Happy Belated Halloween! I hope everyone had a nice time playing tricks and indulging themselves with treats.
Sorry to all my readers about inconsistent posts! A new job + last college semester = limited time for guacamolly. I'll do better. Promise :)
On to what's important...
I made this recipe a few weeks ago. I had always wanted to make gnocchi, but all of the recipes I looked at required a ricer tool - something I don't have. What I did have: leftover mashed potatoes. White cheddar leftover mashed potatoes to be exact.
This recipe turned out to be so much simpler than I anticipated. The gnocchi was really only three ingredients: leftover mashed potatoes, flour and eggs. This recipe from The Art of Doing Stuff breaks down the process really nicely.
Start by laying out some flour on your surface, top with the potatoes and make a well in the center for the eggs. Next, work the three ingredients into a dough. I then separated the dough into four pieces, and rolled each piece into a thin-ish log. I used a sharp knife to cut little "nuggets" that were each about an inch long.
Lastly, I pressed a fork into each "nugget" so the sauce could get stuck in all the little indents.
I put half of the batch in the freezer for another day and the other half in a pot of boiling water. They take only about five minutes to cook, floating to the top when they are done.
These little nuggets of goodness would have been great with a little butter and s + p, but I wanted to take them over the top.
I made a rich bacon and spinach cream sauce. Let me emphasize the word "rich." Bacon, butter and cream over a bed of cheesy potatoes, egg and flour. The fact that there is spinach in the recipe is almost funny. "There's spinach in it...it's gotta be healthy, right?"
So good, but oh so rich.
White Cheddar Gnocchi with a Creamy Bacon + Spinach Sauce Suggecipe
- gnocchi - I used this recipe
- bacon - 4 pieced, diced
- spinach - a few cups
- butter - 1 tbsp
- a.p. flour - 2 tbsp
- milk or cream - 1-2 cups
- s + p
Prepare the gnocchi with the recipe linked above.
For the sauce: Place the diced bacon in a skillet over medium heat. When its crispy, remove the bacon and most of the bacon fat from the skillet, leaving about a tbsp in the pan. Add 1 tbsp of butter to the pan and stir in 2 tbsp of flour. Cook the flour in the fat/butter for a couple minutes being sure it doesn't burn. Stir in the milk or cream until a thick, creamy sauce begins to form. Stir the bacon back in, add the spinach and the boiled gnocchi. Season with s + p.
I'm proud of this recipe, but if I were to do it again, here are a few changes I would make:
- I used gluten-free flour and I'm not sure why. It gave the gnocchi a slightly interesting taste, but not necessarily in a good way. Use all purpose flour.
- When the gnocchi was done boiling I wish I would have sauteed them in a little bit of butter to give them some crispy edges. They turned out chewy and delicious, but a little crispiness is always good.
- I'd lighten up the sauce by either taking out the bacon or adding some more healthy ingredients, like more vegetables.