Day 22 - Gno More Gnocchi, Gno More, Gno More...

So as expected, with Lorenzo in house, it was a chaotic shit show of a day. Pardon the language, but it is true. We started off by prepping some items that Carlo, the sous chef, made sure we were to take care of in his absence today. Boiling potatoes for gnocci, prepping ravioli filling (secretly from Chef), and making bread. It is a known fact, that chef has a tendency, when making items, to throw whatever is in arms reach into the mix. Hence, why Carlo wanted us to prep the ravioli filing on the sly, which we accomplished. However, as Carlo had expected, the gnocchi did not make it out so lucky. As we normally use a recipe that is very simple; flour, potatoes, eggs, and salt, the recipe today was changed by adding butter, parsley (stem and all), parmesan cheese and whole pink peppercorns. This all gets ran through the meat grinder and then mixed in with the flour and eggs to make a ‘dough’. Mind you, pink peppercorns are smaller than the grinder holes, so I am positive someone will get a whole peppercorn in their future dish and possibly some parsley stems too.

Well, after the 6 kilos (13.2 Lbs) of potatoes were mixed with all of that, I had 6 sheet pans of gnocchi that I spent the whole afternoon and lunch service rolling, cutting, and flouring. Che Palle!!!

Dinner service was interesting, considering, the only 2 customers again were Tylers Dad and grandpa. We also prepped for the cooking class chef is teaching tomorrow. The University of Alabama - Birmingham has a contingent of 28 students. 14 will cook in the morning and the other half in the evening. We basically prepped all the sheet pans for each course so they are ready to go in the morning.

I made family meal this lunch and finally got some praise for the dish; Penne pasta with pomadoro sauce with prosciutto and spicy pepper oil. Tasty! A schedule was also posted for the back of the house today. So it looks like my day off this week is Tuesday, although I am holding this as tentative at the moment. We will see how tomorrow goes, it should prove to be interesting.

Ciao - Ciao

Spicy Penne (Serves 8)

1 Kilo of Penne Pasta (2.2 lbs) - Boil till ready

3 hefty slices of prosciuttoo; sliced and diced

3 cups of prepared basic tomato sauce (ideally homemade)

3 tsp. Armageddon Oil (hot pepper oil) Can be adjusted to be as hot as you prefer.

1/2 cup Milk

12 leaves fresh Basil; chiffonade

Parmesan cheese to top

Add olive oil to hot pan, add prosciutto and cook for 2 minutes, add tomato sauce. Bring to simmer, add milk and hot pepper oil. Mix well and simmer a few minutes longer till your desired sauce consistency. Add basil. Add cooked pasta and stir all together. Plate and top with cheese.