Winter Wheat Berry Salad

This is the kind of dish that will make your meat-loving relatives go back for seconds. It's filled with chewy, hearty wheat berries that somehow feel light when topped with a subtle citrus dressing. Notes of orange and lemon weave through the dish. The addition of spinach, pine nuts and feta cheese give you something interesting to look forward to in every bite.

It's a variation on a Heidi Swanson recipe. I used the same flavor base, but I made it a bit healthier (Yes, I know. It's hard to believe you could actually make a Heidi Swanson recipe healthier  but indeed I tried) by halving the olive oil and increasing the amount of spinach.

This dish would be delicious as a vegetarian main course or a hearty side salad. The citrus makes it a delightful winter dish, and it's make-ahead quality makes it perfect for entertaining.

Vegan Baked Shells

A very small, small part of me would like to be vegan. Or at least dairy free.

Well, perhaps like is the wrong word. I should say that a big part of me is confident my body would be happier if I gave up dairy entirely. However, when I have the debate with myself, usually my brain and taste buds win over.

I can't help it. I just love cheese.

Brie. Swiss. Creamy ricotta. No matter how you slice it, I'm delighted.

That's why I'm always glad when I stumble across a recipe like this. A perfect supper for those of us not really convinced we want to be vegan.

Baked shells. Topped with a delicious tomato sauce. Stuffed with a creamy, VEGAN tofu mixture that just screams "ricotta cheese."

The tofu is blended up with a mix of spices and a bit of nutritional yeast. What results is as creamy as ricotta cheese with a similar taste composition.

Well, pretty similar. This isn't the ricotta cheese I would want to spread on toast and eat fresh, but mixed with chopped spinach and baked it was delicious.

These stuffed shells baked up beautifully, and they made for a delightful dinner!

Do you have a favorite vegan supper? I'm in the mood to start experimenting.

Spinach Strata

I didn't have bread pudding until I was an adult.

It's not that it wasn't offered to me. It must have been. It's my little brother's favorite dessert. I just wouldn't have enjoyed anything about it.

I was a kid who steered clear of creamy casseroles. I wouldn't eat chocolate pudding if it wasn't my mom's homemade. Those mushy desserts like creme brûlée did nothing for me. I just wasn't a fan of the texture.

But then, out for dinner at Blue Ribbon during Brooklyn Restaurant Week last year, I ordered bread pudding. The only other option for dessert was mango sorbet. It was by far the most delicious chocolate chip bread pudding I had ever had, followed by an even more delicious rendition a few months later at Buttermilk Channel.

I was in love.

The apple bread pudding at applewood during Restaurant Week this year reminded me of my newfound obsession.

I made a fabulous chocolate chip bread pudding for dessert for friends, though I took no pictures. Sorry.

I wanted to eat that thing morning, noon and night.

But, try as I might, I just couldn't convince myself that bread pudding was a breakfast food.

That's why this strata made me extra happy. It's the consistency of bread pudding, but it's made savory with the addition of spinach, feta and whole wheat bread.

It's simple to prepare and perfect for brunch because the bulk of the work can be done the night before. Just pop it in the oven an hour before you want to serve it.

The lemon zest adds a splash of flavor that livens up the strata.

Spinach-Ricotta Gnocchi and a Simple Tomato Sauce

There have been only a handful of times in my life when I've had really good gnocchi.

Thomas's apartment in Brooklyn where I had my first ricotta gnocchi. They were light, fluffy and tender, things I didn't know gnocchi could be. Each one had the little indentations added by hand.

A little Italian restaurant in Brooklyn where I had butternut squash gnocchi this fall. Each one was like a little pillow, and my fork just sliced right through them.

A roadside restaurant we stopped at while journeying to a villa in Italy several summers ago. These were potato gnocchi. Perhaps they were really as amazing as I remember, or perhaps I was overtaken by the scenery  The restaurant overlooked the Amalfi coast, and our charming host ended our meal with espresso with lemon peel and shots of limoncello.

And now, thanks to Marcella Hazan, I can add these spinach-ricotta gnocchi to the list (and I can cross it off my summer cooking plans list).

Marcella Hazan is the sixth woman on Gourmet Magazine's list of 50 Women Game Changers in food history. Gourmet Magazine wrote: "Marcella made Italian cucina make sense. She broke it down for us, explained the regions, and her meticulous recipes are so reliable. She banished the red-sauce image forever."

Hazan is considered to be one of the foremost authorities on Italian cooking. She discovered her passion after she married an American man who was enamored with food and struggled to create the dishes from her Italian childhood out of the American supermarkets. She initially turned down a cookbook deal, saying she didn't write in English. Her husband Victor ended up recording all of her recipes in English and has continued that for all of her cookbooks.

Some of her most popular cookbooks include Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella's Italian Kitchen and Marcella Cucina.

Not only were her gnocchi tender and full of flavor, her simple tomato sauce was one of the best I can remember and couldn't have been simpler. A can of whole tomatoes, an onion peeled and cut in half and some butter simmered for 45 minutes and savored for much longer.

Be sure to check out the other bloggers who all tried recipes by Marcella Hazan this week:
      Val - More Than Burnt Toast
      Joanne - Eats Well With Others
      Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
      Susan - The Spice Garden
      Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
      Heather - girlichef
      Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
      Mary - One Perfect Bite
      Kathleen - Bake Away with Me
      Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen