Grill Up An Easy Elegant Meal This Summer
- hey, guys, i'm backthis week with another real time recipe for you. this one is going out to feline overload. you left me a commenta couple of weeks ago wanting to know a differentway to make gnocchi. sounds like you're in a bit ofa rut making it the same way week after week and i'm gonna show you a new way to try it. i really love this recipebecause it's quick, it's easy,
it's inexpensive and again itcomes together in 15 minutes or less, starting now. first thing we're gonna dois get our water boiling. now when you're boiling waterand you wanna save time, two tricks for ya. one, start with water that's already hot. i know that sounds like common sense, but you'd be surprised. if you start with waterthat's already hot,
it's gonna get boiling a lot quicker. then, we're gonna adda little bit of salt. that is a great way to get your pasta to be nicely flavored. the other tip for ya isto put a lid on your pot. that's gonna help thatwater boil up a lot quicker than if you don't have a lid. okay, so while that'sboiling, we're gonna get over here and prep our vegetables.
so, this dish has three ofmy most favorite vegetables. they are all the italian,heat loving vegetables. they all grow in thesame area of my garden. there is that expression whatgrows together, goes together. so, that's a good thing to remember. the other tip when sauteeing vegetables is you always want to start with the one that's gonna take the longest. for us here, we've gota red pepper, a zucchini
and some tomatoes. the one that's going to take the longest is the red pepper. i'm gonna show you how to cut a red pepper that's really easy. what you're gonna do firstis lob off each side. the seeds' going. then just clean out any ofthe seeds and shake 'em out. sometimes you find littlethings in the pepper.
yeah, you don't want that. (laughs) okay, and then, just cut the bottom off... and the top. you're gonna use all thesegood bits of the pepper, you don't wanna waste that. then, what you're leftwith is the core and top. easiest way to cut a pepper. okay. another trick when trying to cut things
and keep it quick isyou want to dice them. vegetables will just cookquicker if they're smaller. we're going to cut these intoa nice dice. just like that. cut them up. now this recipe will feedthree people comfortably because there are a lotof vegetables in it. the more vegetable you have,the more filler you have and the more that everybody feels full. also, gnocchi is extremely filling.
it's delicious but it can be a bit heavy, so it is good to cut it abit with some vegetables. there we go. then we're just gonagive that a quick dice. i also love this recipebecause it reminds me of when i had my first apartment. i had moved in with my sister. my sister and i are 13 months apart, so they call us irish twinsbecause we look a lot alike
and we act a lot alike. especially just 13 months apart. we had no money and we were always looking for something that was quick and filling and we would always gofor the gnocchi pesto. this recipe brings backa lot of memories for me. okay, so we're justgonna give that a dice. then, we wanna get thatgoing because we want the peppers to be cookingwhile we're prepping
the rest of the vegetables. you're gonna add alittle bit of olive oil. you're gonna get that going. and you're gonna add your peppers. don't you love our new camera angle? we now have the cook top,so you can see much better and that is all thanks toall of you guys that left me all the comments the last time saying you couldn't see in the pot.
i felt so bad, i wanted tomake sure you could see. now we are going to cut our zucchini. the zucchini is the secondfirmest vegetable that we have. that's why we want to cut that next because that also needs alittle more time to cook than the tomato. here is my favorite way to cut a zucchini. you're going to lob off the stem and a little bit of the end.
then, you're gonna cut it in half. then, cut that part in half. then, you wanna put the flat side down. it's always easier to cutsomething when it's stable. you just wanna stabilize it like that. then, we're going tocut little match sticks. then, that will allowus to cut a nice dice. this is what we wantbecause a nice dice is gonna cook a lot quicker than a big chop, okay?
so, off we go. you can hear our peppers sizzling away. all right. there, see, with this recipethere is a lot of multi-tasking going on, so you gotta keepyour eyes on your peppers. that's okay. at this point, you wantto check our water. see, once it starts to steam and bubble, that's good enough for the gnocchi.
