After two long weeks of midterms, I finally had a chance to try and cook something new. Since I love noodles of all sorts, I decided to rely on an easy to please type of dish, pasta. Yet, even as a pasta lover, I have never took the time to make my own from scratch. Now, in my apartment, there is a very intimidating sack of potatoes, that one of my room mates desperately needed us to finish. So as I thought about what to make on my free friday afternoon, I decided to use the free ingredient I had and made gnocchi. Now pastas, let alone gnocchi, are not usually extraordinarily tasty by itself, but it's the sauce that helps pull together dish and make it shine. So I asked myself, how can i make a nice sauce to go with these tasty potato pillows. I figured a quick and easy spin on a cheap college student's favorite: creamy cheese with a favorite tomato sauce. The tangy sauce with the hearty gnocchi make it a wonderful filling and budget friendly dish. Please Enjoy, Cook.Eat.Love.Smile
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| 10.28.11: Gnocchi in Tomato Cream Sauce Photo credit: Christine Be |
Gnocchi in
Tomato Cream Sauce (Serves 5)
Gnocchi
5 medium russet potatoes
3.5 - 4.5 cups of all-purpose flour
2 eggs
¼ cup of parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of olive oil
½ tablespoon of garlic powder
½ tablespoon of salt.
Tomato Cream
Sauce
1 Jar of your favorite tomato sauce (Prego,
Ragu, etc.)
2 tablespoons of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of honey or sugar
Prep-work:
1.
Peel and boil potatoes until able
to be mashed
2.
Let the potatoes cool until able
to be handled
3.
Mash the potatoes as fine as
possible
Procedure:
1.
Take the potatoes that have been
cooled/mashed and add the 3 eggs and incorporate evenly
2.
Add the 3.5 cups of all-purpose
flour, ¼ cup of parmesan, 2 table spoons of olive oil, ½ tablespoon of garlic
powder, and ½ tablespoon of salt
3.
Mix all the ingredients by
kneading the mixture into a sticky dough
4.
Then add flour accordingly so
that the dough does not stick to the bottom of the bowl
5.
Let the mixture rest for 15
minutes
6.
Take a 4 oz chunk of dough and
roll out into about a 1in diameter snake
7.
Cut into 1inch pieces to create
small “pillow” shapes
8.
Either freeze the gnocchi on a
sheet tray for later use, or boil for about 5 minutes until they float to the
top
9.
Drain the gnocchi in a strainer
and let all the excess water drain out
10. While the gnocchi drain, prepare a non-stick pan medium high with
a very thin layer of oil to cover the bottom and a medium sauce pan
11. Place the gnocchi into the hot pan and pan fry until golden brown
and pour the jar of tomato sauce into the sauce pan
12. Place 2 tablespoons of cream cheese into the tomato sauce and stir
until fully incorporated
13. Pour tomato cream sauce over the crispy and soft gnocci and
enjoy.
