Beet Dough

A few friends and I decided to have a cook off a couple of weekends ago. The goal was to create a unique dish featuring a secret ingredient, and then we all got together for a potluck. (Kinda like Iron Chef, but we had a whole week to prepare if necessary!)

Beet & Cheese Gnocchi (and Perogies!)

1 cup fresh ricotta
1 cup roasted beat puree (approximately 3-4 large beets, roasted, peeled, and pureed)
2 cups flour (sifted), plus additional for flouring work surface
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta and beat puree and mix until evenly combined.

2. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the salt, and pepper.

3. Slowly add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until it is all incorporated into the dough. If your dough seems a bit too wet, feel free to add an extra 1/4 cup of flour.

4. Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured work surface and knead for a few minutes. The dough will still be fairly wet, but you should be able to handle it.




Gnocchi
5. Working with about a handful of dough at a time, roll out a long snake about an inch thick. Use a floured knife to cut out the gnocchi every inch and a half or so. Roll each gnocchi along the tines of a fork (or simply indent by gently pressing the back of the fork into the side of each nugget).

6. Place the formed gnocchi on a floured baking sheet.

7. When ready to cook, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add the gnocchi in batches. Let cook until they bob to the surface and then cook for an additional 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to pull out of the pot and serve with your favorite sauce.

TIP: For extra crisp, finish in a skillet with a bit of butter and herbs

Perogies
5. Working with a handful of the dough, roll the dough out to 1/4" thickness. Using a circular glass, cut circles out of the dough. 

6. Place a dollop of  your filling (I used the leftover ricotta cheese with a bit of herbs mixed into it) into the center of the perogy. Wet the edges of the dough, and pinch together.

7. Place the formed perogy on a floured baking tray.

8. When ready to cook, bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil and add the perogies in batches. Let cook until they bob to the surface and then cook for an additional 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to pull out of the pot and transfer into a frying pan that has melted butter. 

9. Lightly fry the perogies until golden brown. Remove and serve hot.

Pizza Perogies

Perogy Dough. I made 2 different kinds of dough, one with eggs and one with out. I would highly recommend the one using eggs, as the dough was a lot nicer to work with.

Ingredients (Dough with no eggs) - makes approximately 20-24 perogies:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup warm/hot water
Method:
Sift flour and salt together onto a work surface. Make a hill with the flour and form a hole. Pour the water in a thin stream and work in the flour. Mix well and knead until smooth. Rest under a bowl for 15 minutes.
Rolling Method:
Roll out dough to approximately 15mm and cut into circles (I used a pint glass for a template). You can also just cut squares out of the dough, I feel the circles look better, so I use circles. Roll circles so they are approximately 10mm thick.
Ingredients (Dough with eggs) - makes approximately 20-24 perogies:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold water
1 egg, beaten
Method:
Sift flour and salt together. Add egg and cold water. Mix well and knead until smooth.
See above for rolling methods
**NOTE: I found that the dough turned out a lot nicer if it was made in single batches rather than double.
**NOTE: I always do an egg wash around the edges of the perogy before pinching together (and make sure not to get any of the filling in your pinched edge or it will self-destruct in the water)
**NOTE: If you are not planning on cooking your perogies immediately after making them...put the finished perogies onto cookie sheets (not touching each other) and freeze until hard to the touch.


I also chose to go non-traditional in the filling for the particular batch of perogies shown below. I chose to try and make them taste like pizza!

Ingredients (Pizza filling):
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 white onion
6 cloves of garlic
butter (not margarine)
salt
pepper
dill
basil
oregano
Peperoni (or any other kind of pizza meat)
Grated Cheese
Method:
In a large pan (I chose to use a wok, as it provided enough space in order to make all of the sauce in it), saute together chopped up white onion and garlic in the butter.
When nicely browned add in the can of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Season to taste with above mentioned spices and set to simmer together. I let mine sit on low on my stove for 2 hours, stirring every now and again to make sure nothing burnt to the bottom. I found my sauce to be a bit watery, so I also added to it 2 tbsp of flour to help thicken it up.
After the sauce is finished, let it cool overnight in the fridge.
After the sauce has cooled, chop up desired pizza meat into small pieces (mine were approximately 0.5cm by 0.25cm by 0.1 cm thick) and mix in with sauce. Mix as much, or as little as you want for a meat to sauce ratio.
Spoon small portions into the centers of rolled out perogy dough, top with cheese and pinch close.
If you are not going to eat the perogies right away, I suggest laying them out on a baking sheet and sticking them in the freezer until they harden up a bit (to prevent sticking). Then put them in freezer bags to finish freezing all the way