the gnocchi, unlike otherpasta, cooks very, very quickly. that's way i love it especiallyfor a week night meal. it's not like a pastawhere you really want rapid, boiling water. just a nice, littlesimmer will do the trick. then, we're just goingto pour it in there. making sure i don't burn myself. so, we're gonna put the lid on and we're gonna let that cook.
the zucchini now are going to go in. beautiful vegetables. then, we're going to add a little pepper. and a little bit of salt. now while that's cooking,we're going to get on chopping the tomatoes. the thing with tomatoesthat you really need to know is you don't want to putthem in the refrigerator. tomatoes hate to be refrigerated.
it just really ruins their texture. when you go to the storeand you buy a tomato, the best thing to do isto keep it on your counter or your windowsill to ripen or if you get theselittle cherry tomatoes, i really recommend keepingthem in these little baskets, so you can kinda see. that way they're wellventilated, so you're not gonna get any moldy tomatoes.
they'll ripen as they sit out. they're just gonna be so much better than if you pop them in the fridge. just a little tip for ya. now if you're looking atall of this and you think, well that looks perfectlylovely, but i don't have time to cut all these vegetables. i totally get it and thereare nights where i don't have time to cut up vegetableseither, so what i will do
is i will make this recipewith just the tomatoes. it's really good evenwith just the tomatoes. they're quick, they're easy and sometimes i don't even cut them, i'lljust throw them in whole. if you're really pressed for time, you have my permission, you can do that. we're done with our tomatoes. we are going to throw those in the pot. now we have all of our vegetables.
looking beautiful, okay. okay, now it's time to add the pesto. i love homemade pesto,it is great, but really, store bought is perfectly fine. especially if you buy itin a jar, you can keep it in your pantry and it's always good to go. but i will say this, if you open it, you do have to refrigerate it. i usually will do two to three good
tablespoons of pesto. but i really love pesto. but you could just do one. the idea really is justto coat the vegetables. pesto, because there ischeese in it, will kind of burn if the flame is too hot. you want to keep it low. if you wanted to makethis vegan, you could by just using a pesto thatdoesn't have cheese in it.
the best way to do thatis to make your own. you could just take somefresh basil, whirl it up in a food processor withabout a clove of garlic and some pinenuts and then slowly add some olive oil. that will then create abeautiful pesto that has no cheese in it. if you're vegan and you don't eat cheese, you could still enjoy this dish.
okay, so that is that. then, the final step is justto add a clove of garlic. i'm a big fan of the garlic press. it makes mincing garlic somuch easier and quicker. see how quick that is? which is great for weeknightmeal when you don't have a lot of time for chopping. okay, now we are goingto check on our gnocchi which is perfectly done.
see how that timed out so well? by the time you cut up all your vegetables and they're done, the gnocchi is done. all the more reason tostart with the gnocchi and multi-task. that's the secret to aquick weeknight meal. another tip that i loveabout this is this is one of my favorite kitchen tools. it is a spider strainer.
you can get them at a kitchenstore for a few dollars. watch this, we're not evengoing to use a colander. you don't even have to. you're just gonna let the gnocchi drain and pop it into your pot. if some of that watertransfers to the sauce that is okay because that water is filled with lots of nice starchthat's going to just help your sauce become smooth and delicious.
we're gonna get all of that. beautiful. you just wanna coat that well to make sure that all of the pesto ismixing with all the gnocchi and all of your beautiful vegetables. okay, this is done. so, now, getting ready to plate. what we're going todo, we're going to take a shallow bowl. we're gonna spoon out someof this pesto gnocchi.
i like to make sure thati get enough veggies in each serving, right? final step is we're goingto add a little bit more of parmesan cheese. just because cheese is always good. a little bit more fresh black pepper. then, a little bit of sliced basil on top.
just because it's aweeknight meal doesn't mean it can't look pretty. we're also gonna garnish. (dinging) there you have it, another weeknight meal in under 15 minutes or less. i hope you guys will give this one a try and let me know what you think. i think you'll findthat this one will soon
become a part of your weekly rotation. i'll see you soon, bye.
