Gnocchi al forno

The occupation and the activity

Tonight for dinner I made Gnocchi al forno or in english Baked gnocchi with a cheese, ham and sage sauce. However I did not use ham or sage in todays recipe. This is an italian recipe and is classified under cooking still. The purpose of this activity is to learn how to cook a new recipe, I classify this as for necessity as cooking is something that is important to learn so you can cook healthy meals.

The occupation and identity

Cooking is done as either a leisure activity, or for necessity. People cook at all sorts of times and rountine all depends on the person. I made this meal for dinner and I had planned out what time i was going to start and what time dinner would be ready. I would call this a leisure activity as I find it fun and low key and i can muck around and learn at my own pace. It is something I do in my own time and i dictate when and where i do it. There is most likely formal recognition of this activity, you get praise and encouragement from friends and family which i would increase my level of achievement. There are also clubs and groups which encourage italian cooking.

Technical Aspects

Materials used :

Basic white sauce (which i made)
150gram cheese roughly chopped
200grm ham (but i didnt use ham)
30gram butter
6 sage leaves (I didnt use as I didnt have any)
600grm ready made potato gnocchi (I only used 400grm)
100grm parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper
Foil

Equipment required :

kitchen
Oven
Spoon/knife
Cheese grater
Large saucepan
small saucepan
microwave
ovenproof dish
slotted spoon

All the resources were accessed from either the kitchen at home or from the local supermarket.

Techniques :

preheat oven to 200degree
Prepare white sauce, when it is ready, remove from heat and stir in ham and cheese. Set aside
Bring a large saucepan of slightly salted water to boil
Meanwhile heat butter in small pan and add sage leaves and saute for a minute
Drop gnocchi into boiling water, when they float to surface take them out with slotted spoon, add to pan of butter and sage, stirr well
Grease overproof dish with butter, spread some cheese and ham sauce on the base and add rest to boiled gnocchi, mix well. Pour half the gnocchi into the dish, sprinkle with parmesan, then pour in remaning gnocchi and top with parmesan.
Cover with sheet of foil, bake in pre heated oven for 10mins. Remove foil and continue to bake for futher 15minutes until golden
Take out of oven, leaave to rest for couple of minutes and then serve.

The environment

I learnt my occupation at my own house in the kitchen. However cooking can be learnt in different environments and it all depends on the person and what facilities they have. Over time you become more confident in cooking , so i could classify cooking as educational, you learn from you own mistakes as well as learning by watching other people and talking to other people about their experiences. In regards to physical environment, you need power and a place to put all your ingrediants on, you need to be able to access certain equipment such as microwave and oven and need a stove to heat water. Cooking is very social so you are able to do it both individually and with groups of people. It is fun to do it with other people and if you are competitive then this is great. I like to do it myself as i can work at my own pace and not feel pressured for it to turn out amazingly.

Learning the occupation

Instructions are above, they came out of a cooking book i borrowed from the library. Risks with cooking are quite a few, however you just have to be aware of using knifes and stoves and other equipment.  A few tips that I found out was not to use much cheese as the recipe goes a bit soggy and to measure your ingrediants otherwise it doesn't always work out and the recipe can be clumpy !

Participation barriers and affordances

Having time assisted my participation in this activity. And also having the money to buy the ingrediants helped. The barriers I encountered were that I did not always have the correct about of ingrediants and not having a measuring cup or somewhere that i could measure out ingrediants prefectly thus making it harder to get the recipe 100%.

Personal reflections

This recipe is alot of fun and I enjoyed making it. I learnt to have patience and that sometimes you have to go with the flow and you dont always have the ingrediants.  I have alot more to learn and would love to become more expert in this recipe !