burnt food off the bottom of the pan".
7. Once the wine has reduced, and you can't smell the alcohol anymore (about 3-5 minutes) add the cream and cook until it boils. 
8. Drizzle with truffle oil and stir
9. Reduce heat to low and grate in the Parmesean cheese
10. Toss in the pasta and serve hot
11. Drizzle with a bit more truffle oil

Before we get started, taking a wine pic!

Step 1: Roasting cauliflower

Mushrooms & Truffle Oil

Step 2 - melting butter, before thyme was added

Step 7: adding cream to mushroom/cauliflower mix

Step 7: adding cream to mushroom/cauliflower mix

FINAL PRODUCT!

Sage Brown Butter Sauce w/ Walnuts (Cooking Class)

I learned this recipe by attending a gnocchi cooking class hosted by Chef Alex Staab, which is a separate entry on the blog. If you are interested in taking any classes in the KC area, visit Eventbrite and search under his name.

This brown butter sauce is unreal. Breaking down this complicated terminology (insert sarcasm here) a 'brown butter sauce' is where you allow the butter to brown to bring out its nutty rich flavor in a different way than it tastes raw. Sage, walnuts and Parmesan cheese are added to the family to complete this rich and savory sauce. Its so delicate, but delicious and goes perfectly with gnocchi and any other pasta you may want to toss in. I just wanted to keep dipping my spoon in it when we were allowed a taste.

Its a much easier task than it sounds, just be sure you pay close attention to the heat and the sauce so it doesn't burn. If so it will turn quickly to a bitter mess. No fun.

Here we go...

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 tbsp of butter
• 20 fresh sage leaves 
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Pasta water (this is water reserved after pasta has been cooked in it)
• Sea salt
• Ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saute pan heat the walnuts until you smell the nutty aroma.
2. Add butter to the pan and be sure to keep the butter moving around the pan or it will burn
3. While the butter is melting add 15 of the sage leaves along with a pinch of salt & pepper
4. Once the butter is brown, a light brown color, not dark brown add 4-6oz of pasta water to keep the butter from browning too much
5. Grate the Parmesan cheese into the sauce and taste to see if S or P is needed
6. Add the pasta or gnocchi to the pan and toss to combine
7. Plate the pasta and garnish with more cheese and remaining sage leaves

Step 1: Toasting walnuts in large pan

Separating sage leaves from the stems

Step 2 & 3- Adding butter to pan, then adding sage

Step 4: Butter beginning to brown - next add pasta water

Step 6- Adding gnocchi to pan

Rebecca likes cheese, so she took over the garnishing of the gnocchi

FINAL PRODUCT!

Bruschetta (Cooking Class)

I mentioned all the details of a recent cooking class I attended in my initial post about potato gnocchi, but to give you the quick 'skinny', Chef Alex Staab is a local Kansas City chef who taught us how to make gnocchi, two sauces, and bruschetta at a local commercial kitchen. It was not only delicious, but a very fun, wine-filled, and educational evening. If you live here in KC and want to attend any classes, search his name at Eventbrite. 

This bruschetta recipe is not only very simple, but its bursting with flavors - I especially love the tangy lemon, zesty garlic and the spicy pepper notes from the arugula. It is definitely a crowd pleaser. As soon as we had our bruschetta in hand, the room fell silent. I've never tried a bruschetta with red peppers to replace the tomatoes, but it was an excellent idea to switch it up and surprise the tastebuds.

Onto deliciousness....

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 loaf farm-to-market bread cut into 1/2 inch slices (we used ciabatta)
• 3 large red bell peppers
• 2 lemons
• 3 balls of mozzarella cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic peeled
• EVOO
• 4 cups of baby arugula
• Sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Roast the 3 red peppers on a grill, open flame, or in oven until completely black - I mean 100% black on outside. Pull from heat and set into a bowl, cover with saran wrap until ready to use. 
2. Drizzle the slices of bread with olive oil - on both sides. Grill until thy are nice and charred, but not burnt. Like toast. 
3. While bread is still hot rub garlic onto both sides of the bread
4. Peel the black skin from the peppers, having them super black makes them easier to peel. Remove all seeds and chop into small 1/2 inch pieces. Place pieces into large mixing bowl.
5. To the mixing bowl add the lemon zest from both lemons, the juice from the two lemons, about 2 tbsp of EVOO and about 1 tsp of sea salt.
6. Crumble the mozzarella cheese into the bowl so its in pieces no larger than 1 inch
7. Mix all ingredients in the bowl and test to see if more salt is needed. 
8. Top each piece of bread with a heaping pile of the bruschetta mixture.

