Cooking for Baby: February 2006 Archives

Todd, August and I have been nomads for the last week, having sold our previous apartment and not into our new one yet. The last few nights we were fortunate to stay with some friends who have a daughter who's a little more than a year older than August. So the last night we made some Roman gnocchi because we thought the little ones would like it. We cut it into little star, fish and heart shapes, and August just ate it up.

It's a lot like fried polenta, only much easier and tastier, with crispy edges. First you bring 2 1/2 cups milk (seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg, to a boil, then you gradually whisk in 1 cup of farina and stir over low heat up to 20 minutes, until the mixture is so thick that the spoon stands up in it. Then stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, a couple tablespoons butter and a well-beaten egg. Spread it out in an oiled pan and allow to cool, then cut into shapes and arrange, overlapping, in a buttered baking pan. Dot with more butter and top with more grated Parmesan, then bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

When I first started cooking, which was at the beginning of my marriage almost 10 years ago, I had a few recipes that I had found online that I just rotated through. One was a breaded pork chop with tomato sauce. Another was a pasta dish similar to the one I made tonight, with spinach, onions, broth and beans. When I found myself in the middle of a blizzard with those very ingredients in the apartment, I realized it was something the baby might like (I already knew Todd liked it). August is a pretty good spinach eater, but he's still very wary of beans (which I think is OK at this point).

First I sauteed a diced onion, then kept cooking it over medium-low heat until it was soft and brown. Stirred some garlic in there for a minute or two, then added a little bit of vegetable stock, a rinsed, drained can of white beans and some thawed frozen chopped spinach (I prefer fresh baby spinach, but this is what I had). Seasoned with salt and pepper, then added cooked pasta wheels and let it sit on the heat for a few minutes to get everything working together. It used to be farfalle always, but I thought August would have an easier time with the wheels.

I've had a lot of success getting August to eat soups. There was the tofu-veggie soup, the chicken chili and also a minestrone I made with diced carrots, peas, ditalini, diced tomatoes from a can and onion. I stirred pesto into mine and August liked that, too. He doesn't really have any of the broth; it's just a good way to get the veggies soft enough and add a little flavor.

He also loves pasta, so I made mini shells and mixed in some roasted zucchini and peppers I had diced into tiny pieces and some ricotta and pesto. I tried giving it to him without the pesto and he definitely preferred it with.

I made some oven-baked risotto, which turned out sticky and gummy, but since August didn't know what he was missing he ate it up. I owe the poor boy some real risotto sometime, though. It had diced parsnips, carrots and peas in it, which he ate up, along with lots of grated Romano.