stop trying

Just be. Don’t mess around, pretending, playing at life. Don’t put everything off, but don’t do everything at once, either.

Walk through the rain for a whole morning, letting people stare at the crazy girl who hasn’t got an umbrella and isn’t wearing shoes. Take yourself out for breakfast because you want to go out for breakfast and you are worth the time it takes to get there.

Take and afternoon and bake a cake, even if it doesn’t quite come out right or doesn’t quite taste like you thought it would.

Listen to music, watch a fantastic movie, call your friend. Call. Call.

Write a thank you note because thank yous are overrated and outdated. Dance in the rain. Say hello to that guy on the train.

Believe in yourself.

Take your chances.

Help someone else.

Don’t just walk past.

Stop trying. Just be.

And make that cake.

*oh hey, I know I’ve been really really lazy with recipes and such. I am sorry. This one itself was kinda a flop, and I think perhaps I should have measured it better, but hey. It’s my day off, ok?

ricotta gnocchi and the most amazing tomato sauce

Although I had originally planned a whole host of things to do today – washing, baking; general wholesome, homemaking things like that – sometimes plans get changed. SO instead of baking a cake, I made gnocchi with tomato sauce.

Gnocchi is my favourite type of pasta ever. I love it. I also love fresh ricotta, although I have no way of knowing if that’s what was used in this.

No, I didn’t wimp out and buy gnocchi (as if you could buy ricotta gnocchi anyway… I’ll have to check that actually…) but I also didn’t make this ALL by myself. I work at a cafe, and we serve lasagne. We make it ourselves and there was some leftover bechamel sauce with parsley, ricotta and cheddar mixed in (which tasted amazing on its own incidentally… I bet the lasagne was even better.) I got to take it home because I’m awesome, and I turned it into ricotta gnocchi by adding flour.

Thus, I don’t have a recipe for the amazing gnocchi. I do apologise. I suggest that you start with a basic bechamel sauce, add ricotta, finely chopped parsley, a little bit of grated cheddar and a whole lot of flour. When it’s kinda sticky but dough-y, scoop up teaspoonfuls and drop into boiling, salted water. When they float, let them cook about a minute more and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon; put them in a colander to drain, then serve with this.

Ah, tomato sauce. Add sugar? Salt? Red wine, garlic, tomato paste, basil, oregano, fresh tomato, olive oil… No. The very first time I read Smitten Kitchen was for this sauce, and, frankly, I’ve never looked back – neither for tomato sauce nor my favourite food blog. This stuff is amazing.

I’ll let Deb tell you all about it, but just so you know – once you’ve started, you can’t stop. It’s been on Amateur Gourmet with Adam, Orangette with Molly, Rachel Eats with, well, Rachel…Marcella Hazan, you clearly are a genius.

Make it. And then tell me about it. And then dance in the summer rain.