Step 2 - Grilling ciabatta bread

Step 3 - Rubbing garlic on bread

Step 4: Peeling & cutting red peppers

Step 4- Cutting peppers and cheesin' up for the camera

Roasted red peppers cut and ready for mix

Baby arugula

Step 5- adding zest, lemon and salt to red peppers

Step 8 - After mixture has been tossed Alex is placing on ciabatta bread

FINAL PRODUCT!

Potato Gnocci (Cooking Class)

A few years ago my husband and I were introduced to Chef Alex Staab who at the time was the head chef at Bella Napoli Italian restaurant in Kansas City. This is a neighborhood restaurant that we frequent often as their food is simple, classic, and unpretentious. Comforting just as Italian food should be.

Alex is now in the process of opening his own restaurant, and in the meantime is teaching local cooking classes in Kansas City. The commercial kitchen space Alex uses for these classes is the MKA kitchen which is a professional culinary group that focuses on menu development for a variety of retailers and restaurants across the globe. Amazing amounts of talent cook here and I was thrilled to be even a tiny part of it. If you are interested in taking any KC cooking classes, visit Eventbrite and search for classes under his name.

We went to the gnocchi class on a Friday night with two close friends, and this was by far the best class I've been to. It was $50 per person for a 3 hour class which included lots of wine, 4 recipes, dinner, hands-on experience and we met a lot of really nice people. In addition to learning how to make gnocchi - a potato based pasta - we learned recipes for bruschetta, and two sauces (brown butter sage & creamy mushroom & cauliflower) to accompany the gnocchi.

Gnocchi, when prepared correctly, has a light and creamy texture...while still being firm like a pasta. Often I've had gnocchi and its heavy and dense - nope nope nope. That is not how gnocchi should be, and if you've had it that way, please pay close attention to this SUPER easy recipe so you'll never eat gnocchi that way again!

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 russet potatoes (2 lbs total)
• 2/3 lb of '00' flower. This flour is extra fine. Le 5 Stagioni is the type we used. 
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place potatoes with skin in a pot of cold salted water.
2. Bring to a boil and continue until they are fork tender. 
3. Once tender, remove from water and peel. Be careful, they are warm...but do this while the potatoes are warm.
4. Run potatoes through a potato ricer and form into a small pile
5. Make a well in the center of the pile and drop in the egg and egg yolk
6. Sprinkle flower across entire pile and the well where the eggs are resting
7. Begin to fold the potatoes, the flour, and eggs to start to form a dough. Again, this will still be warm so be careful! Add more flour if the dough is too wet, or a bit of water if the dough is too dry. Dough should be smooth and slightly sticky - like play dough, not mashed potatoes. 
8. Slice a 2 inch piece of dough off of the larger dough ball. 
9. Place flour on your work surface and roll with both hands into long 1/4 inch ropes, and then slice into 1 inch size pieces
10. Place the pieces on a floured cookie sheet until you have completed the entire dough ball
11. Once all dough is formed into 1 inch pieces, take them one by one and roll them onto the back of a fork or using a gnocchi board. 
• The goal is to indent texture onto the gnocchi so they hold the sauce better. Don't be hard on yourself here, there is no perfect gnocchi - as long as it has texture...you are good to go. 
12. Once you have impressed texture to all of the gnocchi, put them into boiling water until they float to the top of the water's surface.
13. Once the gnocchi are done floating to the top, strain them out with a hand strainer.
14. At this point you can either put them directly into the sauce you've prepared and serve immediately - OR you can cool them to serve later that day, or later in the week. If you choose to not use them immediately, place them on a clean cookie sheet, drizzle liberally with olive oil and when you are ready to cook them - follow step #12. 
15. Gnocchi can be kept in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Potatoes just pulled from boiling water

Step 2 - peeling potatoes after they've cooked in boiling water

Step 3- pushing potatoes through potato ricer

Steps 5 & 6- Making well, dropping in eggs & topping with flour

Step 7 - Forming potatoes, egg & flour into dough

Step 9 - Rolling gnocchi dough into long ropes

Making a mess! 

Rebecca and I rolling dough

Step 9: Slicing dough ropes into 1 inch pieces

Step 11 - using a fork

Step 11 - using a gnocchi board

Step 13- placing gnocchi into boiling water 

Step 14- drizzling with oil to serve gnocchi later in the evening vs. serving immediately

FINAL PRODUCT:
- check out the brown butter sauce & creamy cauliflower & mushroom sauce we also made during class