Gnocchi. It's Amazing.

I have always wanted to make gnocchi, but I have always intimidated by it because it looked complicated.  The other day I was watching one of my favorite online cooking shows, "Chow Ciao".  The host, Chef Fabio Viviani, made gnocchi and made it look SO easy.  Plus, it just so happened that I already had all of the ingredients that were needed, so I knew I just had to make it!!

I followed his recipe almost exactly, the only thing I did differently was I substituted some fresh parmesan for the blue cheese (I have an issue eating moldy, smelly cheese..lol).

Here is a link to the recipe: www.shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/date-night-fabios-romantic-italian-meal-194500976.html

Here are the pictures of what mine looked like:

Holy Mother.  It was AMAZING!

Seriously, he was right!  These little potato pasta things are so pillowy and soft, and the sauce is just, wow.  You really need to try this recipe!  You don't have to do sausage, you could easily make it with smaller pieces of broccoli and it would be amazing too.

I ended up just cooking enough gnocchi for 2 people and I froze the the uncooked ones for later (probably for tonight now that I'm drooling all over my computer just looking at these pictures! haha!)

Here are my suggestions now that I have made this recipe:

1. Make sure that the potatoes are thoroughly cooked and mashed really well... otherwise you will end up with little hard pieces that make the rolling process really difficult.  This is the problem I ran into and I had to put my dough into a blender before I could roll it! HUGE PAIN! haha!

2. Once your cheese is melted, take the bowl off of the pan so that the cheese doesn't boil/curdle.

3. While your cutting up the gnocchi, put some flour on a sheet pan and toss the ones you cut up on the pan while you finish cutting the rest.  This way they won't stick to each other and you can easily toss them into the water when you are ready.  Once you've put the ones you are cooking into the water, the pan with the extras can go right into the freezer (after they're frozen, just transfer them to a freezer bag).

4. As soon as my gnocchi started floating to the top of the water, I pulled them all out.  Don't leave them in or they will overcook.

5. Make sure that everything is ready (cheese, sausage, plates, parsley, etc) before you start to cook the gnocchi.  They literally only take about 3 minutes to cook.  I didn't anticipate them being done so fast so my cheese sauce wasn't completely melted, so I had to take out the gnocchi and put them in a separate bowl for a few minutes.  It turned out fine, but definitely have everything ready before you cook them!

That's it!  I hope you are inspired to go make this because it really is super easy!  
I think next time I'll try it with sweet potatoes!



Until next time,

Mrs. Modern


UPDATE 7/13/13: 

I made it with broccoli tonight, topped it with some fresh parm and red pepper flakes. Amazing.  I told you I couldn't wait to make it again! =D