We've got the beet we've got the beet we've got the YEAH!

We've got the beet!

As I have mentioned before, Gemini Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. It only opened a few weeks ago, and already they seem to have the ease and consistency of a beloved neighborhood restaurant. Pete and I eat there at least once a week, we are old and boring and like our routine thank you very much. Besides the risotto (I.die.) my favorite thing to order there is the beet salad.

{Photo courtesy Kevin D. Weeks}

First of all, I am not really a salad type of girl. And before sampling this delicious dish, I was not really a beet type of girl either. However, the combination of the beets, goat cheese, and truffle oil seduced me and I have never looked back. The flavors are so nuanced and right on, I thought to myself:

Self, what else could you do with these ingredients?

The answer?

First, Beet risotto.

Which, although it was delicious, lacks the potential to be a signature dish mostly because of the reaction you get when you serve adult humans, particularly adult male humans, a heaping plate of hot pink mush. Once Pete tried it, he liked it, but I basically had to pretend the fork was a plane coming in for a landing at Chicago O'Pete airport first.

A much more successful interpretation came from adapting my friend Frankie's amazing recipe for Ravioli Casunziei.

Instead of ricotta I used goat cheese, and added a bit of truffle oil to the puree. For the sauce I nixed the poppy seeds and again added a small dash of truffle oil.

To my utter surprise and delight, the recipe turned out like gangbusters (much better than the pumpkin ravioli disaster of 2009 that I will surely be shamed into blogging about soon). Completely simple and completely delicious. I would highly reccomend even the most timid of cooks try this one out, and check out more of Frankie's videos at The Young & Hungry.

Beet puree, 3 beets, goat cheese, dash of truffle oil

My pasta dough I made. From scratch. I am a domestic goddess. That is until pumpkin ravioli took me down.

Tablespoon of beet puree.

A little egg wash and a second layer of dough.

Press it out.

Voila!

Yummmmy.