A mushy meal

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I finally got around to making gnocchi over this past weekend, although you wouldn’t know it from looking at this photo.  See, that’s the problem with homemade gnocchi: even one second too long in the water and it turns into mush.  Tasty mush.

For this batch, I used only Yukon Gold potatoes (roasted and then put through a ricer) and flour.  I won’t bore you with the finer details of making them - both Kevin and I have talked before about our preferred methods (although I will say that I took the time to make fork lines in the gnocchi this time instead of thumb dimples).  My only advice for fresh gnocchi is this: be Johnny-on-the-Spot with a slotted spoon when you’re boiling them!

I really wanted to use up some of the swiss chard in my CSA share, so I sauteed garlic, shallots, and chopped chard stems in butter for a few minutes and then added in the chard leaves and a bit of white wine.  And when it was all ready to go, I combined it with the mushy gnocchi.  Despite the mushiness, it was still delicious!

Where it all came from:
Yukon Gold potatoes, Landisdale Farms - 100 miles
Flour, Daisy Flour - 60 miles
Swiss chard, Landisdale Farms - 100 miles
Garlic, my garden - 0 miles
Shallots, Landisdale Farms - 100 miles
Butter, homemade from Dutch Way Dairy cream - 100 miles

Not local: wine, salt and pepper