Friday evening and Sunday evening we usually have dinner rather late and I like to have something that can ready quickly with short cooking time, yet still with fresh vegetables. Pasta and gnocchi are usually my best picks for their short and simple cooking, and their versatility in terms of topping and arrangement. Recently I’ve been attracted by green leaves, but not necessarily spinach, and by trying novel associations. So here are two recipes of gnocchi and pasta that use greens. The meat is optional and can be easily removed for the gnocchi recipe and replaced by hard tofu in the pasta recipe for a vegan option.

Gnocchi with rucolla, basil and grilled bacon: for 2 people as a one-dish meal, you need a bundle of fresh basil and a bundle of rucolla, in Japan that would be a bag of each since they come conditioned in bags. You need fresh gnocchi for two (for homemade one check the recipe here), olive oil, salt pepper and additionally bacon and gratted parmegiano. Boil water for the gnocchi. In a pan grill the bacon if using any. Wash the rucolla and the basil, remove hard parts and cut roughly with scissors. One the gnocchi are boiled, in a large bowl add the gnocchi, the greens, olive oil, salt pepper and the bacon, stir well, serve immidiately. Add a bit of gratted parmegiano if you like.

Mizuna and chicken fettuccine: for this recipe for 2 you need: 2servings of fettuccine (fresh or dry); a large pack of mizuna fresh leaves. The younger the better. 100g of grounded chicken breast or 100g of drained hard (momen) tofu, olive oil, salt, pepper. Boil water for the pasta. In a pan heat some olive oil and cook the chiken or the tofu to obtain small crumbles. Wash the mizuna, remove the hardest parts. Cut in 3cm length segments. Add the mizuna in the pan, start with the bottom parts, keep the leafy parts for the end since they do not need so much cooking, add salt and pepper. Drain the pasta serve and add the topping. Add olive oil, salt, pepper, parmegiano to your liking. Have a good week!!!