Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Last month, on a rare day off, I indulged myself in some down time and a bit of cooking.  Having spent the afternoon drinking coffee I returned home and knocked up a batch of butternut squash gnocchi.  I originally assumed that I would only have enough for one meal but I was wrong.  There were plenty of little dumplings for Z and I, and even more to be frozen for another day.

That day was today.  Gnocchi are superb fast food* and cook in under five minutes.  We tossed them in pesto and had a nice salad to go with them.  I now have no gnocchi in the house so I'll be making more soon.  I'd be interested to hear how you like to serve yours.

*once you have made them.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

Now that my herculean task of working the evening shift and sometimes double shifts at work has ended, I am taking the opportunity to recharge my batteries.  Part of that unwinding began last night, being back in the kitchen and making fresh pesto.  That has continued today with yet more culinary shenanigans and some down time in one of Leeds' fantastic independent coffee shops, Brewbar Espresso.

This morning, having packed R off to nursery and Z off to work I cracked on with my plans for tonight's meal, butternut squash gnocchi.  Having roasted a butternut squash for pumpkin risotto, and made mashed potato for fish pie over the weekend I had leftovers of both.  I combined the squash and potato, added flour and an egg and got rolling.  To start with I didn't think that I would have enough to make a decent meal for Z and I, but I managed to make enough dumplings for two meals, so half of the mixture has ended up in the freezer for a future treat.

Chores out of the way, I headed into Leeds for lunch and a leisurely afternoon sipping coffee and catching up on some reading*.  Brewbar is a nice, relaxed coffee shop under Leeds library, the coffee is fantastic and the music, at least today, was somewhere between Regina Spektor and Mike Oldfield and that suited me fine.

Back home I returned to the gnocchi.  There isn't really a cooking time for gnocchi, they are cooked once they float to the top of a pan of boiling water.  I'm not a fan of heavy or thick sauces with gnocchi so I decided to keep it simple and make a brown butter sauce with sage.  It was a good job too, the addition of the butternut squash made the dumplings sweeter but also more dense than normal potato gnocchi.  I'm now looking forward to eating the second batch that are in the freezer.

*and writing blog posts for evening meals that had been missed.

Italian Pork Chops with Gnocchi and Broccoli

Well the Mother-in-law has gone and we have the house back to ourselves, just the three of us.  We escorted her off the premises and took her to the train station so that she could say a teary goodbye to Z and R.  Having visitors is very much like going on holiday, the usual routines are knocked out and by the time you get home there is nothing to eat.  All that we had in the house was a head of broccoli so I was dispatched to the shops to stock up.

All weekend I had been hankering for a lump of pork, simply seasoned and grilled, so when I found pork loin steaks on offer at the supermarket I knew what we were having for tea.  Back home I rubbed the pork in garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil and put them into the fridge to marinate.  There was one further consideration for the evening meal, the 2012 Euro final between Spain and Italy.  Kick off was at 7:45pm, R has his bath at 7pm.  It would be touch and go if we could get the meal out in time for the start of the match.

I put the grill on as the bath was running, filled a pan with water and chopped the broccoli so that everything would be ready to cook the second R was in bed.  By the time the chops had been turned once under the grill the water for the gnocchi and broccoli had come up to the boil.  I was originally going to fry the gnocchi and steam the broccoli, but this would have been more time consuming and would have made more washing up so they both ended up in the same pan.  Once cooked I drained the gnocchi and broccoli and tossed the two in warm olive oil seasoned with anchovies and dried chilli flakes.

By the time I had served the meal the match was two minutes old.  I'd missed the anthems and the kick-off, but I managed to watch the rest of the match uninterrupted with one of the tastiest and quickest meals I have cooked in a long time.  Spain may have won the European Championship but Italy won meal of the weekend!

Rocket Gnocchi in Tomato Sauce

Today it rained.  It seamed to rain from the moment we woke up until long after I finished writing this post.  I know that we need the rain and that parts of the country are still technically in drought but surely enough is enough.  I normally don't mind the rain.  I quite like walking in the rain.  I used to love playing rugby in the rain.  But having to entertain the boy all day because we couldn't go outside has been tough.

I decided that there was no time like the present to start his food journey, so this afternoon we made gnocchi.  To R, this was nothing more than playdough and flour play, but his joy at putting boiled potatoes into the ricer and watching the wriggly worms of potato come out of the bottom was lovely.

 

To the pile of potato we added flour, an egg and a big handful of finely chopped rocket.  The dough was then rolled into a big snake and cut into what I thought would be perfect gnocchi size dumplings.  They were then put in the fridge until we needed them, apart from the one that R decided was his and needed hitting with a big spoon.

When needed the gnocchi were plunged into boiling water and cooked until they floated.  If I'm honest they were a little on the large size but they still tasted better than any you can buy in the shop.  I served them with a tomato sauce and more rocket.  I doubt R will remember the first time that he made gnocchi from scratch, but I hope that he'll eventually remember that he likes them so much that they become a family favourite.