Gnocchi in a brown butter garlic sage sauce.

The first time I had gnocchi, I thought it was the most boring food in the world. I admit that the fact that I made these gnocchi myself out of instant potato flakes may have had something to do with this (I was 18 at the time, and just learning to cook for myself). Most gnocchi recommendations I've seen are pretty bland; that is, they say you should cook the gnocchi and serve it with some tomato sauce. I've consistently been underwhelmed by gnocchi (except I LOVE saying the word because it sounds so... cute!).Recently I'd been contemplating the neatly packaged gnocchi in my supermarket and I decided to give it another try. After reading through a few recipes online, I came up with this recipe of my own. I love the bright summery colors and flavors to this traditionally heavy meal.

Prep

You can find everything in this recipe easily in your local supermarket. Gnocchi, depending on the brand and what's in it, is located both in the fresh pasta section and the dried pasta sections of the store. I don't know if it's just a placebo effect, but I liked the taste and texture of the refrigerated stuff much better than the brands that were just hanging around the shelves. A one pound package usually costs between $2-4.

• Cost: $6-7
  

Cooking

This recipe uses pretty simple ingredients. You'll need:

• 1 package of gnocchi
  
• 1 chicken breast , sliced (just under 1 lb)
• Zucchini (depending on the size of the zucchini, you may not need the whole thing)
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced (about 5 mushrooms)
• 1/2 red pepper
  
• 2-4 cloves of garlic (to your taste), minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, chopped
• 4 tablespoons of butter
  
• Salt, pepper, red chili pepper flakes, and parmesan cheese, to taste
  

Start by boiling water to cook the gnocchi. While that's going, you can do all your chopping and mincing.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. When it's hot, add the butter and melt it in the pan. Once the butter is melted, add the sage and garlic, and heat briefly (everything will smell pretty awesome at this point).



Then, add the chicken and cook until the chicken is no longer pink. Be sure to watch the pan and stir frequently or things will burn. I did manage to burn my stuff slightly, since I had my pan on too high of a heat. I also had some leftover chorizo from a paella I made last week so I threw that in too, just so I didn't waste it.

Once the chicken is cooked, add your vegetables and toss to coat. Season everything with some pepper and add the red chili pepper flakes if desired.



Your water should be boiling, so add the gnocchi so it will cook. Gnocchi cooks relatively quickly so you'll have to watch them; they float to the surface when they're done. Use a slotted spoon to drain the water and transfer them to your pan of vegetables and chicken.

Toss everything together to coat and heat through until the vegetables are slightly soft.


Dish up the gnocchi, and top with grated parmesan.
Annnnd you're done!

The Result


I don't like my gnocchi overly soft; I like it better when they have a slight chewy texture to them. I don't know if that's proper or not though haha. Overall, I really enjoy this dish because it's super simple to make (it takes me less than 20 minutes total to make this meal for myself; I halve the recipe and cook it twice in a week to avoid having to reheat leftovers). I have to say, I like gnocchi with a butter based sauce much more than with a tomato sauce. The garlic gives everything a flavorful punch, and the sage brings an earthy, but fresh taste to the sauce. Adding vegetables, and yes, a little protein, definitely adds some interest to the whole dish, both in flavor and texture. I think this dish would work equally well with shrimp if you didn't have chicken on hand. I'm also curious to see how it would taste with basil instead of sage, and how adding some toasted walnuts might create a textural contrast. I'm starting to see a whole new array of flavor combinations that might work well with gnocchi after all.
Do I still think gnocchi is boring? On it's own, yes. Personally, I think cooking gnocchi means having to think ahead of time how you're going to compensate for the dismal plainness of the flavor of gnocchi. It's probably also important to get a gnocchi that has a good texture potential, or else it just feels like balls of mush in your mouth. Gross.

• Servings: The full recipe should feed 2-3 people, easily, for a main course portion. For more than 2 people, consider supplementing with a salad, bread, or the promise of dessert :)
• Leftovers: I've never had good reheated gnocchi. Not recommended.
  

The good: A nice showcase for seasonal vegetables, definitely helping you get a few of your recommended fruit and veggie servings. Lots of flavor, and super easy to make. Pretty inexpensive.

The bad: The butter sauce! So guilt inducing. Be sure not to add too much butter, it takes surprisingly little to give everything a good coating. But, a little indulgence once in a while is ok, right? Also, I don't have much use for my left over sage... anyone have some good recipe ideas? Also, no leftovers :(

So, this is the first blog post I've managed to finish since I've moved to my new apartment! I've been having some motivational issues to write. The new kitchen is pretty great though, and being so close to the farmer's market is really inspiring me to cook and think about trying new ingredients and recipes (as lame as that sounds).
That said, hopefully I can finish up some of my other posts to share, but look forward to a new travel blog post soon :)!