Eat More Neon Colored Food

beet-gnocchi.jpg, originally uploaded by minhi.

I found this recipe through Mark Bittman’s “The Best Recipes in the World” show on PBS. You can find the recipe on his website. Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson’s Gnochetti with Roasted Beets, Swiss Chard, Horse Radish. Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson is the chef/owner at the Boulder Colorado restaurant Frasca. Incidentally if you’re near Boulder, make it a point to stop by there’s great food there.

In the original recipe he uses Swiss Chard, however if you want to keep things a little simpler and you buy good beets with the greens still on you can use the beet greens instead of buying chard. I’ve never made the gnochetti as i’m too lazy, i opt for frozen gnocchi or in a pinch the shelf stable gnocchi from Trader Joe’s. For the horseradish, you can get it at most ethnic stores, as well as Whole Foods. I usually leave it out as i always forget to buy it, same thing for the smoked ricotta (who the cheese person at Whole Foods told me does not exist, but it does). I use a nice parmigano for the saltiness.As you can see it’s really open you can substitute whatever you like for pretty much everything except the beets. The magic of this dish is in how the beets color the gnocchi, i’ve gotten more compliments for this dish then anything i’ve ever made. I guess people don’t eat neon colored food often. It’s a great appetizer/starter course, i find it gets a little heavy if you serve too big of a portion–the gnocchi is deceptively heavy. It’s also vegetarian friendly and if you can figure out how to deal with the butter sauce (you could try olive oil, or even a dressing of some sort) and leave out the cheese you could make it vegan.
As you can see from the pictures, you can use any colored beets you’d like to make it. The taste for either is basically the same.