Roast Chicken and Gnocchi

Good morning!
It's a beautiful clear day here in southern California. For those of you who have been trying to leave comments I have now enabled that. Sorry about that! But I don't want to talk about today just yet. I want to talk about yesterday.
Yesterday was Jono's day off. He has two a week, Wednesday and Saturday.  Most of the time those are the two days when we do any errands that need both of us. Yesterday was different. Yesterday we planed just to hangout together. And cook. We used to cook dinner together every night but once he started working we couldn't do that anymore. The simple pleasure of sitting down to dinner that you made with someone you love is something I treasure. So thats what we did. Well It turned out I did most of it because I got so excited and just started without him. But it turned out well.

As some of you know I am very critical of my cooking ability. Jono continues to roll his eyes at this and tell me I'm being ridiculous but I still do it. So for me to say that dinner turned out well is a big thing. Yes there are things I might do differently next time but overall it was good. I don't like to share recipes with you guys after trying them only once but this is an exception. We (I) made Souffleed Gnocchi and roast chicken with pancetta and olives, minus the olives. Sounds fancy right? well it's not. This is the type of food I miss having in Italy every summer. It is simple and all from scratch which makes it good. So I give you recipes!

Roast Chicken with pancetta and olives
From gourmet Italian kitchen
serves: 8
active time: 25 minutes
start to finish: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredents

2 Chickens (about 3 1/2 lb each), backbones cut out and each chicken cut into 12 pieces (wings, drumsticks, thighs, and each breast cut into 3)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped Thyme
1 Tbsp chopped Rosemary
1 Tbsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp hot red-pepper flakes
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 (1/4 inch thick) slices pancetta, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup dry white wine
24 oil-cured black olives

Preheat oven to 450f with rack in middle.

Toss chicken with oil, thyme, rosemary, sea salt, red-pepper flakes, and 1 teaspoon pepper, rubbing mixture into chicken.

Arrange chicken, skin side up, in 1 layer in a 18-by-13 inch heavy rimmed baking sheet. Scatter garlic and pancetta on top and roast until chicken begins to brown, about 20 minutes.

Drizzile wine over chicken and roast 8 mintues more.

Scatter olives over chicken and roast until skin is golden brown and chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes more.

Let stand for 10 minutes.

Notes: Now I did it a little differently. For one I didn't use olives. For another I did it over 2 days. I butchered my chicken (my first!) the night before and rubbed it with the oil mixture. I then put it in a casserole dish with a lid (you could use any dish that fits with a lid) and refrigerated it over night. It took about an hour for it to thaw the next day while the oven was heating up. You can also use any mix of thighs and breasts you want as long as they have the bone in. This saves the time of cutting up a whole bird (and the mess). For those of you who don't know Pancetta is Italian bacon. It comes round and you can find it in whole foods markets or trader joes I think. If you don't find 1/4 thick pieces that's fine go for the thinner and cut it up. Just add more.

Now here is the Gnocchi recipe! it goes great with the chicken but you can make it with anything. It also tastes great with a thick tomato sauce over it.

Souffleed Gnocchi
from Gourmet Italian Kitchen

serves: 6
Active time: 35 minutes
Start to Finish: 2 hours

Ingredents

3 cups whole milk
3/4 cup semolina (3 oz. sometimes labeled "semolina flour")
3 eggs
7 Tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
4 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Bring milk with 3/4 teaspoon salt to a simmer in a 2 to 3 quart heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add semolina in a slow stream, whisking, then simmer, stirring consantly with a wooden spoon, 12 minutes (mixture will be very stiff).

Remove from heat and stir in eggs 1 at a time, then stir in 6 tablespoons cheese and 3 tablespoons butter.

Spread into a 1/2 inch thick slab on an oiled baking sheet using a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then chill, uncovered, until cool to the touch, about 10 minutes.

Cut out rounds from gnocchi with cookie cutter dipped in cool water (incorporating scraps as you work) and gently transfer rounds (they will be VERY soft), slightly overlapping, to butter baking dish. chill gnocchi uncovered, 1 hour.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 450 f

Melt remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter and brush over gnocchi, then sprinkle with remaining tablespoon cheese. Bake in upper third of oven for 10 minutes, then switch dish to lower third of oven and continue to bake until gnocchi are slightly puffed and lightly browned, about 10 more minutes.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes: This I also prepared the day before. The gnocchi can be chilled up to one day after cut and placed into baking dish. You just cover it after 1 hour.

It all turned out so well that I may have to make It again today. I have fallen in love with the magazine it all came out of and am making two more of the recipes today. Almond biscotti and tiramisu.

Hope you all enjoy!
hugs+ kisses
mce