Dana Ewart and Cameron Smith, Chef/Owners, Joy Road Catering

Dana Ewart and Cameron Smith (Joy Road Catering) with Tim Skrypiczajko from Sweet Pit Commune.
Dana Ewart and Cameron Smith (Joy Road Catering) with Tim Skrypiczajko from Sweet Pit Commune.

“We first came to the Okanagan to help Heidi at Joie Farm,” says Dana. “We had met in chef school, and then Cam and I fell in love with living here.

“The close proximity to farmers, vineyards, ranchland — it’s such a good place to work with local purveyors.”

What are you cooking with right now?

“Root veg, jarred heirloom tomatoes, we hoard garlic and onions, black walnuts and hazelnuts, and we are pillaging our freezer for things we vacuum-packed last fall. Seasonal cooking and seasonal menus are challenging. Right now we’re putting together the food for the Slow Food Canada meeting in Osoyoos, and we’re asking the other chefs ‘how many menus are using parsnips, beets and apples?‘

”We worked for a time with a wild mushroom forager in Napa who taught us a lot. We’re finding tender young shoots of fireweed near Bear Creek. We have a lot of nettles; we start the season off with wild nettle pesto, arancini with nettles. Then comes the wild asparagus which grows up on the clay bluffs, bright green and dark purple, pretty cool. We pick wild watercress on the way up to Apex Mountain.

“Heidi insisted we start doing the vineyard dinners. Then we started selling gallette at the farmer market, and cooking in homes which grew into the God’s Mountain and winery dinners.

”This summer we’ll have six in the kitchen plus us. Two from Alberta including Sarah Mortenson, from the Red Ox Inn. She’s a rock star!

“We’re so blessed, living here is a cook’s dream.”

Wild nettle and ricotta gnudi

  • 2 c ricotta cheese
  • ½ c purpose flour
  • 1 c grated parmigiano
  • 2 egg yolks
  • pinch grated nutmeg
  • ½ t kosher salt (or to taste), cracked black pepper
  • 2 c fine semolina flour
  • wild nettles

Drain the ricotta in cheesecloth in a strainer over a bowl to remove excess whey. Blanch the nettles in salted boiling water, chill in ice water, and squeeze out excess liquid. Chop nettles, then squeeze out any remaining excess liquid.Mix together the ricotta, cheese, egg yolks, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Fold in chopped nettles.Add 2/3 of the flour, and gently fold in until incorporated. Add remaining if too sticky.

Dust a table with a little flour and roll dough into a 1″ cylinder, cutting the dough into 1/2 inch pieces. Another method for shaping, if the dough is a touch more wet, is to use a wine glass, lightly dusted with semolina. Drop dollops of dough into the glass and swirl as you would with wine until a ball is formed.

Bury the gnudi balls in some fine semolina flour and rest them for about 20 minutes. This will allow the balls to hydrate the semolina and form an outer shell. They can be kept in the fridge overnight.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the gnudi until they float, then cool them on a lightly oiled tray. To finish the gnudi, once they have all been blanched, brown a bit of butter, drop in a few fresh sage leaves, and add the gnudi to warm them up. These are also great cooked and served with a little simple tomato sauce.

Chef’s wine suggestion: Joie Farm Reserve Chardonnay.