Happy Birthday Julia!

I have been concentrating so much on our Pomodori e Vino cooking challenge, where we are cooking our way through Marcella Hazan's 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking', that I almost forgot that Julia Childs birthday is August 15th. For the past several years we have honored her on her birthday... this year Lisa at Champaign Taste is hosting again.

In many ways Marcella can be compared to Julia, both have taken techniques in classic cooking and brought them to the forefront of American kitchens. One of course Italian, the other French.

I decided to compare the two recipes for gnocchi. Here I posted our experience with Marcella's light and fluffy gnocchi, made simply with equal parts potatoes and flour.

In Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', there is also a recipe for gnocchi. This recipe calls for a Pate a Choux, or a puff pastry paste made of flour, butter and eggs. Typically, a little more fluff~ the eggs puff a little when cooking and form a gnocchi that is more like a dumpling.
Gnocchi de Pommes
Julia Child's Potato Gnocchi
1 pound baking potatoes
1 cup warm pate a choux
1/3 cup grated swiss cheese
Peel and quarter the potatoes, boil in salted water until tender. Press through a ricer.
Beat the warm pate a choux (a mixture of 1 cup water, 4 Tbs butter, 3/4 cup flour; cooked to a thick paste. Then beat in 4 eggs until smooth) into the potatoes. Add grated cheese.
Roll the dough in your hands to make small ovals.
Slip the gnocchi into simmering water and cook until the double in size.
Serve with warmed butter or cheese sauce.

My hard drive crashed like a fallen souffle... so you get the same photo again. Sorry!!!

2 Queens of the Kitchen... both extraordinary!
Y'all enjoy,
Sandi