This autumn I am all about butternut squash and A. loves it too, so I cook some many times a week as you can have seen already. The parisian sister is coming to Tokyo tomorrow for a week and so we had to prepare space for her at home, move a lot of furniture here and there, arrange lighting and make a cosy tiny space for her. It kept us busy for a long part of the evening before I started thinking about dinner, and so I needed a very easy and quick meal. In these situations, packed gnocchi (of course I prefer my homemade gnocchi but it is not always compatible with my schedule) are very handy, they cook very quickly and it is easy to accommodate them with any type of veggies. And of course butternut squash is no exception!!! So I prepared some gnocchi with a butternut squash and spices sauce: in a hot pan I put a bit of olive oil, add a large piece of butternut squash peeled and cut in big chunks, a ripe large tomato, black pepper, cardamon, nutmeg and cinnamon (for those who like some bacon). Cook until the juice is almost all gone. Boil the gnocchi in the mean time and serve, add just a few drops of olive oil. How do you like your gnocchi?
Quick dinner fix
It is very often that we come back home quite late from work, starving and tired. In that case I like to prepare what Japanese call a “one plate”. It is usually a composition of several unrelated elements all combined in one plate. In some restaurants the one plate can cover from starter to dessert!!! I don’t go that far, but it is a nice way to fix rapidly something for dinner.
* Saboten (http://www.ghf.co.jp/saboten_rest/) is a shop that sells “katsu” in various forms. They have a lot of veggie: asparagus, potato croquette, edamame, and porc: tonkatsu, hirekatsu… They are made on the spot, ingredients are chosen carefully, menu changes with season and they are always yummy. They have a few antenna shops in town. Since I never fry at home, it is a good option once in a while, and I know some that are always happy with these, but it means leaving work no mater than 21:00, if not there’s nothing remaining…