Herbed Pumpkin Gnocchi

A week or so ago, Scott, from the cool CoMo blog Show-Me Eats, posted a recipe for Pumpkin Gnocchi that he and his son made. Both Brett and I absolutely love gnocchi, but the few times I have tried to make it, the result has been disaster. So I gave up really, we occasionally buy Rising Moon Organic's garlic and herb gnocchi, but it just isn't the same as homemade gnocchi, not to mention, I can get local potatoes from around here, and if a four year old can do it... :-) What kept me from making it sooner was the pumpkin in the recipe - I had to convince myself that it wouldn't taste funny. I can tell you - it does not taste funny at all and it was not a disaster. This meal was absolutely amazing and Brett and I will make a double batch next time so we can freeze some for really easy, tasty, and local dinners.

I changed the recipe a little bit for a couple of reasons. First off, there cheese called for in the recipe - obviously, my being allergic to dairy meant that I had to remove that, but I knew that if I simply removed it without adding some more flavor that it would be a little bland, so I worked in some herbs and a little more salt than I would have used had I been using cheese. The recipe was also in grams and such and since I am lazy and thus didn't want to get my scale out, I found rough equivalents and worked from there.

I went through a lot of trouble trying to decide what kind of sauce I wanted to serve this with. We ended up eating opting for St. Louis made Zia's pasta sauce, but I had also made a vegan chestnut cream sauce that I was planning on serving with the gnocchi initially. Until we tasted it that is... The chestnut cream sauce actually turned out pretty well - I think - if you like creamy sauces like alfredo. Neither Brett nor I can stand alfredo so when I tasted it after it had been blended and seasoned, I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I know my description of it makes it sound like it was very mouthwatering, but my tastes are just different. We both thought that if you like alfredo you would really dig on this sauce, and hey, it's made with lots of local ingredients and it's dairy free (though you could easily use real milk in it). If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I will add it to the post.

All I will say is that if you like gnocchi, give this, or Scott's original recipe a try, YUM!















(You might notice that I didn't shape the gnocchi. I tried to at first, but I was just making a mess, getting frustrated, and along the way I realized that it really didn't matter all that much. I would like to get that down though; I didn't feel as though this looks like real gnocchi. :-))

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Herbed Pumpkin Gnocchi
Recipe modified from here.

1 cup pumpkin puree +
1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes (see note below) +
2 cups (or more - see note below) semolina flour
4 cloves of garlic, roasted (see note below) +
3 tbsp olive oil + (not local)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary + (not local)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt
pepper

Notes:

*I used 2 small yellow potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed, so it wasn't exactly measured.

*Use however much you need, but I found to get the dough to the consistency I needed required about 2 cups of flour.

*I mashed the roasted garlic cloves in with the potatoes.

Get a pot of salted water boiling.

Combine pumpkin, potatoes, oil, and seasonings.

Slowly add in the flour, using a fork or your hands, until well combined and you have a thick dough.

Break the large piece of dough into 4-6 smaller pieces, roll into balls.

Roll out into about 1" ropes of dough.

Cut pieces 1/2" in length.

If you want you can shape the dough all nice. I made a huge mess trying to do this, so we just boiled and ate 'em without shaping them and they were just fine.

Gently place in boiling water and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until the gnocchi have the texture you like.

Serve with pasta sauce, cream sauce, or flavored olive oil as suggested in the original recipe.

These were so very good, I can't wait to have them again!

Song of the Day: "The Devil's Chasing Me" - Reverend Horton Heat

'Til next time.