Eating Out: Rosamunde, San Francisco

If you live in San Francisco chances are you’ve heard of Rosamunde Sausage Grill. It's a fantastic little place in the Lower Haight. They have a small counter where you can eat, but most people take their order next door to one of two bars- The Toronado or Mad Dog and the Fog and eat their sausage with a nice cold beer. Yum.

I know, this is the Weekday Vegetarian, but at the bottom of a long list of amazing classic and gourmet sausages, is the lone vegan sausage.


To our surprise it was fantastic. Too bad we forgot to take the picture until until they were half gone!

They offer several classic toppings including grilled onions, hot peppers and sauerkraut. It did not taste exactly like a pork sausage, but it was absolutely delicious.

We’d love to hear your comments about any great vegetarian finds that you have discovered while dinning out.

Gnocchi

Homemade gnocchi. Special enough for a Sunday supper but easy enough to make any night of the week.

If you think gnocchi is hard to make, then you haven’t tried making it.
For 2 generous servings:
1 lb of potatoes
About a cup of flour

The best potatoes to use are boiling (waxy) potatoes- such as white round. Bake the potatoes in a 350 degree oven for 45 min to an hour or until soft. When the potatoes are cool peel off the skin. Puree the potatoes through a ricer. Mashing them works too but the ricer keeps the potatoes light and fluffy and helps make pillowy gnocchi.

Add most of the flour to the potatoes. Don’t add all of the flour at once, since some potatoes will need more flour than others. The dough should be smooth, but slightly sticky. Carefully kneed the dough and form it into a ball.


Cut the ball into 2 or 3 smaller balls and shape each one into a long roll about 1 inch thick. Cut the roll into ¾ inch pieces.



To shape the gnocchi take each ¾ inch piece of dough and hold it with your finger against the top of a long fork and roll along the tines and let it drop to a floured surface. Repeat until all the gnocchi are formed.

Cook in batches of about 20 gnocchi at a time. Gently drop the gnocchi into a pot of gently boiling salted water- the water should be well salted. Once the gnocchi float to the surface let them cook for about an additional 10-15 seconds. Once they are done, scoop them out with a large slotted spoon and place in a colander and drain. Transfer to a platter. When all the gnocchi are all done, spoon a sauce over the gnocchi, gently toss in a quick tomato basil sauce and serve.