The pièce de résistance for my 2010 Christmas Eve menu was Beef Wellington, and I was serving mushroom soup as the first course, so I wanted an appetizer that would go with the menu but would not include pastry or mushrooms. That’s harder to do than you’d think – so I decided to look through my cookbooks and see what I could find. I hit on the idea of making a pipérade while paging through Gerard Hirigoyen’s The Basque Kitchen. I’d eaten a pipérade before at Hirigoyen’s namesake restaurant and I had quite enjoyed it.
I followed Hirigoyen’s recipe, with a few modifications. His recipe called for Anaheim chilies, and all the ones I could find at two supermarkets were green – but the pipérade I had @ Pipérade featured red chilies, and the chilies shown on the picture next to the recipe for the pipérade in Hirigoyen’s book were also red, so I decided to use red bell peppers instead. I later found out by reading The Cooks Thesaurus that Anaheim chilies are, indeed, green. They turn red when they mature and are then called chile colorado or California red chile. I’m not sure if Hirigoyen meant that those chilies should be used on this recipe. No matter, it worked well enough with bell peppers.
The original recipe called for 6 eggs. I had meant to add them, but by the fourth egg it as clear that the concoction was waaaay too eggy. Indeed, if I was to make this again I’d only add 1 egg, 2 tops (and the recipe below has been modified to show this). Finally, I added some chopped prosciutto to the final product. Pipérade is traditionally served with a slice of Bayonne ham, but I wasn’t concerned enough about authenticity to go searching for that. The prosciutto I got at the deli counter @ Lucky wasn’t very good, though, so I recommend you stay away from it.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the recipe:
Pipérade

As my frequent readers know, I have a hate-hate relationship with vegetables. We were a meat and gnocchi family when I was growing up, but once in a while my parents decided that we needed to eat vegetables. They would then proceed to make puré de espinacas, or spinach puree – a combination of boxed mashed potatoes and boiled spinach (or most often Swiss chard, as it was significantly cheaper) put in the electric blender until a disgusting green mush was formed. They would then force us to eat it – and I do mean force us. They’d threaten us, hit us and even physically close our mouths if we didn’t eat it. More than once we ended up throwing it up (which only made them madder). This is definitely one of my childhood traumas, and as a result of it my siblings and I don’t eat vegetables (my youngest sister, born much later and not subjected to such torture is a happy veggie eater).
Slowly, however, I’ve been trying to overcome this trauma – making myself eat roots, mushrooms, salads and the like. But cooked veggies have been difficult – until a few months ago when, prompted by moans of pleasure by my fellow diners at a girl’s nights out at Mua in Oakland, I tried their version of collard greens and fell in love. The soupy, softish veggies had been cooked with bacon (and I don’t know what else) and had a very strong smoky flavor that I loved. I wanted to make them myself, and Christmas Eve seemed to be the perfect opportunity.
I didn’t find Mua’s recipe, but I hoped this one from epicurious.com would be close enough. Alas, it wasn’t. The resulting greens were pretty good – I still ate them – but they didn’t have the smokyness and didn’t end up with a broth. I enjoyed them well enough during dinner, but nobody had seconds and we didn’t eat the leftovers.
I followed the recipe below closely, but I used half as much collard greens (4 lbs is way too much, even 2 lbs were more than twice as much as we needed for 6 people eating it as a side). If I made this recipe again, I’d probably also use more bacon.
Collard Greens with Red Onions and Bacon

I was searching for a starch to go with my Beef Wellington for my Christmas Eve 2010 dinner and I wanted something different. This Butternut Squash Gnocchi recipe got great reviews and had the advantage that I could start preparations the day before. It was a bit time consuming to make, but pretty simple and the results were quite good. The gnocchi hit a good point between denseness and lightness – even though most of them were rolled by my 6 and 8 year old daughters, novices at this art -, they were subtly spiced and tasted very good. They are very rich in the butter, however, so I think they work best as a side dish. I’d make them again, I think.
Note that I doubled the original recipe, both because I thought I’d need more gnocchi than I did (I served less than half of what I made) and because the smallest butternut squashes at the supermarket were 2lbs. Also note that the original recipe says to serve with additional Parmesan cheese, I thought they were best without it.
Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter
-1 2lb butternut squash
-1 Tbsp. olive oil
-1 1/2lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
-1 cup Parmesan cheese
-2 eggs, beaten
-1 Tbsp. grated nutmeg
-1 tsp. salt
-4 cups all purpose flour
-1 cup butter
-1/2 cup fresh sage, chopped.
Directions
Start the day before you want to serve the gnocchi.
Preheat oven to 400F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and discard the seeds. Place squash halves on baking sheet, cut side up, and brush with oil. Roast squash until it’s very tender and browned in sports, about 1 1/2 hours. Let cool. Scoop flesh from the squash, put into a blender of food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until all the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, bring salted water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add potatoes and cook until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash the potatoes. Cool completely.
Line several baking sheets with wax or parchment paper. Lightly flour them.
Once the squash and the mashed potatoes are cool, mix them together in a large bowl. Add Parmesan cheese, eggs, nutmeg and salt and mix well. Gradually add the flour, mixing until combined. Knead dough until it’s almost smooth and holds well together, add more flour if necessary.
Flour a flat working surface and your hands. Grab a piece of dough and roll with your hands into a 1/2″ thick rope. Cut rope into 1/2″ long pieces. Roll each piece along the back of the tines of a fork dipped in flour. Place each gnocchi on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all the dough. Cover the gnocchi with plastic wrap and put in the freezer until the following day.
The next day
Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add gnocchi (you will have to do this in 2 or more batches) and cook until they are floating and are very tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. This can be made up to 8 hours ahead, Place on baking sheets and refrigerate.
Cook the butter in a large pot over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sage and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the gnocchi and cook until heated through. Remove and serve.
Christmas Eve 2010 Menu
Marga’s Best Recipes