A few developments with regard to the food
I'm planning to bring to a New Year's Day party.
1. A friend who wanted to go, for whom I obtained
an invitation, has dropped out. My original plan
was to make gnudi, then the plan changed to him
and his wife making the gnudi, and I would make
wonton. After he dropped out, I thought I would
make the gnudi AND two kinds of wonton.
2. The eBay seller of the silver basket I was
going to use to serve the wonton has informed me
this morning that she forgot all about it, and
will send it today. She could have sent it a week
ago, in which case I'd have it already, but now
there's no chance I'll have it in time for the
party. Maybe that's for the best -- it may have
been too ambitious to plan simultaneous landings
on the Moon and Mars. One is difficult enough.
By the way, the silver serving tray with glass
insert did arrive. It's never been used before,
as evidenced by the sealed cellophane envelope
containing the handle for the lid and the attachment
screw, and the little bit of tape with a little piece
of gift wrap attached to the outside of the original
box. Probably a wedding present. Hope the divorce
went well! :-)
3. Lidia had a program on TV this morning in which
she made gnudi. I made copious notes, as well as
visiting her web site:
http://recipes.lidiasitaly.com/Produ...?productID=623
I note some variances between the program on TV
and the on-line recipe. No chicken stock was used
on TV -- only the gnudi water was used for making
the sauce. The TV show didn't explain anything
about how to prep the spinach, but the on-line
recipe goes into great detail. On TV, she only
once mentioned the herb used in the sauce, and
I missed it. The on-line recipe is explicit that
it is sage.
Variances from the recipe sf posted from Giada De
Laurentiis include the latter using frozen spinach,
not draining the ricotta before use, and using a
prepared marinara sauce. For sure, I do not want
to use any tomato-based sauce on my gnudi. Lidia
used a sage-butter sauce, and that's exactly what
I was looking for (but did not know it until a few
minutes ago). Thank you, Lidia!