Which cuisine are you blaspheming today?

Today I am looking in an Italian cookbook at a recipe for squash-ricotta gnocchi. I will abuse it by using pumpkin, rather than butternut squash, and cottage cheese, rather than ricotta. I'm going to drain/squeeze the pumpkin, and drain the cottage cheese, whirl it in my food processor and possibly add an extra egg for richness. It will probably taste nothing like the original, but I'm hoping for edible and possibly tasty. Of course I will be adding sage, flour, butter, salt and Parmesan (the good kind) as well. Possibly will toss with pettite peas, but that remains to be decided after I find out if the gnocchi thing works. If not, I'll probably add more liquid and make fritters instead.

The author of this cookbook insists that I used imported authentic ingredients, but if I stick to that rule, I may as well throw the cookbook out. I have neither the time or money for that.

Recipes are only guidelines, MrsLee!

Buttrtnuts are considered a type of pumpkin in Australia anyway. You do whatever you need to do!

I won't arrest you, MrsLee. Probably, the most stringent cookbook I have owned is Paula Wolfert's Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco in which she recommends making the pastry for bstilla by hand on a heated upside down cast iron pan.

I just learned today that she is going to do a revised edition of that book for contemporary readers for Ecco Press, so we shall see what shortcut she suggests for bstilla in due time.

I made risotto with brown rice. A mild abuse, probably.

I once made passable paella starting with a frozen chicken bag dinner, adding in tomatoes, frozen mixed seafood, spices, etc. Certainly not as good as fresh (Or the usual sausage seafood combo) but it worked in a pinch.

If the author is telling you that butternut squash is more 'authentic' than pumpkin in Italian cooking, then perhaps their book deserves throwing away.

v

As OtherHalf is allergic to the whole onion/garlic/Allium family, I tend to abuse any recipe I come across. I can't remember the last time I faithfully followed the directions. Recipes aren't rules, they're more like guidelines.

I expect butternut is recommended because it's drier than some other varieties of pumpkin (and of course it's a lot easier to cut up than say a Queensland Blue), but surely it won't make that much difference. As for telling you to use imported ricotta - if it's a translated book that's not an adapted American edition, I can't see why you shouldn't use a local substitute.

I always follow a recipe faithfully the first time, but after that I don't hesitate to modify it. I've been cooking long enough to have confidence in my own judgement. Even the divine Stephanie Alexander can be improved on! And some recipes, even in books you've paid money for, can be just plain awful.

I think in this case, butternut would have been better. I squeezed most of the water out (it was very watery because it had been frozen), the texture of the gnocchi was light and tender, but they really did taste a bit too "pumpkin" for me. I'd try them with the sausage ragu alternate recipe, but I've decided that gnocchi, like tamales, are probably more fun to make with a kitchen full of women (or at least another helper). Not difficult really, just tedious after the excitement wears off.

I have no problem altering recipes, in fact, I have to say that I took a bit of evil pleasure in it, saying to this author, "Take THAT, Bibba!" Personally, I'm quite proud of California's local ingredients from their cheese and wine to their vegetables, olive oils and vinegar. I've not heard of a substitute for prosciutto or some of the other meats though. I mean a high quality substitute. Ham is a given, but it is not prosciutto. :)

#9
For some things I have substituted finely sliced kaiserflesch for prosciutto, but there are other dishes where it wouldn't work. I must say that I am amazed that you can't get locally manufactured prosciutto. Do you live out in the countryside where it's hard to get other than basic groceries?

10 - A small town. I haven't explored the markets thoroughly, but the only prosciutto I've seen has been imported and very spendy. I usually don't bother because my family is not into authenticity, they are into eating lots. :)

We have one local butcher, but I don't think he does fancy things like making his own meat products, etc. He is trying to build his clientele by organics and range fed and free range and so on. Again, expensive.

#11
Your butcher sounds admirable. Perhaps you could support him by buying the cheaper cuts, which will still be preferable to more expensive cuts of mediocre meat. I haven't looked back since I discovered beef cheek! My butcher makes his own sausages, ham and bacon, and smokes a range of products. But he gets in salami and prosciutto and that sort of thing.

However, I am lucky that, living in the big city, there is no trouble getting just about anything at all in the way of foodstuffs (and the range of locally produced cheese and smallgoods is wonderful). I know that once you get out into regional centres, not to mention the bush, you can be in trouble - just getting a decent cup of coffee is a challenge.