Pumpkin Gnocchi

I haven't posted about food in awhile.  I think I was making recipes that I've already posted about before and...honestly?  It's hard to make a meal in a tiny kitchen while trying to take fab pictures by yourself.  And Drew's been getting home late and sometimes you just wanna make dinner without a camera strapped to your back when you have raw chicken all over your hands, ya know?

Well that stops now.  I bought two cans of pumpkin puree from a woman who sells American food at the American Women's group and had been wanting to try some pumpkin recipes.  I made some pumpkin muffins when Moll and Mere were here, and after a lot of research, I decided to make some Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi tonight!  Homemade pasta or anything of the sort naturally intimidates me, but that's what living here is all about: conquering fears.  In the kitchen and everywhere else in life. Or something.

Let's get started!  

The Cast of Characters: pumpkin, salt, pepp, garlic powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and I think it calls for all spice but I didn't have any.  Whoops.

Measure out 2.75 cups of flour...

And a "little big of nutmeg and all spice" the recipe says - which to me means a couple of good shakes...

Half a teaspoon of cinnamon...

And a little bit of lemon zest, even though this particular recipe didn't call for it.  Other recipes I saw DID call for it so I went for it cause I'm CRAZY.

Now take your can o' pumpkin and dump that in the flour mixture!

Begin mixing it up (I used a spoon at first and then switched to my hands) and add more flour as you go, if needed.

Then on a floured surface, divide the dough ball into 6-8 pieces.

And proceed to take each thick piece of dough and roll them out into long "ropes" that are less than an inch in diameter.  I had to use lots of flour for this part and it was a little tedious but it alllll turned out OK in the end.

Then....start cutting the ropes into 1-inch pieces and flour the sticky surfaces if you need to.

Bowl full o' floured gnocchis.

Heat up a pot of boiling salted water...

And drop the gnocchis into the water slowly, a handful at a time, and give them a stir.  

They'll float to the top when they're done!  Though I kinda kept testing mine but taking one out of the water and cutting into it to check the doughiness factor.  It usually took about 4-5 minutes per batch, though I think the time varies.

Then remove the cooked gnocchis with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl to cool/wait.

So while all that is happening, you can also prepare your sage and your brown butter sauce.  I checked out lots of recipes for gnocchi and lots of people cook it with sage and this butter stuff.  So I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Some people "fry" their sage in olive oil and let it get nice and crispy, and others just let it soak in the melting butter sauce to get soft and flavor the butter.  I did BOTH!  Half fried, half soaked.  I'm an innovator.

So if you want to fry it, just heat up some oil (I used EVOO) in a pan to a hot temp...

And lay those leaves in there!  They'll start dancing and sizzling and crisping up right away.

And then take them out after 30 seconds or a minute and let them cool on paper towels.  They should be crispy.

To make the simple brown butter sauce, you literally melt a shit ton of butter in a pan, add some salt, pepper, chopped garlic, sage, and any other flavorings you want!

And you heat it up and stir it up until it turns...brown.  Duh.  This pic below actually looks like I may have burned the butter...but it was still delicious.

Speaking of burning, don't stir your sauce/scrape the bottom of your pan with a metal spoon and then place the spoon directly on your tongue to try to taste the butter sauce.  You will char your poor tongue and you won't be able to taste anything and you'll be in major pain anytime you speak or eat for close to a week.  Hypothetically speaking.   

Also, if you want a delicious side, you can chop up some Brussels sprouts, stir them up with olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped garlic, garlic powder, lemon zest, some lemon juice, and parmesan; pour them in a baking dish, and bake them for 30 minutes anywhere between 400 and 450 degrees.  

They pretty much crisp up/char in the oven, but it makes them SO GOOD!

Back to the gnocchi: pour your brown butter sauce in all its glory over the gnocchi, and throw in your fried, crispy sage.  A little parmesan cheese never hurt anyone either.

Stir it up and prepare to fall in love!

SOOOOO good.

The finished product.  Happiness on a plate.

It was damn good and it went pretty well for my first gnocchi experience.  Drew was a little weirded out that we didn't have some sort of thick meat sauce to go with the pasta but really liked it nevertheless.  It's the perfect meal for a cold Christmasy/fall/winter night!

You can look at the recipe I used here, and you can look at another more complicated one here, and you can see the recipe for the Brussels sprouts I adapted from Ina Garten here.

Happy eating!